Last year, after protests by Solidarity over alleged violations of workers’ rights in Honduras, Georgetown joined several other universities in dropping its contract with sports gear manufacturer Russell Athletic.  It seems the collective boycott worked: Russell just announced that it will be reversing its questionable labor decisions, according to the Associated Press.

At the center of the protests was Russell’s decision to close the Jerzees de Honduras factory in Choloma, Honduras after workers there tried to unionize.  Russell insisted at the time that the closure was made for purely economic reasons, but many workers rights organizations attributed it to union busting.

Russell recently announced that it will reopen the factory and rehire 1,200 of the former workers. The company also says it will abide by collective bargaining agreements at all of its factories in Honduras.

Recent Georgetown alum and organizer for United Students Against Sweatshops Jack Mahoney (SFS ’08), told the AP, “This is huge. We’ve had a number of smaller victories, but this is the first time we know of that somebody has reversed a company’s decision.”

Trouble.

About two weeks ago, Georgetown refused to renew its contract with apparel maker Russell Athletic due to its violations of workers’ rights in Honduras. But we’re not alone—in fact we were the third university to do so. Other universities which recently dumped include the University of Miami, the University of Houston the University of Wisconsin, Rutgers, and now Purdue. The Lafayette Online writes:

Purdue University announced Thursday (Feb. 19) that it will terminate its licensing contract with Russell Athletic, which makes apparel with the university’s logo, effective March 31.

James Almond, interim executive vice president for business and finance and treasurer, told Russell in a letter that actions surrounding the closing of two apparel manufacturing factories in Honduras were cause for the termination.

Russell never read its Marx. Georgetown’s contract ends on June 30. Students encouraged the University to terminate a contract with New Era last year for domestic union-busting.