In a letter sent to the New Era Cap Company Friday, the University's Advisory Committee on Labor Standards and Human Rights urged the hat maker to address allegations of racial discrimination against black workers at an Alabama facility or risk endangering its relationship with the University.

"Without drawing conclusions about the validity of the charges," the letter states, "we strongly urge you to engage in an expeditious and transparent process to determine whether (1) personnel actions have resulted, intentionally or not, in disadvantaging African American and/or pro-union and, if so, (2) institute a remediation plan to address this."

The letter responds to complaints received in September by the Worker Rights Consortium, a Washington, D.C.-based labor monitoring group, from workers at New Era's Mobile, Alabama, distribution facility. The group received complaints that the company was discriminating against female and black workers in decisions regarding pay, hiring and promotions.

The WRC also claimed that workers at the Mobile facility told them that New Era had violated workers' rights to associate when workers attempted to join a local Teamsters union branch in April. The workers successfully voted to join the Teamsters in July.

The Mobile factory is one of New Era's domestic and international distribution facilities, according to New Era spokeswoman Dana Marciniak. It currently distributes hats for more than 60 American universities.

Marciniak couldn't be reached for comment Friday.

New Era is one of only five companies that produces headwear for the University, said Kristen Ablauf, the University's director of trademark licensing.

She said New Era is expected to generate between $65,000 and $96,000 in royalties throughout the duration of its contract with the University that expires in June 2012.

At least five different stores near campus - including M-Den, Ulrich's Spirit Shop and Moe's Sport Shop - currently sell New Era brand hats with the University's logo and colors.

The University pays the WRC to submit reports to the Advisory Committee regarding any potential labor or human rights violations committed by University licensees.

In a November interview, Marciniak said the allegations of racial discrimination made by employees at the Mobile facility were "entirely false."

A report released last month by the national chapter of the NAACP also said that, after discussions with New Era executives, New Era workers and the Teamsters, New Era "must shed practices that, intentionally or unintentionally, discriminate against non-white and female workers."

Larry Root, chair of the Advisory Committee, said the letter wasn't intended to be a direct threat to New Era and its contract with the University.

"The (Advisory Committee's) goal is to work with a licensee toward remediation, not to just cut contracts," Root said.

On January 25, the University of Wisconsin at Madison terminated its contract with New Era, citing the findings of the NAACP report and the company's refusal to allow the WRC to conduct an investigation at the Mobile facility.

The Advisory Committee's letter urges New Era to allow the WRC to play a role in a factory audit of the Mobile facility - something New Era has refused to do.

New Era vice president Tim Freer said in a November letter that it wouldn't allow the WRC to conduct an inquiry into the Mobile facility because it allowed the National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency that governs relations between unions and private employers, to conduct an audit of the facility last fall.

Freer said that because the NLRB's findings wouldn't have any bearing on the WRC, it wasn't going to allow the WRC to conduct an audit.

"We simply can't agree to a unilateral facility review by an organization that holds itself above the law and believes it can completely ignore the findings of the NLRB," Freer said.

Scott Nova, executive director of the WRC, said in a November e-mail to University officials that the WRC doesn't allow licensees "veto power over who will investigate a factory that is the subject of a worker complaint."

The current allegations of racial discrimination at the Mobile facility aren't the first time New Era's labor practices have come under question at the University.

In 2002, the University cut its contract with the company after a WRC assessment found that workers at a New Era factory in Derby, N.Y., suffered a disproportionately high amount of workplace-related injuries.

The University reinstated its contract with New Era after the company provided documentation later that year showing it had fixed the problems in the New York factory.