She says the organization can best promote worker rights by creating partnerships with local NGOs.

"What we're doing is creating a new kind of approach to the problem of sweatshops, creating long-term, good connections in the global community and empowering workers," she says.

Up and Running

Neither the FLA nor the WRC is currently operational, but the FLA, with its year head start, has a more focused timetable.

Brown says the organization recently completed finalizing the standards for accrediting external monitors and is now working on a 30-page "checklist" for monitors to refer to when conducting inspections. Brown says he expects this stage, which will include a series of test runs, to be completed by the spring.

The FLA must then select and train the independent monitors. Brown says he anticipates full-scale monitoring to begin by next year.

Activists say the FLA is moving too slowly, especially given its 18 months of operation. They say the newly created WRC is advancing at a more rapid pace.

Roeper says the WRC has already started establishing contacts with NGOs in other countries and is in the process of creating a "development plan" for how best to proceed. The organization is holding its founding conference at the beginning of April.