I have seen several examples of large US companies deciding to accept Major Non-conformance findings rather than sign the required FSC self-declaration on the subject of compliance to the ILO Core Conventions. This effectively puts them on notice that their certificates will be subject to suspension as of March 31, 2013.
The assumption, of course, is that some sort of policy compromise will be worked out prior to that date. What will it look like? I don’t know. It could be a simple as the change of a few words in the FSC-PRO-20-001 v.1-0 document. More likely (I think) it’ll be some sort of new advice note yielding enough interpretive wiggle room to allow everyone to save face and pretend there isn’t a problem.
I can’t help but compare this to the absurd political battle now underway in Washington DC over the US federal government tax and budgetary position. The difference, of course, is that far too much is being written and said about the Washington kerfuffle.
And far too little notice is being taken of the FSC situation.