SA8000 is an attempt to bring global MEMO: CODES consistency to code of conduct labour standards and third-party code compliance

UPDATE verification procedures. NUMBER 8, August 2001 What Are the Standards? Why a “Codes Update” memo? Unlike most company or sector codes of This periodic memo is circulated in Spanish to conduct, the SA8000 standard is firmly groups in Latin America in an effort to share based on International Labour information on developments and resources Organization (ILO) Conventions and circulating in English about codes of conduct and United Nations (UN) Declarations, which monitoring. In response to a number of requests, are specifically referenced in the code. The we are also sharing the English version. provisions of the code include and go Comments, criticisms and suggestions are always beyond the four core labour rights of the welcome. ILO – the right to organize and bargain collectively, and prohibitions on child In this issue: labour, forced labour and discrimination. A. SA8000: Can Commercial Auditing The SA8000 standard addresses Promote Worker Rights? labour issues exclusively; other social or B. FLA Accredits New External environmental concerns are not addressed Monitors in the SA8000 code or verification C. How Responsible Is WRAP? program. D. WRC Releases Second Report on The provisions in the SA8000 Kuk Dong code are stronger and their language more E. GMIES Reports on Code detailed and precise than those of Compliance at Three El Salvador company codes and most other multi- Factories codes, such as that of the Fair F. COVERCO Releases Report on Labour Association (FLA). Two Gap Supply Factories For instance, the SA8000 standard G. New Resources requires payment of a “living wage,” limits working hours to 48 hours per week, prohibits compulsory overtime, limits A. SA8000: CAN COMMERCIAL voluntary overtime to 12 hours per week, AUDITING PROMOTE and prohibits the use of labour-only WORKER RIGHTS? contracting arrangements and false apprenticeship schemes to evade labour Social 8000, better known laws or avoid social security obligations. as SA8000, is a code of conduct On freedom of association, the verification and factory certification SA8000 code includes a provision program launched in October 1997 by the requiring companies to “facilitate parallel New York-based Council on Economic means of independent and free Priorities Accreditation Agency (CEPAA), association and collective bargaining” in now Social Accountability International countries where freedom of association (SAI). and collective bargaining are restricted by Based on the International law. (The UK Ethical Trading Initiative Organization for Standardization (ISO) (ETI) Base Code, the Dutch Fair Wear management systems auditing model, Charter, and the Clean Clothes Campaign

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(CCC) model code contain similar Although the extractive sector is provisions.) not currently covered by the standard, SAI According to Neil Kearney, is evaluating possibilities of extending the General Secretary of the International standard or developing a modification of Textile, Garment and Leather Workers SA8000 to cover this sector. Federation (ITGLWF) and member of the In terms of geographic location, SAI Advisory Board, the “parallel means” 29 of the facilities certified to date are in provision is designed to encourage China, and all but two of those are in the nascent forms of worker self- garment/textile and toy sectors. The representation, such as the election of breakdown of certified factories in other worker representatives to joint health and countries is: Italy (10); Indonesia (4); safety committees, in countries like China France, India and Thailand (3); the where independent unions are prohibited. Philippines, Pakistan, Turkey, the UK and The 2001 revised SA8000 standard Brazil (2); and Bangladesh, South Africa, contains provisions requiring companies Spain, Laos, the Netherlands, US, Greece, to ensure that homeworkers “are afforded Malaysia, Slovenia, and Vietnam (1). a similar level of protection as would be To date, no facilities have been afforded to directly employed personnel” certified in Latin America or the under the standard, and that they maintain Caribbean, but according to SAI President on company premises “comprehensive Alice Tepper-Marlin, have been records detailing the identities of carried out in the region. homeworkers; the quantities of goods As stated above, the revised produced/services provided and/or hours SA8000 standard is one of the few multi- worked by each homeworker. stakeholder codes that requires companies to be accountable for conditions of home- To Whom Does SA8000 Apply? based production workers. SAI promotes the SA8000 standard and third party verification system as What Information Is Publicly universally applicable “with regard to Available? geographic location, industry sector and Unlike the FLA or WRAP [Worldwide company size.” SA8000 certifications can Responsible Apparel Production apply to companies, suppliers and Certification Program], SAI lists certified subcontractors. Companies can decide factories on its website, making it easier which facilities will seek certification. for civil society organizations to discover As of August 2001, 72 facilities in whether specific workplaces merit 17 industries and 21 countries have been certification. certified as being in compliance with the On the other hand, no SA8000 standard. Twenty-one of the 72 information is available on facilities that certified facilities are apparel and textile failed to achieve certification, and very factories, and 19 are toy factories. little information is publicly available on Other sectors in which there are the specific results of factory audits. As certified facilities include: agriculture (5); with the FLA and WRAP, auditors’ consulting and medical products (4 each); reports are the sole property of the food processing and housewares (3 each); companies involved, unless auditors, real estate, automotive, chemicals and NGOs or trade unions negotiate special building materials (2 each); and waste conditions with companies. Companies management, electronics, metal works, plastics, and government services (1 each).

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can require auditors to sign confidentiality International (USA); Maquila Solidarity agreements. Network (Canada). The SA8000 “Signatory Program” requires that signatory companies provide How Does Third-Party Auditing additional information to the public Work? through company reports on progress Given how closely it is modeled on made in bringing suppliers into internationally recognized rights and compliance with the SA8000 standard. standards of the ILO and UN, the The first such reports are due in the next SA8000 standard has a great deal of six months, and will be posted on SAI’s legitimacy in both the North and South. website. However, the commercial social auditing model used to verify compliance with that Who Is Involved in SA8000? standard has come under a great deal of The SA8000 Advisory Board includes criticism. individuals from business, labour, NGOs The Hong Kong-based and government. A significant difference labour/NGO coalition Labour Rights in between the SA8000 and FLA is the China (LARIC) has been particularly presence of major European corporations critical of SA8000, calling it an initiative and international labour federations on from the North that privatizes labour the SA8000 board. In contrast, the FLA is rights and disempowers workers. a US initiative, and the corporate Like the Fair Labor Association members are major US apparel and sports (FLA) and the Worldwide Responsible shoe merchandisers. Apparel Production Certification Program Current members of the SA8000 (WRAP), SAI does not carry out code Board come from the following compliance verification or directly companies and organizations: contract other organizations to do so; it accredits social auditing organizations, Corporate Members: Legacoop Nazionale which then carry out audits of facilities (Italy); Trillium Asset Management (USA); seeking certification. Toys ‘R’ Us (USA); Eileen Fisher (USA); At present, all seven SA8000 Dole Food Company (USA); Avon accredited auditing organizations are Products (USA); SGS Int’l Certification commercial management systems auditing Services (Switzerland); Otto-Versand companies. They include: Bureau Veritas (Germany); WE Europe (The Quality International (BVQI - UK), Netherlands). Centro per l’Innovzione e lo Sviluppo Economico (CISE – Italy), Det Norske Union, NGO and Government Members: Veritas (DNV – Norway), Underwriters International, Textile, Garment and Labs (UL - USA), Intertek Testing Leather Workers Federation (Belgium); Services (ITS - USA), RWTUV Far East National Child Labor Committee (USA); Ltd. (Thailand), International Certification Abrinq Foundation (Brazil); United Services (SGS-ICS – Switzerland). ITS is Nations Office of Project Services; Office also accredited with WRAP and FLA. of the Comptroller, City of New York SAI offers training courses for (USA); Union Network International auditors, although auditors can also be (Switzerland); Social Accountability trained by “accredited course providers,” International (USA); President Emeritus, which currently include SGS and CISE. Amalgamated Clothing and Textile SAI staff accompany the auditing firms to Workers Union (USA); Amnesty “witness” audits prior to their

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accreditation. However, it is the auditing submit an annual report assessing their organizations that carry out audits and progress in meeting the plan. grant the certifications or suggest remedial The Signatory Program is intended action necessary for the facility to achieve to encourage northern companies certification. sourcing from southern facilities to invest After a facility achieves human and financial resources in bringing certification, the certification body then conditions and labour practices in those carries out “surveillance audits” at least facilities in line with the SA8000 standard. every six months, and a full every As of July 1, the following three years. According to Judy Gearhart companies are SA8000 signatories: Amana of SAI, auditors are encouraged to (Switzerland), Avon Products (USA), conduct unannounced factory inspections. Cutter & Buck (USA), Dole Food (USA), Eileen Fisher (USA), Otto Versand How Does Workplace Certification (Germany), Toys R Us (USA), United Work? Nations Office of Project Services, and Unlike the FLA, which certifies company Vögele (Switzerland). brands, SA8000 certifies individual Although not a signatory, Chiquita workplace facilities. In this respect, it has Brands International has adopted a more in common with WRAP than with “modified” version of the SA8000 Code the FLA. (See WRAP article below.) The and has made a public commitment to Signatory Program, on the other hand, has adopting the SA8000 standard throughout more in common with the FLA. their operation if appropriate As with WRAP, facilities seeking SA8000 modifications are made for “seasonal non- certification are encouraged to first carry banana agriculture business.” A number out an internal assessment (pre-audit) to of other non-signatory companies, determine what changes/improvements according to Tepper-Marlin, have adopted are needed to bring the facility into SA8000 in full and made public compliance with the standard. Once this commitments to encourage and eventually process is completed, the facility contracts require their suppliers to comply. These an SA8000 accredited auditor to carry out include Kesko (Finland), COOP Italia a full certification audit. (Italy), WE Europe (the Netherlands) and At first glance, this model appears Spengler (Switzerland). to put all responsibility, and expense, on One possible limitation of the the shoulders of the local supplier. Signatory Program for SAI as an However, SAI also encourages northern institution is that there is a built-in companies to become part of the SA8000 incentive for signatory companies to Signatory Program. Companies with spend an extended period of time bringing signatory status commit to developing a their suppliers up to the standard before plan to bring designated company-owned seeking formal certification of facilities and supplier facilities into compliance with the SA8000 standard over a period of Is There a Role for Southern NGO and time. This could include a particular Labour Groups? product line, geographic area, type of In theory, southern NGOs and labour supplier, or its entire supply chain. organizations can become accredited as According to SAI, “the plan must SA8000 auditors. The fact that, to date, no include a policy giving preference to southern independent monitoring groups suppliers who are SA8000 applicants or have applied might be attributed to SAI’s certified.” Signatories are also expected to apparent bias in favour of the commercial

Maquila Solidarity Network, August 2001, [email protected] 4 auditing model, the requirement that audited, auditors are also supposed to applicants meet ISO requirements (Guide meet with the union prior to the audit, 62 for carrying out assessments and and to have a second meeting after certifications of quality systems) in order completing the audit. It is not clear to to receive SA8000 accreditation, and the what degree these requirements are fact that few SA8000 audits are currently currently being followed in practice. taking place in Central America, where While auditor meetings with in- local NGOs have the most extensive plant unions are essential, and while experience with third-party monitoring. consultation with local labour and non- SAI promotional materials governmental organizations may result in emphasize that NGOs are welcome to better audits, it is not clear what local seek accreditation as auditors. Southern NGOs will gain from a relationship in and northern NGOs have also been given which they are expected to provide free pro bono spaces in SA8000 auditor information to high-paid commercial training courses. Central American auditors while being denied access to their independent monitoring groups have been reports. invited to participate in SA8000 forums One area where there may be on the role of NGOs in code verification. space for participation of local labour Plans are also in the works for a organizations, and possibly NGOs, is in roundtable discussion in Central America training programs for workers and in conjunction with the regional network management personnel on workers’ rights of independent monitoring groups to under the SA8000 standard, international discuss possibilities for greater labour rights conventions and collaboration. declarations, and local law. SAI and the But despite these efforts to ITGLWF have recently received funding accommodate southern NGO for a joint project to develop and pilot participation in SA8000, SAI appears training modules on codes of conduct and unable to conceive of local NGOs and/or SA8000 in particular with ITGLWF labour groups playing a significant role in affiliates in Asia, Latin America and the auditing process, unless they are Africa. willing to meet ISO criteria to become Another possible area for local SA8000 accredited auditors. NGO and labour participation is filing In contrast, Clean Clothes complaints, challenging unjustified Campaign (CCC) groups in Europe have workplace certifications and/or improper begun to experiment with a dual approach practices by SA8000 auditors. (See below.) to code verification in which commercial certification bodies, some of which are Is There a Role for Workers? SAI-accredited, carry out book audits and One of LARIC’s harshest criticisms of local NGOs have responsibility for SA8000 is that “workers themselves have worker interviews. no active role to play in the whole auditing Currently the only specific and certification process.” According to requirement of SA8000 auditors LARIC, the SA8000 model reduces concerning participation of local workers to objects of study “on a organizations in the auditing process is checklist” of northern-based commercial that they must consult with local labour auditing firms. “All they can do in the and non-governmental organizations whole SA8000 farce is complain to the before undertaking audits. In cases where auditors,” says LARIC, “to whom unions represent workers in a plant being workers’ rights are no more than another

Maquila Solidarity Network, August 2001, [email protected] 5 business deal.” relations, health and safety, wage systems, In response to LARIC’s critique, payment by results, accounting, and a host Judy Gearhart of SAI states that “SA8000 of other things.” properly implemented increases the space SA8000 also requires that the available for workers’ organizing,” and company “provide for non-management that the SA8000 offers workers another personnel to choose a representative from avenue for making complaints, one in their own group to facilitate which anonymity protects them from communication with senior management retribution. “SA8000 does not change any on matters related to the [SA8000] of the previously existing avenues for standard.” Whether this clause is actually workers to file complaints through being implemented, and how management NGOs, trade unions, management, is interpreting it is not yet clear. government, or other means,” says Gearhart. How Does the Complaints Process LARIC also points to the Work? challenge “professional” auditors face in Under SA8000, workers and interested winning the workers’ trust: “In China and third parties have the right to file other developing countries, a group of complaints if they have objective evidence well-dressed visitors usually look like calling into question the appropriateness management to workers. Even if the of a certification or accreditation under team explain their position to the workers, the SA8000 system. Complaints about an it is difficult for workers to trust inappropriate workplace certification can important-looking strangers and share be made to the relevant accredited their true feelings for fear of reprisal and certification body, and if it is felt the dismissal, particularly in the absence of complaint is not satisfactorily addressed, truly independent trade unions. If there an appeal of its accreditation can be made are foreigners in the team, workers get to SAI. Appeals concerning the even more wary since foreigners are inappropriate accreditation of a usually seen as the plant’s business certification body can be made directly to buyers.” SAI. Rather than directly addressing According to SAI, anyone can file this central question (Who will workers a complaint, all complaints will be trust to tell their story?), SAI has chosen investigated, and all complainants will be to concentrate on the training of workers, advised of the outcome. In addition, any management personnel, and auditors, and interested party may make an appeal of an in its worker and third-party complaints SAI decision, within 30 days of that process. decision. In response to MSN’s and SA8000 also requires certified LARIC’s criticisms of commercial companies to provide a confidential auditors, Neil Kearney of the ITGLWF system for workers to register complaints asks, “Should we assume NGOs are any concerning violations of the SA8000 better at interviewing workers than standard. Companies must maintain professional auditors, unless they have had records of all complaints and how they proper training?” Kearney also questions responded to them. At every surveillance whether NGOs are “really capable of or certification audit, auditors are being efficient factory or labour expected to review all complaints and inspectors unless they have extensive their resolutions. According to Gearhart, training in production systems, industrial auditors are also expected to inform

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workers about the possibility of filing wanted the problems in the factory complaints directly with them. Each level corrected in a timely manner, and they of the complaints and appeals procedure weren’t particularly interested in hearing allows for anonymity, says Gearhart. about the distinctions between the roles and responsibilities of the “accrediting How Has the Complaints Process organization” and the “certifying Worked in Practice? organization,” or whether the factory’s In the last year, the SA8000 system certification was “suspended” or responded to three complaints, two about “revoked.” factories in China and one about a In its review of the case, SAI plantation in Kenya that supplies a regretted that suspension or revocation of certified facility in Italy. The first certification in this case was not complaint was filed by Centro Nuovo effectively used as leverage to push for Modello di Sviluppo. The second was compliance with the standard, in other based on a US National Labor Committee words to fix the problems in the factory. report. Although it was not a formal A damaging assessment of the complaint, it was treated as such by SAI. SAI verification and certification scheme The third complaint was from the appeared in an article in the December 18 Hong Kong Christian Industrial issue of the South China Morning Post, and Committee (CIC), which charged that the it came from an unexpected source. The SA8000-certified Chung Hoo Shoe article quotes DNV’s China head, Sangem Factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong, China Hsu Shuaijun, as saying, “You have in was in violation of Chinese . southern China all the factors working According to CIC, some workers were against the auditors… the multinationals, being paid less than the minimum wage. which want low labour costs; the factory Other violations included: excessively long managers, who don’t like us because of hours of work with no overtime pay, no fines for non-conformity; … the local days off for two to three month periods, Chinese Government … which wants this illegal fines, inadequate food, excessively business and does not want it hot working conditions, and overcrowded threatened… Right now, in labour- and dangerous dormitory facilities. intensive industries in southern China, the On September 7, CIC submitted SA8000 standard cannot be enforced its complaint. SAI then contacted DNV, effectively… The factories always find a the social auditing firm that had certified way around the auditors.” the factory. Within one week DNV sent SAI has since carried out a review auditors to the factory, but found the of its compliance verification and factory plant was closed for a public holiday. After certification program in China. As a result three weeks had passed and a full review of the review, auditors are being audit had still not taken place, on encouraged to review certified facilities September 28, SAI instructed DNV to and conduct unannounced audits and also suspend the factory’s certification. On to verify compliance with code October 3, CIC wrote to SAI complaining requirements for worker training in and about the delay in carrying out a re-audit awareness of the SA8000 standard and of the factory and expressing their complaints procedure. dissatisfaction about the whole complaints DNV’s SAI accreditation in China process. was subsequently suspended, pending its CIC’s confusion and frustration agreement to, and implementation of, with the process is understandable. They measures designed to substantially

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strengthen its audit capabilities in China. certifications and the threat of suspending To its credit, SAI also determined or revoking those certifications provide to maintain it current limits on hours of sufficient leverage to pressure factory work, despite pressure to weaken this owners in China to comply with the provision. SA8000 standard, or with Chinese labour law. This will depend, at least in part, on Will SA8000 Play a Positive or whether a sufficient number of major Negative Role in China? companies sourcing from China require Although the MSN is represented on the their suppliers to become SA8000- SA8000 Advisory Board, we have serious certified as a condition for receiving questions about the effectiveness of its future orders. commercial social auditing model, In our view, the most important particularly in places like southern China challenge for SAI is whether the presence where migrant workers have little of its auditing and certification program knowledge of their rights or democratic in China can create some space for space for self-organization and are “parallel means of independent and free legitimately afraid to tell their story to association” in SA8000-certified factories. visitors, whether they be Chinese or If worker rights and health and foreigners. Even with training, commercial safety training in SA8000 certified auditors have not proven to be particularly factories does eventually lead to the knowledgeable of, sympathetic to, or able election of worker representatives who to assess labour rights questions, engage with management on workplace particularly those that are less quantifiable, issues, SAI will have made a positive such as freedom of association. contribution to worker rights in China. If Of course, this criticism doesn’t this issue of worker representation is not only apply to SA8000; it is equally adequately addressed, and SAI’s focus applicable to audits by WRAP and FLA remains on the intricacies of commercial accredited commercial auditors. In fact, auditing and certification procedures, SA8000 auditor requirements appear to be SA8000 could fail to improve conditions more stringent than those of WRAP or in China, and could in fact, as LARIC the FLA. However, SAI is currently the fears, contribute to the privatization of dominant player in China, and is therefore labour standards regulation in that under closer scrutiny. country. Even in the areas where commercial auditors have expertise, such What Options Should Southern as auditing factory records, the DNV Groups Consider? experience raises serious questions about Because of its emphasis on management whether book audits are sufficient to systems audits, SA8000 is currently less uncover common labour rights abuses. open to local NGO participation in the Unless workers have the ability to tell their actual auditing process than is the FLA, stories without the threat or perceived which has already accredited two southern threat of management or government NGOs as “external monitors.” retaliation for doing so, it will continue to Nethertheless, some southern be difficult for even well-trained auditors labour and non-governmental to document real labour practices, as organizations may consider exploring the opposed to those that appear in company option of seeking SA8000 accreditation. records. While the ISO requirement may be an Nor is it clear yet whether factory obstacle, training in the auditing of

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company records may have value for local B. FLA ACCREDITS NEW organizations involved in independent EXTERNAL MONITORS monitoring or documenting labour practices for companies producing in their The Fair Labor Association (FLA) has countries. announced that four commercial However, unless SAI makes management systems firms have been fundamental changes in its conception of accredited as “Independent External social auditing and the role of local Monitors” to carry out social audits of organizations in the process, this option factories producing for FLA members will probably remain less attractive than is companies. These include Global FLA accreditation, to southern groups Standards/Toan Tin in Vietnam; Intertek seeking an active role in code verification. Testing Services (ITS) in China, India, There are also other ways that Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and southern NGOs and labour organizations Thailand; and Merchandise Testing Labs could engage with SA8000, including: Brand Integrity (MTL) in China, India, § participating in SA8000 worker rights Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. training for workers and management The FLA had previously personnel; announced the accreditation of two § acting as trainers in components of southern NGOs and one US non-profit the SA8000 auditor training program; monitoring organization, COVERCO in § testing the SA8000 complaints and Guatemala, Phulki in Bangladesh, and appeals procedures as a possible tool Verite in 14 countries. ITS is also to challenge improper factory accredited under the SA8000 and WRAP certification and pressure for code verification programs. improvement in conditions, and/or to FLA member companies currently challenge the accreditation of include: Nike, Reebok, adidas, Liz commercial social auditing firms that Claiborne, Phillips-Van Heusen, Eddie are improperly certifying facilities Bauer, Patagonia, Gear for Sports, Polo where labour rights violations Ralph Lauren, and Levis Strauss. continue; § making use of the SA8000 standard to educate workers on their rights and C. HOW RESPONSIBLE IS WRAP? pressure companies to adopt and adhere to ILO-based standards; and The Worldwide Responsible Apparel § continuing to dialogue with SAI and Production Certification Program its member organizations to push for (WRAP) has apparently certified 23 a more authentic role for southern factories (including factories in US, labour and non-governmental Mexico and Honduras), and has received organizations. applications for certification from 370 others. However, information on certified For further information, check the SAI factories and their locations appears not website: www.sa-intl.org. to be publicly available. WRAP is a code monitoring and factory certification initiative of the American Apparel and Footwear Association (formerly American Apparel Manufacturers’ Association). It is supported by maquiladora and

Maquila Solidarity Network, August 2001, [email protected] 9 manufacturers’ associations in El Puebla, Mexico. The factory produces Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua university-licensed Nike products for a Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, Haiti, the number of US universities, as well as Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, apparel for Reebok. the Philippines and South Africa. The WRC report confirms earlier While WRAP includes NGO and findings of violations of university codes labour representatives on its governing of conduct, including unjust firings and board, many of the labour representatives forced resignations of workers who were formerly associated with the engaged in a work stoppage, and American Institute for Free Labor continuing threats and discrimination Development (AIFLD) and/or with anti- against workers who are attempting to Castro Cuban American organizations, form an independent union. As a result of and the two NGO’s are pro-business pressure from students and universities, organizations that include corporate hundreds of workers were reinstated in members of WRAP on their boards of the factory. directors. The WRC is a code monitoring Corporate members of the WRAP organization for university-licensed Board include: Sara Lee (Hanes, Leggs products that was initiated by Students Playtex, Sara Lee, Bali, etc.), Vanity Fair Against groups in the US as (VF) Corporation (Lee, Wrangler, Rustler, an alternative to the Fair Labor Riders, Britannia and Chic Jeans), Assocation (FLA). Kellwood (which produces private labels for Wal-Mart), and Gerber Childrenwear. The full report is available in English on the Although very little information is WRC website: www.workersrights.org. publicly available on WRAP’s “independent monitoring” program, its Self-Assessment and Monitoring E. GMIES REPORTS ON CODE Handbook for factory owners is available COMPLIANCE AT THREE EL in Spanish on its website: SALVADOR FACTORIES www.wrapapparel.org/manuals/hndbk_s pan_2001.pdf A July 2001 report by the El Salvador Significantly, the self-assessment Independent Monitoring Group (GMIES) handbook give more detailed publicly released on August 13 documents instructions on security measures repeated violations of Salvadoran labour required to prevent the illegal shipment law and the Liz Claiborne code of of drugs with clothes exported from the conduct at three plants of an unnamed factory than on how to ensure respect for company producing for Liz Claiborne. freedom of association. The nineteen page report details serious violations as well as the company’s repeated attempts to block GMIES’ D. WRC RELEASES SECOND access to the factories and to necessary REPORT ON KUK DONG documentation. The report concludes with a series of recommendations. The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) One week before its release, an has released its second report on labour earlier version of the GMIES report on rights violations at the Korean-owned the Liz Claiborne supply factories, and a Kuk Dong apparel factory in Atlixco, copy of an unfinished report on a Gap supplier, were apparently stolen from

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GMIES computer files and circulated to a G. NEW RESOURCES US solidarity campaign list. The In recent months, a number of articles have unfinished reports were accompanied by a appeared in US journals reassessing the value of message, falsely attributed to GMIES voluntary codes and certification schemes. Most of director Carolina Quinteros, urging list these articles are not available in Spanish. Below members to write protest letters to Gap. we provide brief synopses of two articles. According to Quinteros, GMIES is investigating how and by whom the “The NGO-Industrial Complex,” Gary reports were stolen and distributed, and is Gereffi, Ronie Garcia-Johnson, and Erika considering bringing charges against those Sasser, Foreign Policy Magazine of Global responsible. Politics, Economics, and Ideas, July/August 2001, 6 pp. The report is available in Spanish and English The authors review recent on the MSN website: www.maquilasolidarity.org. examples of voluntary certification schemes – codes of conduct, production guidelines, and monitoring standards of F. COVERCO RELEASES REPORT global corporate behavior – including the ON TWO GAP SUPPLY Fair Labor Association and Worker Rights FACTORIES Consortium. They argue that “while certification arrangements may indeed The Guatemalan Commission for the improve working conditions and promote Verification of Codes of Conduct more environmentally friendly (COVERCO) has released an August production, … creating or participating in 2001 monitoring report on two unnamed voluntary certification initiatives may factories near Guatemala City producing allow entire industries to preempt the for Gap and other US apparel development of international labor and companies. environmental laws directed at The report documents numerous multinational companies, and to avoid a worker rights violations, including nightmarish scenario of stringent and forced overtime, deductions of bonuses often contradictory regulations in country and incentives for refusing to work after country.” overtime, pressure to work extra time The authors conclude, “More without pay to complete quotas, fundamentally, the rise of certification discrimination against pregnant and institutions poses profound dilemmas for the progressive notion popular during the disabled workers, illegal and excessive th hours of work for minors, lack of clear 20 century that the remedy for social and pay records, verbal and physical abuse, environmental problems was a stronger and more interventionist state… The and violations of freedom of association. challenge is for states to accept The report also points to management certification not as a threat but as an harassment of workers who reported opportunity to reinforce labor and violations to COVERCO monitors. environmental goals within their sovereign

territory and beyond.” The report is now available in English, The article is available at: and will soon be available in Spanish, on www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_julyaug_20 the MSN website: 01/gereffi.html. For other related articles www.maquilasolidarity.org. by Gereffi in Spanish, contact MSN.

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“Wary Allies,” by Lance Compa, The Other Resources: American Prospect, vol. 12, no. 12, July 16, 2001, 4 pp. Overview of Recent Developments on Monitoring Compa describes corporate codes and Verification in the Garment and Sportswear of conduct as “a ‘third way’ to promote Industry in Europe, Nina Ascoly, Joris in the global economy – a civil Oldenziel, and Ineke Zeldenrust, SOMO society alternative to first-way government (Centre for Research on Multinational regulation or second-way trade union Corporations), May 2001, 42 pp. organizing and collective bargaining.” He Report describes various reviews the experiences of US unions and European multi-stakeholder code university students with various code and initiatives in the UK, Netherlands, France, monitoring initiatives, such as the FLA, Sweden, and Switzerland. It also includes SA8000, and the WRC. He also provides brief descriptions of pilot projects testing brief, critical assessments of the Mandarin options for code compliance verification. and Kimi factory monitoring experiences These include pilot projects of the Ethical in Central America. Trading Initiative (ETI – UK) on Compa notes that many trade horticulture (Zimbabwe) and clothes and unionists suspect that “behind most footwear (China); the Fair Wear corporate and some NGO enthusiasm for Foundation in the Netherlands; the codes of conduct and related monitoring French Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) in plans is an agenda to shove aside the Madagascar; and Swedish CCC in organizing and bargaining roles of Bangladesh, India and China. unions,” and that “an over-reliance on The report is available at: voluntary codes would erode unions’ www.somo.nl/monitoring/reports.htm. ability to invoke government authority and enforcement muscle.” He concludes: “These two communities [NGO’s and unions] still have more in common with each other than either has with corporations, governments, or international organizations that see free trade and free-flowing capital as the solution to labor standards. At the same time, unions and NGO’s need to be clear- eyed about their differences and their proper roles as they navigate the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.” The article is available, in English only, at: www.prospect.org/print/ V12/12/compa-l.html.

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