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21 the Sweatshop Is Back. Bob Jeffcott Argues That Citizenship Is Cotton SWEATSHOPS factories owned by Asian manufacturers in Hong Kong, university assemblies, students were shocked to learn Korea and Taiwan. Companies like Nike became ‘hollow that their favourite brand-name clothes were made by Sweat, fire manufacturers’ whose only business was designing teenagers like themselves, forced to work up to 18 hours fashionable sportswear and marketing their brands. a day for poverty wages in unsafe workplaces. Other retailers and discount chains followed Nike’s lead, outsourcing to offshore factories. Competition Badly tarnished brands heightened. Asian suppliers began to shift their Students who had proudly worn the Nike swoosh production to even lower-wage countries in Asia, Latin wrote angry letters to Nike CEO Phil Knight declaring America and Africa. A race to the bottom for the lowest they would never again wear clothes made in Nike wages and worst working conditions went into high gear. sweatshops. But the big brands weren’t the only villains: and ethics Today, countries like Mexico and Thailand are facing the clothes of lesser-known companies were often made The sweatshop is back. Bob Jeffcott massive worker layoffs because production costs are in the same factories or under even worse conditions. considered too high. While most production is shifting Twelve years later, the Nike swoosh and other argues that citizenship is more likely to to China and India, other poor countries like Bangladesh well-known brands are badly tarnished, and the word attract orders due to bargain-basement labour costs. ‘sweatshop’ no longer needs explaining to young get rid of it than shopping. On 11 April 2005, at one o’clock in the morning, a nine- consumers. Companies like Nike and Gap Inc are storey building that housed the Spectrum Sweater and publishing corporate social responsibility reports, Shahriar Fabrics factories in Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh, acknowledging that serious abuses of worker rights are a To use the Fairtrade Cotton label, a company collapsed, killing 64 workers, injuring dozens and leaving persistent problem throughout their global supply chain. does have to provide evidence that factory conditions hundreds unemployed. Just 16 hours before the building Today some major brands have ‘company code of downstream from the cotton farms are being monitored crumbled, workers complained that there were cracks in conduct compliance staff’ who answer abuse complaints by a third party; but the kind of factory audits currently the structure’s supporting columns. Despite the lack of almost immediately, promising to investigate the being carried out by commercial social-auditing firms situation and report back on what they are willing to do are notoriously unreliable. In other words, my organic, when we started the Maquila Solidartiy Network, the to ‘remediate’ the problems. Fairtrade Cotton certified T-shirt could have been sewn Yet, despite such advances, not much really changes in a sweatshop by a 15-year-old girl who’s forced to work word ‘sweatshop’ had fallen out of common usage at the workplace. On the one hand, a little less child up to 18 hours a day for poverty wages under dangerous labour, fewer forced pregnancy tests or health-and- working conditions. So what’s a consumer to do? an adequate foundation and the apparent lack of building safety violations in the larger factories used by the major Well, maybe we could start by admitting the permits, five additional storeys had been added. To make brands. But, on the other hand, poverty wages, long limitations of ethical shopping. Isn’t it a little matters worse, heavy machinery had been placed on the hours of forced overtime and mass firings of workers presumptuous of us to think that we can end sweatshop fourth and seventh floors. who try to organize for better wages and conditions abuses by just changing our individual buying habits? The Spectrum factory produced clothes for a number remain the norm throughout the industry. After all, such abuses are endemic to the garment of major European retailers, all of whose monitoring Recent changes in global trade rules (the end of the industry and almost as old as the rag trade itself. programmes failed to identify the structural and health- import quota system) are once again speeding up the The term ‘sweatshop’ was coined in the United States and-safety problems. race to the bottom. The same companies pressuring At the Maquila Solidarity Network, we get phone calls in the late 1800s to describe the harsh discipline and ‘Negligence was the cause of the 11 April tragedy,’ suppliers to meet code-of-conduct standards are and emails almost every day of the week from people inhuman treatment employed by factory managers, said Shirin Akhter, president of the Bangladeshi women also demanding their products be made faster and wanting to know where they can buy clothes that are often in subcontract facilities, to sweat as much profit workers’ organization, Karmojibi Nari. ‘This was a cheaper, threatening to shift orders to factories in Fairtrade-certified or sweatshop-free. Alternative retail from their workers’ labour as was humanly possible. killing, not an accident.’ other countries. Conflicting pressures make suppliers outlets even contact us to ask whether we have a list of Sweatshop became a household word at the In February and March 2006 there were four more hide abuses or subcontract to sewing workshops and Chinese workers ‘sweatfree’ manufacturers. So, what are we to tell them? beginning of the 20th century when the tragic death of factory disasters in Bangladesh, in which an estimated homeworkers. The name of the game remains the same: clothe the world: Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. over a hundred garment workers became headline news 88 young women and girls were killed and more than more work for less pay. since the end of First, there’s the cotton used to make the clothes. in the tabloid press across the US. On 25 March 1911, 250 were injured. Most of the victims died in factory Targeting the big-name brands is no longer a the quota-based If you live in Canada, you may soon be able to buy a a fire broke out on the ninth floor of the Asch Building fires, reminiscent of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, in sufficient answer. Given how endemic sweatshop abuses Multi-Fibre T-shirt at your local Cotton Ginny store that is both in New York City, owned by the Triangle Shirtwaist which factory exits were either locked or blocked. are throughout the industry, selective shopping isn’t the Arrangement organic and Fairtrade Cotton certified. If you live in Company. Unable to escape through the narrow aisles Twelve years ago, when we started the Maquila answer either. textile production Britain, you can already purchase T-shirts and other between crowded sewing machines and down the Solidarity Network, the word ‘sweatshop’ had fallen out We need to start by remembering that we are not has overwhelm- apparel products bearing the Fairtrade Cotton label, not building’s only stairway, 146 young workers burned of common usage. When we spoke to high school and just consumers: we are also citizens of countries and of ingly shifted to only through alternative fairtrade companies, but also at to death, suffocated, or leapt to their doom on to the the world. We can lobby our school boards, municipal China. your local Marks & Spencer shop. pavement below. Firefighters and bystanders who tried Action governments and universities to adopt ethical purchasing This is all to the good, isn’t it? Growing organic to catch the young women and girls in safety nets were Maquila Solidarity Network: www.maquilasolidarity.org Anti-sweatshop policies that require apparel suppliers to disclose factory cotton is better for the environment, and farmers are crushed against the pavement by the falling bodies. campaigning organization based in Canada. locations and evidence that there are serious efforts to no longer exposed to dangerous chemicals. Fairtrade Pesticides Action Network http: www.pan-uk.org British branch of improve conditions. We can write letters to companies Globalization and free trade international NGO campaigning against agrochemicals and for organic cotton. certified cotton goes a step further – a better price and a Particular focus on Africa and the Global South. when workers’ rights are violated and in support of social dividend to small farmers in the global South. In the decades that followed, government regulation and Gossypium: www.gossypium.co.uk Fair trade and organic cotton clothing workers’ efforts to organize. And we can put pressure on But what happens when cotton goes downstream? union organizing drives – particularly in the post-World company. our governments to adopt policies and regulations that What does the Fairtrade Cotton label tell us about the War Two period – resulted in significant improvements Centre for Sustainable Agriculture: www.csa-india.org Hyderabad-based make companies accountable when they fail to address group crucial in raising the issue of farmer suicides and advocating for organic working lives of the young women and men who spin the in factory conditions. This period, in which many and sustainable agriculture. flagrant and persistent violations of workers’ rights. cotton into yarn in China, or those who cut the cloth – but not all – garment workers in North America Honeybee Network: www.sristri.org Gujarati-based organic agriculture and We should worry a little less about our shopping and sew the T-shirt in a Bangladeshi factory before it’s enjoyed stable, secure employment with relatively decent farmer-inspired innovation network. decisions, and a bit more about what we can do to Grain: www.grain.org International organization defending agricultural shipped to my local Cotton Ginny store in Toronto? working conditions, was short-lived. biodiversity and farmers right’s. support the young women and girls who labour behind Unfortunately, very little.
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