I’m looking for my social justice friends to help me out here. I’ve been in the market for a new hoodie for a couple of weeks. Evaluating why I buy the clothes that I do, I’ve been a bit more selective in my shopping. If I find a sweatshirt I like, the first thing I do is look at the tag. I usually see that the sweatshirt has been made in somewhere like China, Bangladesh, etc and consequently hang it back up. Why? I’m not entirely sure other than I just assume it was made by some kid in a sweatshop.
Ben informs me that sometimes it has more to do with the brand than it does with the place that it comes from. So I guess I need to find a list of textile producers that are part of winning team. So here is my real question. Are sweatshops bad? I’m told that Jeffrey Sachs says in his book on poverty that, in some cases, not purchasing items from some sweatshops will only make the situation worse. And that certain sweatshops, be they imperfect do give women (in particular) chances that they would not otherwise have.
But let’s just say that sweatshops are bad like the one I wrote about on May 21, 2007 (if you care to look in the archives). Is the logic that by me not purchasing the item from them, that they will go out of business? My follow up question then is this? Why are the sweatshop workers working there? It strikes me that if they are working there then they would rather be doing so than not doing so.
Now I know that the logic of some is…”don’t buy from the sweatshop because then we will force the sweatshops to increase the average wage paid to sweatshop workers” I guess I would just like to know if this is working or has worked. Does anyone have a success story they can point me to?
11 comments:
Josh,
It was good to see you, Roy, and Linswa. I can't say I know of any true success stories as in shutting down a sweatshop but I did come across this article a while ago.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/nov/22/clothes.globalisation
It struck me as odd to see the company that brought us the RED campaign as one of the companies that would do this. Then the O duh of it all sunk in when I saw the date. It seems to me that if consumers pressure industry leaders to go about business in a more ethical way and business do that then they have succeeded.
I’ll give you a call sometime soon. I need to share that idea I mentioned. I’d like your input, who knows you might even want to get on board with it.
-Tom
I remember a few years ago seeing a report John Stossel of 20/20 did on sweatshops. He found that many of these places helped many people get out of poverty and that when they were shut down it forced some of the women to have to go back into the sex-tourist industry as prostitutes.
Now, obviously, this doesn't justify the massive inequity that goes on when companies pay people a fraction of a percentage point of profits while they are working in horrid conditions, but it points to the reality that things are rarely as black and white as they seem.
i say buy used clothing. thats the only solution i have come up with for myself. when i buy new clothing, i have no idea where the hell it came from and what on earth i am supporting. i also figure buying new clothes only adds to all the crap we bring into this world only to discard. so, buying used makes sense...im not really supporting anything unethical - the purchase has already been made. and i am re-using a perfectly usable product. and its cheaper. and apparently its cooler too!!
Josh,
I struggle with that, too. Here's my underdeveloped logic:
I've read Sachs ("The End of Poverty") and am familiar with the argument that people work in sweatshops for $1 an hour because all other available jobs in such countries pay even less (hence: sweatshops are a stepping stone toward economic development). It's a compelling argument, but I still can't force myself to buy such clothing because I know that a) these jobs used to be in the United States and we've lost millions of manufacturing jobs over the past 30 years, and b) Companies like Nike (who is funding UO's new $200 million basketball arena) make more than enough to pay SIGNIFICANTLY more than the prevailing wage in developing countries, but usually don't because the free market doesn't force them too. Thus, it's up to us to force them to, either by supporting only companies that compensate their workers fairly or by vocalizing our displeasure with companies that don't.
I don't typically like Sachs' romanticizing of unfettered free market capitalism as the path out of poverty, however, I do like his final conclusion in "The End of Poverty": Government of rich countries need to do more. In 2002 the U.S. signed the Monterrey Consensus and in that document nearly all "developed" nations agreed to dedicate 0.7 percent of their GDP's to foreign aid programs aimed at economic development. Most of Europe has made it to 0.7, but the U.S. is still around 0.15 percent (we haven't budged). But, we spend about 1 percent on the Iraq war. So, if our government would commit enough money, the argument goes, economies around the world would develop enough so that the prevailing wages would rise above sweatshop levels. So, it seems like the way to correct the sweatshop problem might be to make sure our government makes good on its promise. No matter which sweater you buy, you're a taxpayer and a voter in a country that made a promise to the developing world and then ignored its promise for six years (Haven't you heard there's a war to fund?)
Something interesting from This American Life:
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1158
Act Two. Dreams of Distant Factories.
“Rachel Louise Snyder reports on the struggle to save the Cambodian economy. Right now, Cambodia is competing with other nations for the business of big clothing companies all over the world—buyers like the Gap, Nike, Adidas. But they've vowed to follow fair labor practices, which, while eliminating sweatshops for workers, also makes their costs higher. Other countries end up with the contracts—and the profits. So an official Cambodian committee sets out on a mission to convince the U.S. Congress to give them a special trade agreement, before time runs out.”
I think we tend to look at tags and immediately associate foreign countries with poor working conditions. Sidenote: We all love those super soft shirts from American Apparel, but the guy who owns it is super sketchy.
This is certainly an interesting issue. I wish I could tell you a source to check the level of social responsibility of companies, but I have none. I do tend to believe that business is the strongest & most powerful force to ending poverty. I'm not saying its the only force, but I do believe it will/can bring the greatest level of change.
I liked the last comment that mentioned that people assume poor working conditions when they see "made in china/cambodia/etc". That's just not the case.
Another assumption that I think can often be misinformed is that someone in Cambodia who make 10-15% of what someone in the US would make is underpaid and that the company is unethical for doing so. What if the company is paying 10-20% higher wages then the average worker would make for a similar job in that country? Then the company is actually raising the economic structure.
Also, we can't assume the depth of CEO/Owners personal pocketbook is tied to what they can/should pay in a 3rd world country. Company's have a lot of parties that they have to consider - the shareholders, the employees, the customers, and the communities they are in. Just because a CEO is weathly doesn't mean that the company has the profit margins to pay higher wages. The company has to balance the interests of all 4 of the above. Where companies falter is when they put to much weight on any of the 4 instead of an equal balance. Many more thoughts, but I'm sure that I'm almost out of space.
In closing - I definitely believe that it is unethical for companies to run operations with poor working conditions in 3rd world countries. While they don't need to pay US wages, they should invest in facilities and amenities to provide healthy work environments. They are definitely saving enough money to do that.
Tom M
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