tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/sweatshops-10160/articlesSweatshops – The Conversation2024-01-24T16:47:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2209242024-01-24T16:47:17Z2024-01-24T16:47:17ZDebt, wage theft and coercion drive the global garment industry – the only answer is collective action<p>Major fashion brands including Barbour and PVH (the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger) have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/jan/09/fashion-brands-workers-rights-transparentem-calvin-klein-hilfiger-barbour-compensate-garment-workers-mauritius">agreed</a> to pay over £400,000 in compensation to migrant workers in Mauritius. These workers from Bangladesh, India, China and Madagascar had been forced to pay illegal recruitment fees and, alongside other indicators of forced labour, were allegedly subject to deception and intimidation. </p>
<p>These are the findings from an investigation carried out between 2022 and 2023 by <a href="https://transparentem.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/I-Came-Here-with-So-Many-Dreams_Transparentem.pdf">Transparentem</a>, a US-based organisation that investigates workers’ rights. </p>
<p>Migrant workers across several Mauritian factories reported agreeing to pay fees ranging from a few hundred to several thousand US dollars to secure a good job. But, upon arrival, they discovered the job was poorly paid and expenses were higher than promised.</p>
<p>Exploitative practices like this are actually quite common. The Mauritius case is the latest example of the <a href="https://respect.international/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-Global-Business-of-Forced-Labour-Report-of-Findings-University-of-Sheffield-2018.pdf">use of forced labour</a> (the most commonly identified form of modern slavery) within company supply chains. But all garment workers – free and unfree – can experience unacceptable forms of exploitation that can only be countered through sustained labour organisation. </p>
<h2>The coloniality of our wardrobe</h2>
<p>In 2013, an eight-storey commercial building called <a href="https://cleanclothes.org/campaigns/past/rana-plaza">Rana Plaza</a> collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Over 1,100 people – mostly garment workers – lost their lives, leading to widespread protests and international scrutiny on working conditions in garment factories. </p>
<p>Since then, multiple reports have uncovered labour abuse in the garment sector, including several instances of forced labour. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rana-plaza-ten-years-after-the-bangladesh-factory-collapse-we-are-no-closer-to-fixing-modern-slavery-203774">Rana Plaza: ten years after the Bangladesh factory collapse, we are no closer to fixing modern slavery</a>
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<p>A New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/world/asia/china-mask-forced-labor.html">investigation</a> found that Chinese companies were using Uyghurs to make personal protective equipment during the COVID pandemic through a contentious government-sponsored programme. The Uyghurs are a largely Muslim, persecuted ethnic minority primarily from the Xinjiang region of north-west China. </p>
<p>The global emergency that was caused by the pandemic is over – at least for now. But <a href="https://globallabourcolumn.org/2024/01/10/challenging-corporate-complicity-with-state-imposed-uyghur-forced-labour/">new evidence</a> suggests forced Uyghur labour remains present in 17 industries within China, including the garment industry.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A line of women dressed in blue working at sewing machines." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570695/original/file-20240122-20-iekiz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">April 2019: Uyghur women work in a cloth factory in Xinjiang, China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hotan-china-april-27-2019-uigur-1453598399">Azamat Imanaliev/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Third-party labour contractors are also prevalent in many global supply chains. Contractors recruit and supply local or international migrant labour, and garment factories rely on them to manage and control their workforce. </p>
<p>But contract labourers are <a href="https://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/labor_chain-_analysing_the_role_of_labor_contractors.pdf">vulnerable to abuse</a>. In the lower rungs of the supply chain (in informal workshops and homes), workers often work based on a system of <a href="https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/34268/1/The%20Oppressive%20Labour%20Conditions%20of%20the%20Working%20Poor%20in%20the%20Peripheral%20Segments%20of%20India%E2%80%99s%20.pdf">advanced payments</a>. </p>
<p>The labour contractor pays the worker an “advance”, which locks the worker into their employment. It prevents them from negotiating better salaries or working for others until the debt is repaid.</p>
<p>In India, there is evidence that this debt-based system is spreading to garment factories. In Bengaluru, for instance, women in garment factories work under <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308709392_In_debt_to_the_time-bank_the_manipulation_of_working_time_in_Indian_garment_factories_and_working_dead_horse">constant debt</a> to their employer. Missed daily targets, lost productivity or time off are turned into debt that workers must compensate through future labour.</p>
<p>Many forced labour practices have a long history, dating back to colonial relations. Both labour contracting and indebtedness characterised the <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2019/10/18/jlf-2019-interview-sven-beckert-empire-of-cotton/">indenture labour system</a> that dominated the production of textiles for centuries. In <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20488049">19th-century India</a>, for example, indenture workers were managed by labour contractors who paid them advances.</p>
<p>Under this point of view, the contemporary garment supply chain is a modern avatar of the colonial labour plantation. </p>
<h2>Illegal terminations and wage theft</h2>
<p>Not every worker that stitches our clothing is forced to do so. In fact, the majority are not. But even workers that we would consider to be “free” – those who are not tied to an employer or labour contractor – can experience harsh forms of exploitation. </p>
<p>I recently wrote a <a href="https://www.ilo.org/newdelhi/whatwedo/publications/WCMS_884310/lang--en/index.htm">report</a> for the International Labour Organization (ILO) with labour activist and colleague Rakhi Sehgal that documents some of the industrial grievances garment workers filed individually or via unions in India. The report is based on a project that contributes to the ILO’s <a href="https://www.ilo.org/beirut/projects/WCMS_502329/lang--en/index.htm">Work in Freedom programme</a>. This programme aims to reduce vulnerability to forced labour in south Asia and the Middle East, particularly for women in the garment sector.</p>
<p>We analysed a total of 75 grievances across three of India’s export hubs – Gurugram, Bengaluru and Tiruppur – and found shocking patterns of labour abuse. </p>
<p>We discovered the widespread use of illegal terminations by employers, either through factory closures or relocation. We also found evidence of wage-theft. This usually involves not paying the worker’s final wages – a practice that <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/Tejani-and-Fukuda-Parr-2021-GVC-ILR.pdf">escalated</a> during the COVID pandemic. But it can also be the result of managerial tactics like imposing impossible targets or paying overtime rates that are lower than the legal threshold. </p>
<p>Our report also highlighted gender differences in labour abuse. Sexual harassment was consistently deployed as a tool to discipline women working on the assembly line. We found widespread evidence of sexual harassment in Bengaluru, but it was also present in garment factories <a href="https://feministlawarchives.pldindia.org/wp-content/uploads/recognising-women-workers-issues-at-work-in-india-poulomi-pal.pdf?">surrounding Delhi</a>.</p>
<h2>Social justice on the shopfloor</h2>
<p>Cases like the labour abuse in Mauritius are conspicuous and show new connections between modern slavery and migration. But these cases are enabled by centuries of colonial and neo-colonial organisation of production that has involved unacceptable forms of worker exploitation. </p>
<p>The analysis of the disputes in <a href="https://www.ilo.org/newdelhi/whatwedo/publications/WCMS_884310/lang--en/index.htm">our study</a> clearly suggests that social justice is only achievable through collective action. Most of the industrial grievances that were won by workers and their representatives were, unsurprisingly, collective grievances filed by unions. </p>
<p>In light of yet another sweatshop scandal, let us remember that upholding the freedom of association (the right to form and join trade unions) stands as the most effective means of fighting all forms of labour unfreedom – from Mauritius to India or Bangladesh.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandra Mezzadri has received research funding from ESRC-DfID, British Academy, UNU-WIDER, and the ILO. In the past, she has offered occasional consultancy services to organizations including DfID, ActionAid UK, and ILO-READ. All views expressed here are her own. </span></em></p>Garment workers around the world experience unacceptable forms of exploitation.Alessandra Mezzadri, Reader in Global Development and Political Economy, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1929442022-11-23T19:12:23Z2022-11-23T19:12:23ZWe know sweatshop clothing is bad – and buy it anyway. Here’s how your brain makes excuses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496907/original/file-20221123-13-l30f2x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3959%2C2976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You face a dilemma. You’ve found the perfect shirt, and it’s an absolute bargain, but you notice it’s “Made in Bangladesh”. You’re conscious it was probably made using cheap labour. Do you buy it, or walk away? </p>
<p>Today Oxfam released its annual <a href="https://www.oxfam.org.au/what-she-makes/naughty-or-nice-2022/">Naughty or Nice</a> list. This list highlights retail brands committed to transparent sourcing, separating labour costs in price negations, and conducting a wage gap analysis to work towards paying workers a living wage.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496939/original/file-20221123-22-9nzv15.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496939/original/file-20221123-22-9nzv15.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496939/original/file-20221123-22-9nzv15.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496939/original/file-20221123-22-9nzv15.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496939/original/file-20221123-22-9nzv15.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496939/original/file-20221123-22-9nzv15.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496939/original/file-20221123-22-9nzv15.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496939/original/file-20221123-22-9nzv15.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Oxfam’s 2022 Naughty or Nice list.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oxfam</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>This list is one of several resources trying to encourage ethical consumption. Yet despite concerns of sweatshop labour, and consumers claiming they’re <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-2976-9_5">willing to pay more</a> for ethically-sourced clothes, there remains high demand for ultra-low-price mass-produced clothing.</p>
<p>The explanation lies in a psychological phenomenon called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/motivated-reasoning">motivated reasoning</a>. It explains how people convince themselves sweatshop labour is actually okay, as long as the product is desirable.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/brands-are-leaning-on-recycled-clothes-to-meet-sustainability-goals-how-are-they-made-and-why-is-recycling-them-further-so-hard-184406">Brands are leaning on 'recycled' clothes to meet sustainability goals. How are they made? And why is recycling them further so hard?</a>
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<h2>The many costs of low-priced apparel</h2>
<p>Consumption is an individualistic act. It allows us to distinguish ourselves through our clothing, culture, and even the entertainment we consume. <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-rimhe-2016-5-page-45.htm">Ethical consumption</a> is when consumers consider the wider environmental and societal impacts of what they consume, including <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0267257X.2012.659280">when they purchase clothing</a>.</p>
<p>Revenue from the global apparel market is expected to reach <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/5091/apparel-market-worldwide/#topicHeader__wrapper">US$2 trillion</a> (about A$3 trillion) by 2026. Asia remains the garment factory of the world. It accounts for 55% of global textiles and clothing exports, and employs some <a href="https://www.ilo.org/asia/media-centre/news/WCMS_848238/lang--en/index.htm">60 million workers</a>. </p>
<p>And the International Labour Organisation has estimated <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---ipec/documents/publication/wcms_797515.pdf">160 million children</a> aged 5 to 17 were engaged in child labour at the beginning of 2020 – many of whom would have worked in the fashion supply chain.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/odnUdaAN9SE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Oxfam’s What She Makes campaign is demanding that big brands pay a living wage to the women who make our clothes.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Isn’t any job better than no job?</h2>
<p>A common defence by manufacturers that use exploitative labour arrangements is that such work is often <a href="https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=csspe">the best option available</a> for those workers. Workers voluntarily accept the conditions, and their employment helps with <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12122-006-1006-z">long-term economic development</a>. </p>
<p>At the same time, emerging research argues sweatshops are the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0950017020926372">result of consumer choice</a>, wherein retailers are simply responding to a demand for ultra-low-price fashion. This infers that if there was no demand, there would be no sweatshops.</p>
<p>But one problem with holding consumers responsible is that the vast majority aren’t aware of how their clothes are made. Despite “supply chain transparency” being credited for increasing <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cb.1852">brand legitimacy and trust</a>, true transparency is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10304312.2021.1993575?scroll=top&needAccess=true">difficult to attain</a>, even for retailers, due to the disjointed and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/03/18/why-fashion-supply-chain-traceability-is-a-tech-challenge-that-begins-with-ai/?sh=362e093d5f6d">distant elements</a> of how products move through the supply chain (which includes suppliers, producers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers).</p>
<p>Our own <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JFMM-06-2021-0158/full/html">research</a> into consumers’ perception of worker welfare found people struggle to connect the $5 shirt they bought with the person who made it, or how it was made.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-can-only-do-so-much-we-asked-fast-fashion-shoppers-how-ethical-concerns-shape-their-choices-172978">'I can only do so much': we asked fast-fashion shoppers how ethical concerns shape their choices</a>
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<h2>Motivated reasoning</h2>
<p>Oxfam’s Naughty or Nice list aims to name (and essentially shame) retail brands that fail to disclose which factories they source product from, and how they manage sourcing integrity. The logic is that if consumers are aware of which brands disclose their ethical sourcing strategies, then they’ll make more informed purchase decisions. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Our brains are wired to arrive at conclusions we prefer, as long as we maintain an <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/1991-06436-001.pdf?auth_token=dfa958470d287abcbf517c0362958f295e8fff44">illusion of objectivity</a>. And we do this even when the evidence is contrary to our beliefs.</p>
<p>A person can consider themselves an ethical consumer (which forms part of their “<a href="https://positivepsychology.com/self-concept/">self-concept</a>”) and still buy a $5 shirt, though they suspect it may have been made in a sweatshop. They may tell themselves “any job is better than no job” for workers, or “money saved today is money to spend on the children tomorrow”. In doing so they convince themselves they have objectively considered the purchase.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1509/jmkr.45.6.633">theory of self-concept</a> explains how consumers can justify the “ethical burden” away. It also suggests people use higher-order thinking to rationalise and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1207/s15327957pspr0303_3">justify personal transgressions</a>.</p>
<p>Most of us are so distant from supply chain exploitation, and so hooked on scoring a bargain, that seeing a list of “naughty” retail brands won’t change our behaviour. </p>
<h2>Evidence of motivated reasoning</h2>
<p>Researchers have studied how we use motivated reasoning to arrive at <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749597813000149">more preferable outcomes</a> that help protect our self-concept.</p>
<p>In one experiment they examined whether participants would use economic justifications (such as “any job is better than no job”) to book a Caribbean holiday at a resort associated with questionable labour practices. They found participants were likely to rationalise their choice and take the holiday despite claims of exploitative working conditions. </p>
<p>In a second study they explored the link between justifications for sweatshop labour and product desirability. As predicted, economic justifications were higher for highly desirable sweatshop-made shoes. Other studies have found motivated reasoning being employed to justify <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167299025001003">keeping overpayments</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-017-3698-9">self-allocating annual bonuses</a>, among <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17524032.2014.932817">other examples</a>. </p>
<h2>How can you shop more ethically?</h2>
<p>The bottom line is ethical consumption must be internally motivated. The good news is once you have this motivation, there are a number of resources to help you. </p>
<p><strong>Knowledge is power</strong></p>
<p>Oxfam’s Naughty or Nice report, Clean Clothes’ <a href="https://cleanclothes.org/campaigns/the-accord/brand-tracker">Brand Tracker</a>, <a href="https://www.fairwear.org/">Fair Wear</a>, <a href="https://goodonyou.eco/about/">Good On You</a>, and Fashion Revolution’s <a href="https://www.fashionrevolution.org/about/transparency/">Fashion Transparency Index</a> are all great resources to identify which brands disclose their social policies, practices, and impacts in their operations and supply chain. </p>
<p><strong>Brand accreditations</strong></p>
<p>Most brands will disclose if they have their ethical credentials certified by organisations such as <a href="https://ethicalclothingaustralia.org.au/about/">Ethical Clothing Australia</a>, <a href="https://www.wrapcompliance.org/">WRAP</a> or <a href="https://www.fairtrade.net/about/certification">Fairtrade International</a>. These <a href="https://ethicalclothingaustralia.org.au/steps-to-accreditation/">accreditations</a> generally involve a rigorous process of independent eligibility tests, compliance with guidelines and external annual audits. </p>
<p><strong>Self-reporting</strong></p>
<p>Many leading brands provide their policies on ethical sourcing and slave labour online (see <a href="https://www.kmart.com.au/modernslavery/">Kmart and Target</a> and <a href="https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/docs/default-source/sustainability/sustainability-documents/2108261641-wesfarmers-approach-to-human-rights.pdf?sfvrsn=237912bb_20#xd_co_f=ODY2ZWYyMGYtMDY4My00ZmQ1LTg4NmEtNjBjOTM0YmFhM2Nm%7E">Wesfarmers</a>). Make sure the claims are made in accordance with reporting requirements from <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/criminal-justice/Pages/modern-slavery.aspx">Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/modern-slavery-how-consumers-can-make-a-difference-163603">Modern slavery: how consumers can make a difference</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A psychological mechanism called ‘motivated reasoning’ helps us justify the ethical burden away.Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of TechnologyLouise Grimmer, Senior Lecturer in Retail Marketing, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/925132018-02-27T18:45:38Z2018-02-27T18:45:38ZWhy is the NRA boycott working so quickly?<p>The boycott of the National Rifle Association <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/22/politics/wayne-lapierre-cpac-speech-nra/index.html">following its response</a> to the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/parkland-school-shooting-gun-control_us_5a9482a6e4b02cb368c4c52b">school shooting</a> in Parkland, Florida, came fast and furious.</p>
<p>Car rental companies, airlines, trucking businesses, tech firms, insurers and a bank that issued an NRA-branded credit card <a href="https://hellogiggles.com/news/nra-boycott-list-of-companies/">all severed their relationships</a> with the gun advocacy group within days of the shooting that left 17 dead. </p>
<p>Predictably, companies that cut ties – such as Atlanta-based Delta – faced their <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/25/nra-hits-back-cowardice-companies-cutting-ties-gun-lobby-backlash/">own backlash</a> from NRA loyalists. In particular, the lieutenant governor of Georgia (and candidate for governor) <a href="https://twitter.com/CaseyCagle/status/968199605803454465">threatened</a> to “kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with @NRA.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"968199605803454465"}"></div></p>
<p>Once again, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-corporate-ceos-found-their-political-voice-83127">companies are finding themselves</a> caught in the middle of <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-did-che-guevara-become-ceo-the-roots-of-the-new-corporate-activism-64203">political conflicts</a> that they might have preferred to avoid.</p>
<p>There is nothing new about consumer boycotts – <a href="https://www.masshist.org/revolution/non_importation.php">Americans boycotted British goods</a> in response to the Stamp Act in the years before the Revolution. But as I’ve learned in <a href="https://hbr.org/product/changing-your-company-from-the-inside-out-a-guide-for-social-intrapreneurs/11057-HBK-ENG">my research on corporate activism</a>, two things are different now. First, businesses are being targeted not just for their own actions but for the company they keep – in this case, relationships with the wrong kinds of customers. Second, the speed of the response is unprecedented. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208146/original/file-20180227-36671-lh6q2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Delta found itself in a tricky situation after it said it would stop giving discounts to NRA members.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Markus Mainka/Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Trouble in the supply chain</h2>
<p>Activists have targeted corporations for generations based on their business practices. </p>
<p>One of the most famous corporate boycotts <a href="https://www.nestle.com/ask-nestle/our-company/answers/nestle-boycott">was launched against Nestle</a> in 1977 because of the Swiss food giant’s marketing of infant formula in low-income countries – a practice which <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/27/formula-milk-companies-target-poor-mothers-breastfeeding">arguably continues today</a>. The legendary boycott lasted seven years, until Nestle agreed to abide by global best practices. You can even read about it on the company’s own website. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, activists started to target companies not just for what went on within their own corporate boundaries but further back in the supply chain. When the labor practices of Nike’s contract suppliers <a href="http://archive.li/LbQ9Q">brought activist scrutiny</a>, according to a company official, the “initial attitude was, ‘Hey, we don’t own the factories. We don’t control what goes on there.’” </p>
<p>But the first of many boycotts against Nike was followed by <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/morning_call/2013/05/timeline-of-how-nikes-labor-practice.html">corporate efforts at reform</a>, and the company now has a history of holding suppliers to account and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-nikes-struggle-to-balance-cost-and-worker-safety-in-bangladesh-1398133855">cutting off those that don’t measure up</a>.</p>
<p>Today corporations like Nike take for granted that they will be held accountable for the actions of their suppliers and even for the <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_responsibility_paradox">policies of governments of countries where they do business</a>. As <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sulr/vol39/iss2/13/">corporations increasingly rely on contractors</a> for core parts of their business, they are held responsible by ethically minded consumers for actions further back in the supply chain – even the <a href="http://amj.aom.org/content/59/6/1896.abstract">provenance of the mineral tantalum</a> in their electronic devices like smartphones.</p>
<p>And today, 40 years after its first major boycott, Nestle knows better than to disclaim responsibility <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/feb/01/nestle-slavery-thailand-fighting-child-labour-lawsuit-ivory-coast">when activists uncovered slave labor</a> in their cat food supply chain. </p>
<h2>Know thy customers</h2>
<p>With the threatened anti-NRA boycott, corporate responsibility is extending in the other direction, to customers. Businesses can be held accountable not just for how their products are created but the character of the people or groups who use them. </p>
<p>Corporations <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/26/business/business-travel-the-big-get-the-best-of-the-corporate-discounts-at-hotels.html">routinely negotiate discounts</a> for groups such as AAA, AARP, alumni clubs and others. Now these routine business decisions will be subject to an additional level of scrutiny: What does who we serve say about us? </p>
<p>Still, the speed and comprehensiveness of the anti-NRA actions were startling.</p>
<p>Within two days of a <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/corporations-nra-f0d8074f2ca7/">target list</a> being posted on ThinkProgess, a number of major national corporations <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/car-rental-hotels-ditch-nra-following-boycott-818226">had dropped</a> the NRA as a “partner.” And the site keeps a running tally of companies cutting ties with the NRA. </p>
<p>Compared with the seven-year time scale of the Nestle boycott, or the <a href="http://reward0301.superfast-server47.loan/?utm_medium=NQ3aDvyuBCtafRQJPeFC66tm%2bMNW8T%2baflxP0d0AJGo%3d&t=main4">multiyear boycotts</a> of corporations operating in South Africa during the 1980s, this was something new. Social media previously enabled the <a href="https://medium.com/powering-progressive-movements/anpartner-case-study-womens-march-mobilizes-millions-worldwide-1077b5b2b9ed">rapid mobilization</a> of street protests, including the Arab Spring and the Women’s March on Washington. Now even the threat of mobilization on social media can lead companies to change quickly.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208157/original/file-20180227-36700-uncwiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">First National Bank in Omaha, Nebraska, said it will not renew its contract to issue the group’s NRA Visa card.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Nati Harnik</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>With us or against us</h2>
<p>Corporate action is increasingly transparent: Whether a company cuts or maintains ties with the NRA, the world will know it via social media. To <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qdvm6h8WKg">paraphrase George W. Bush</a>, either you’re with us or against us, and it takes only moments to find out which.</p>
<p>The NRA boycott demonstrates that in an age saturated in social media and political polarization, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/business/nra-boycott.html">politics will be inescapable for the corporate sector</a>. </p>
<p>Moreover, what counts as “political” is encompassing an ever greater group of activities, ranging from which websites a company’s ads pop up on to who its customers are. </p>
<p>In this new era, companies will be forced to choose their friends wisely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerry Davis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The lightning-quick corporate response to demands for a boycott against the NRA shows that companies can’t escape politics in an age saturated with social media.Jerry Davis, Professor of Management and Sociology, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/868922018-01-17T11:24:21Z2018-01-17T11:24:21ZHow activism pushes companies to be political<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200692/original/file-20180103-26172-e627nd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gold-jewel-623455223?src=fpdApqUNyanZWUxbkAFooA-1-1">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever wondered why some companies seem more politically engaged than others? When <a href="http://opus.bath.ac.uk/52851/1/Shame_Campaigns_and_Environmental_Justic_1.pdf">activists shine a spotlight on an industry</a> for alleged links to social or environmental exploitation, most companies seek to remain in the shadows, fearful of unwanted publicity. But there are often one or two that respond proactively, working with activists to hammer out a solution.</p>
<p>Take the global fashion industry, whose largest brands have been linked to garments produced in “sweatshops”, or jewellery made with “blood diamonds” and “dirty gold”. Sportswear giant Nike eventually <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/1992/08/the-new-free-trade-heel/">responded positively</a> to accusers who associated its products with worker exploitation, <a href="http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Global-Brief-1-Ethical-Audits-and-the-Supply-Chains-of-Global-Corporations.pdf">albeit with mixed results</a>. </p>
<p>As a central focus of the campaign, perhaps Nike’s response – <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iOcfAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+promise+and+limits+of+private+power&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBvrCc3t7YAhUBB8AKHUK4A28Q6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=the%20promise%20and%20limits%20of%20private%20power&f=false">to attempt to improve working practices abroad</a> – was somewhat foreseeable. But many of its competitors, who were also targeted, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/03/news/international/pluggedin_fortune/">lagged well behind</a>. </p>
<p>Likewise, there were varied responses from jewellery retailers to the issue of “dirty gold”, when the metal is <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-blood-diamonds-to-dirty-gold-how-to-buy-gold-less-tainted-by-mercury-49726">mined in unethical and environmentally damaging conditions</a>. Tiffany & Co. is probably the best example of leadership. The company was involved in the movement in the late 1990s to eradicate blood diamonds from global supply chains, and subsequently worked to ensure that the gold it uses is responsibly sourced (even before the <a href="http://nodirtygold.earthworksaction.org/">campaign to tackle dirty gold</a> was launched in 2004).</p>
<p>Compare this to the slow and sometimes belligerent response from many of Tiffany’s competitors, <a href="https://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/LeadersLaggards_highres.pdf">who faced similar reputational risk</a>. After a sluggish start, other major jewellery companies eventually followed Tiffany’s lead – and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/8H2kHt3x54PDvzgkbtGB/full">the mining industry has begun to take notice</a>. The leadership of firms like Tiffany proved to be an important catalyst – and demonstrated how they got in front of activism.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200690/original/file-20180103-26142-goah2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200690/original/file-20180103-26142-goah2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200690/original/file-20180103-26142-goah2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200690/original/file-20180103-26142-goah2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200690/original/file-20180103-26142-goah2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200690/original/file-20180103-26142-goah2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200690/original/file-20180103-26142-goah2b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ahead of the pack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-city-august-3-2014-219593197?src=0FZKK4jBmYOfW5xbeiHSHA-1-24">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my book, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/dirty-gold">Dirty Gold: How Activism Transformed the Jewelry Industry</a>, I set out to explore why some companies lead the industry response to activists, the different ways they do so, and the impacts of their leadership.</p>
<h2>Expanding political opportunities</h2>
<p>Managers cannot simply spend their firm’s resources on political issues – they are constrained by market forces and a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. They need a business case to back such expenditure. </p>
<p>When activists target these companies, they offer just such a business case. Corporate executives do not always need to respond, as activists are rarely powerful enough to force companies to do their bidding. But activists can at least create an opportunity for these executives to act politically. </p>
<p>So why do some companies lead while others simply follow (or do nothing at all)? By studying the responses of gold jewellery retailers to the No Dirty Gold campaign, I found that a history of interaction with activists (even on different issues) best explains why some firms come to lead the private sector’s response. </p>
<p>When campaigns demand that a company change its practices, corporate executives tend to weigh up the costs and benefits of complying. They may estimate the risk they face to their brand image against the benefits of mitigating this risk and improving this image. Costs include shifting and monitoring their supply chains. Benefits may include accessing new markets and enhancing the marketability of their brand. </p>
<p>The ways in which they engage with activists will also be influenced by the corporate culture of the company. Is it a company that engages with political issues? A company that prides itself on its attitude to sustainability? </p>
<p>Finally, when the activists bring issues to the company, on whose desk do they land? Is there a department of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? If there is, does it wield much influence? </p>
<p>The answers to these questions will vary. But we can intuitively see why companies which have engaged with activists in the past are more likely to do so again in the future. </p>
<p>For one, companies are more at risk of activist “attacks” if they have previously responded, even in other issue areas. They are on the activists’ radar. This happened with Nike, which has been experiencing <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/40444836/escalating-sweatshop-protests-keep-nike-sweating">renewed pressure from activists</a> who suspect the company is slipping back towards poor practices. </p>
<p>The same goes for Tiffany. The company’s proactive response to blood diamonds made it a prime candidate for leading the charge against dirty gold – and a prime target for the activists planning the campaign (though, in this case, Tiffany beat them to it). </p>
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<p>Companies that have also responded to past issues probably go on to boast about their sustainability credentials, making them susceptible to accusations of hypocrisy if caught backsliding. They will already have analysed sourcing strategies and supply chains, so they have the systems in place when new issues pop up. They are also more likely to have a CSR department – or consider it important enough to be handled directly by the CEO. And their corporate culture is more likely to include sustainability concerns, as they have now become part of the company’s practices.</p>
<p>Perhaps most significantly, their leadership is more likely to reflect this corporate culture, as culture and leadership <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=K96qDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=organizational+culture+and+leadership+schein&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNi9zA-NzYAhVI56QKHaxUBkUQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=organizational%20culture%20and%20leadership%20schein&f=false">enjoy a mutually constitutive relationship</a> of sorts. People are important, and having these people within the firm becomes more likely. </p>
<p>While the details will differ among individual companies, past engagement with activists can make future engagement more likely. The role of activists in driving the expanding role of business in global environmental politics becomes clear.</p>
<h2>Business and activism</h2>
<p>Corporations and activists are collaborating through these battles, building institutions – from CSR to certifications – within firms and across industries to tackle environmental problems. They are finding solutions to some problems and, in doing so, shifting expectations about the role and responsibility of the private sector and those who work within it. This is a good thing.</p>
<p>But corporations are also largely dictating the terms of their response. Activists are rarely able to force companies to do their bidding. Business is simply too powerful and consumers too complacent. This means that sustainability is made to fit <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6PlaIDc1d38C&printsec=frontcover&dq=eco-business&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd8tCM-dzYAhVN6KQKHV4xBCEQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=eco-business&f=false">within the parameters of their business models</a>, and not the other way around. </p>
<p>In the hierarchy of priorities, the needs of markets are too often placed above those of people and the planet. And this can be a very bad thing indeed.</p>
<p>So while there is a case for cautious optimism here, there is an even stronger case for continued vigilance when evaluating this expanding role of business in global environmental politics. And that means a strong case for continued activism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael John Bloomfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why some corporations are quick to respond to criticism, and others hide away.Michael John Bloomfield, Lecturer in International Development, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/880272017-11-23T13:38:51Z2017-11-23T13:38:51ZFive years after deadly factory fire, Bangladesh’s garment workers are still vulnerable<p>Exactly five years ago, in November 2012, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/25/bangladesh-textile-factory-fire">fire in the Tazreen Fashions factory</a> in Bangladesh killed at least 112 workers. Probably caused by a short circuit on the ground floor of the building, the fire rapidly spread up the nine floors where garment workers were trapped due to narrow or blocked fire escapes. Many died inside the building or while seeking an escape through the windows. </p>
<p>Just five months later, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22476774">collapse of the Rana Plaza building</a> killed 1,134 garment workers and injured hundreds of survivors. Rana Plaza was an eight-storey commercial building that housed garment units on its upper levels. The building that collapsed had already been evacuated the day before after cracks were identified, but the factory management had made workers return to work under the pressure of looming shipping deadlines. During the morning rush hour, the building collapsed in on itself like a house of cards.</p>
<p>These two incidents and a string of other disasters in garment factories across South Asia exposed the brutal employment conditions in the garment industry, and the deadly cost of “fast fashion” to workers who produce clothes under strict deadlines for very low wages. In the ensuing years, a number of new initiatives have been set up to improve factory safety and compensate injured workers and the families of those killed. </p>
<p>The 2013 <a href="http://bangladeshaccord.org/">Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh</a>, a safety pact signed by global unions and more than 200 brands, has taken important steps towards making global apparel companies accountable for the safety of factories in their supply chains. Measures taken include a series of building inspections, upgrades and closures where buildings are deemed structurally unsafe, as well as an attempt at making brands and retailers contractually liable for the safety of the factories where their garments are produced.</p>
<p>But five years on, not enough is being done to protect garment workers, and these new initiatives haven’t gone far enough to address the multiple attacks on workers’ everyday health and well-being. </p>
<p>Codes of conduct, continually used by apparel companies to monitor the working conditions of their suppliers, narrowly focus on building safety and physical infrastructure with a bias towards what can be seen and audited. These codes are poorly implemented, allowing building fires and collapses to continue; they also ignore many things that threaten workers’ health and well-being on a day-to-day basis. </p>
<p>The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh likewise focuses exclusively on physical infrastructure, leaving out a host of other issues that affect workers’ health on a daily basis and undermine their long-term well-being: long working hours, physical and bodily exhaustion, intense work rhythms, harassment, and the lack of any meaningful representation. All these problems and more are still too often invisible.</p>
<h2>Everyday risks</h2>
<p>In our new book, <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15732.html">Unmaking the Global Sweatshop: Health and Safety of the World’s Garment Workers</a>, <a href="http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/en/people/person/persdetail/ashraf.html">Hasan Ashraf</a>, a Bangladeshi anthropologist who conducted six months of fieldwork at a Dhaka knitwear factory, writes about the long list of everyday health threats he witnessed: everything from dust and smoke inhalation, noise, lack of ventilation, eyestrain, musculoskeletal pain, stress, and exposure to lights, electric wires, and chemical adhesives. Ashraf discovered that workers are having to make a trade-off between earning a living and caring for their health, which can rapidly depreciate during their working lives, undermining their long-term physical and mental well-being. </p>
<p>Similarly, a <a href="https://law.stanford.edu/projects/monitoring-in-the-dark/">recent report</a> by the non-profit organisation Better Factories Cambodia also concluded that poor working conditions “have contributed to a wave of incidents of mass fainting among Cambodian factory workers – allegedly caused, at least in part, by exhaustion, overheating, and malnutrition”.</p>
<p>The fast fashion industry needs to realise that for garment workers, health means more than just the absence of injury. It encompasses physical, social, and mental health, all of which are threatened by the stress and stigma that extend well beyond the shop floor and into workers’ lives long after they stop working.</p>
<p>Everyone and every organisation involved in the global clothing supply chain needs to consider not only the symptoms of ill health, but also its causes. And one of the central causes is the global system of the industry itself, which relies on outsourcing and subcontracting and offloads the social costs and risks of garment production onto already vulnerable workers in countries such as Bangladesh and Cambodia.</p>
<p>The future well-being of garment workers around the world relies on the industry accepting its responsibility to these people – and understanding that that responsibility extends well beyond the structural safety of the buildings they work in.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88027/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Prentice has received funding from the ESRC, the C&A Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geert De Neve has received funding from ESCR-DFID, The British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.</span></em></p>Factories that produce fast fashion garments are still highly dangerous workplaces – and not just because they might collapse.Rebecca Prentice, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of SussexGeert De Neve, Professor of Social Anthropology & South Asian Studies, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/763562017-05-17T08:10:06Z2017-05-17T08:10:06ZWatch this documentary to understand the working poverty of the sweatshop<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168143/original/file-20170505-19116-xmbp7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dogwoof</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I have spent the last decade researching the global textile and garment industries and the harshness of the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=szGmDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=sweatshopregime+page+99&source=bl&ots=REh--_CRqV&sig=oBgu7emQNKylo8lLEPNVgXYn8ic&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjigI3rmKvTAhUEbhQKHacYCxsQ6AEIMjAC#v=onepage&q=sweatshopregime%20page%2099&f=false">sweatshop regime</a> they shape for millions of workers worldwide. While researching my book, I followed the clothing production line across the whole Indian subcontinent. I met a very diverse army of labourers: male migrants endlessly circulating between factories and villages; young women commuting daily to the factory gates; children and youths facing a life of toil in home-based workshops. </p>
<p>Despite their diversity, India’s garment workers share a similar fate. All trapped inside the sweatshop regime, their own bodies are turned into commodities – yet another crucial input of production, like threads and cloth. </p>
<p>One image above all captures the working poverty of sweatshops for me: Amelia Peláez’s painting <a href="http://intranet.malba.org.ar/www/coleccion_artista.php?idartista=149">La Costurera</a>, which can be admired at the Malba museum in Buenos Aires. It is a simple sketch of a woman in the act of stitching. Crucially, the bundle of cloth she is using is her own body. In the act of toiling, she is also “manufacturing” herself into a worker. Peláez powerfully reminds us what is at the very centre of production: the body, which, as the feminist Silvia Federici reminds us, is the first ever machine invented by capitalism.</p>
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<p>Indeed, in labour-intensive manufacturing industries such as those of textiles and garments, the body is the first machine used, and also the first machine depleted, and relentlessly so, by the process of production. This is why I enjoyed watching the new documentary by Rahul Jain so much. Machines is set in a textile factory in Surat, Gujarat, India. In Jain’s vision of the textile factory, the body takes centre stage.</p>
<p>Workers’ bodies ––always on the move like well-behaved, docile bees building their hive – are the heart, soul and sound of Jain’s factory. They create the soundtrack of labouring, which merges with the steady rhythmic pace of the machines, and that of cloth endlessly pouring from the press. </p>
<p>Jain perfectly captures the image and tone of labour-intensity with close-ups of exhausted workers subjected to thankless 12-hour shifts. We often see them struggling to remain awake. They are all male migrants – no women feature in the documentary – who need to leave their villages and farms to survive. Our own last <a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/reports/file106927.pdf">project report</a> on the garment industry completed last year indicates that 12- to 16-hour shifts are the norm in the sector for this type of worker.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168141/original/file-20170505-19142-py7xte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exhaustion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dogwoof</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Relentless harassment</h2>
<p>There are many misunderstandings about poverty. People are not poor because they are excluded from the processes of production. They are poor because of the ways in which production absorbs them, literally sucking their labour out of their limbs. The poor cannot afford to sit idle. As one worker interviewed by Jain puts it: “poverty is harassment”. Poor working conditions – long working shifts, sleep deprivation, exposure to toxic substances, cloth particles and smoke, matched with meagre and discontinuous salaries (all touched upon in this documentary) – constantly harass the poor inside the factory. </p>
<p>And this constant harassment that accompanies working poverty is often enabled by violence. Unions are powerless because employers are swift in targeting union leaders. The unions are often quickly retrenched. Eventually, workers may also be exposed to physical violence. Undoubtedly, India’s textile industry has a long history of violence against trade unionists. In 1997, over ten years after heading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bombay_textile_strike">Bombay’s legendary textile mills strike</a>, Dutta Samant, the workers’ leader, was gunned down by contract killers outside his house.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168147/original/file-20170505-19135-1iuvoxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Still from Machines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dogwoof</span></span>
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<p>If unions have little power over workers, who are too scared and poor to fight for their rights, labour contractors are their undisputed masters. They not only have the power to choose the workers’ destiny by brokering their labour from villages to textile factories, but they are also the workers’ lenders of last resort, providing advances in cash. </p>
<p>The contractor interviewed by Jain for Machines knows this all too well. He knows he is the workers’ real boss. On the other hand, workers have no idea who owns the factory – who the “actual” boss is. In the words of another worker interviewed by Jain: “I don’t even know who the boss is, what he does (…) I know my section, I know my room, that’s it.” </p>
<p>Much of the textile and garment industry in India is characterised by such “<a href="https://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/workingpoor/file118684.pdf">triangular labour relations</a>”, where intermediaries interrupt any relationship between workers and factory owners.</p>
<h2>Industrial violence</h2>
<p>In the age of global capitalism and the attendant questions of labour conditions and rights, we can learn an awful lot from this documentary. A particular issue is that current debates are often framed around ideas of modern-day slavery. This language is misleading. It suggests extreme forms of exploitation may be something new and exceptional. This is hardly the case. </p>
<p>First, the intensity of exploitation experienced by workers is nothing new, in India’s textile factories or elsewhere. Workers’ harsh subjugation to the rhythms of production is timeless. The violence they endured has crossed space, time and generations, from the early development of Britain’s “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason/poems/jerusalem.shtml">dark satanic mills</a>”. For instance, in Jain’s factory, the presence of child labour is not a one-off violation of labour regulations. Rather, growing up in the factory is part and parcel of the workers’ industrial life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168148/original/file-20170505-19145-1faytyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Production.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dogwoof</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Second, this type of exploitation is hardly exceptional. After the fourth anniversary of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Savar_building_collapse">Rana Plaza tragedy</a>, we should remind ourselves once more how this terrible disaster was not the outcome of exceptional circumstances. It was driven by the normal pace of an industry systematically unable to guarantee decent working conditions for its workforce. Exhaustion, as well as the constant, inexorable depletion of the labouring body, is a fundamental aspect of factory life for millions of working poor worldwide, even in the absence of major industrial disasters. </p>
<p>Rahul Jain’s Machines shows us the restless movements leading to that process of exhaustion; their repetitive sounds, dark colours, and the fading hopes of India’s proletariat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandra Mezzadri receives funding from ESRC-DfID and from the British Academy. Heartfelt thanks to Joe Stormer, for showing me La Costurera.
</span></em></p>Machines by Rahul Jain reveals how some industries turn bodies into commodities.Alessandra Mezzadri, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/259032014-04-30T03:15:55Z2014-04-30T03:15:55ZPush to curb activists may add to sweatshop workers’ struggle<p>In late 2012, at least 117 workers died in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Dhaka_fire">garment factory fire</a> in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Kalpona Akter, a union activist from Dhaka, and Sumi Abedin, a survivor of the fire, retold their stories at an <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/04/14/fire-survivor-lobbies-bangladesh-worker-safety">Oxfam-sponsored event in Melbourne</a> this month. </p>
<p>Akter vividly recalled what she saw after running to the factory just near her house. The building was ablaze; she watched helplessly as the factory burned with the workers trapped inside. Abedin escaped by leaping from a third-floor window, breaking a wrist and a leg.</p>
<p>Even as activists like Akter continue to push for change, the Abbott government is proposing to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/04/a-restriction-on-secondary-boycotts-is-a-restriction-on-free-speech">curtail worker activism</a>. By extending secondary boycott provisions to cover activist groups, it could reduce civil society’s ability to express discontent against big business. Parliamentary secretary for agriculture Richard Colbeck, who wants to curb green activists, says it’s about <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/02/coalition-review-of-consumer-laws-may-ban-environmental-boycotts">“levelling the playing field”</a> for business. </p>
<p>But citizens and civil society groups aren’t companies or unions in the industrial relations sense of the word. They are loose and responsive networks, there to give voice to those met with criminal injustice or corruption. Making it illegal for civil society groups like GetUp, Oxfam and Amnesty International to urge consumers to boycott companies for being poor corporate citizens is a type of despotism perpetuated by the executive.</p>
<h2>Reform is a global challenge</h2>
<p>The story of the Tazreen Fashions factory fire is not a new one. Nor is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Savar_building_collapse">Rana Plaza Complex collapse</a>, which killed more than 1100 people. Last Thursday was the first anniversary of that disaster.</p>
<p>What is new is Akter’s revelation of the extent of the long struggle for compensation and protection against such disasters from factory owners, the Bangladeshi government (the national garment industry elite holds most seats) and international clothing companies. </p>
<p>In the case of the Rana Plaza collapse, initial estimates suggest US$40 million is needed to <a href="http://www.ranaplaza-arrangement.org/fund">compensate the 1138 victims’</a> families and to pay for 2000 survivors’ medical treatment. To date, only <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/13/rana-plaza-bangladesh-compensation">seven of the 28 retailers</a> linked to factories in the building have contributed.</p>
<p>Together with Bangladeshi union leaders, activist citizens worldwide are working to bring big business and the state to account. Since the disaster, Akter has met Walmart workers in Seattle wanting to show solidarity with Bangladeshis at the other end of the production line. She tells of protests in developed nations such as Belgium, Germany and Spain to name and shame clothing companies that source their garments from Bangladesh.</p>
<p>Activists like Akter and her international allies helped promote the <a href="http://www.bangladeshaccord.org/">Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh</a> and the <a href="http://www.bangladeshworkersafety.org/">Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety</a>, among other civil society programs. The New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/business/international/battling-for-a-safer-bangladesh.html">reports</a> that it was mainly a push from “Western” retailers, especially after the Rana collapse, that led to these agreements. </p>
<p>In truth, these developments had more to do with the non-government organisations, governments, companies, vocal consumers and activists putting pressure on the companies to respond.</p>
<p>Over the past year, companies like adidas, Abercrombie & Fitch and Marks & Spencer have all signed the accord. This is no idle gesture. The accord is a legally binding agreement, with no less than the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as its chief administrator.</p>
<p>By signing the accord, companies take responsibility to ensure the factories that produce their clothing are structurally sound and provide safe working environments. It provides for regulatory visits by local union officials to ensure factories meet agreed standards and for money to be put aside in case factories require repair. Factory workers are to be paid a <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-year-on-from-rana-plaza-collapse-work-still-to-be-done-24710">regular salary</a> – not pay per piece.</p>
<p>If a breach of the accord occurs, and the company is found to be negligent, it can face legal charges in its “home country”. Depending on the severity of the breach (that is, mass loss of life as happened in Tazreen or Rana), a company could face charges of industrial homicide.</p>
<h2>Activists drive campaign for justice</h2>
<p>Akter was recently in Australia working with citizens, consumers, activists and NGOs to name and shame the <a href="http://www.justgroup.com.au/asp/about.asp">Just Group</a> (which includes Peter Alexander and Portmans in its portfolio) and <a href="http://www.bestandless.com.au/">Best and Less</a> for failing to sign the accord. Just signed up to the less transparent and non-binding Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. </p>
<p>The audience at the event also heard of abuses closer to home, involving Melburnians who were tricked or otherwise misinformed by companies to work under forced conditions in breach of federal and state labour laws.</p>
<p>Is the type of transnational activism Akter has spearheaded soon to be at risk in Australia from the Abbott <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-ambitious-agenda-for-harpers-competition-review-24947">government’s review</a> of competition and consumer policy? Could Australians find it harder to express their discontent and stand in solidarity with each other and with foreign workers like Akter and Abedin? If so, then the dollar may have become sacred in Australia and the democratic profane.</p>
<p>No wonder Bruno Latour, one of the world’s leading social scientists, <a href="http://theconversation.com/rethinking-capitalism-20995">chided Tony Abbott</a> in his lecture at the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences earlier this year. In the grand ballroom of world politics, Australia continues to embarrass itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25903/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In late 2012, at least 117 workers died in a garment factory fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Kalpona Akter, a union activist from Dhaka, and Sumi Abedin, a survivor of the fire, retold their stories at an Oxfam-sponsored…Jean-Paul Gagnon, University Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Catholic UniversityMark Chou, Lecturer in Politics, Australian Catholic UniversityTezcan Gumus, Academic Tutor, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.