Posted on 23-9-2003
The
Price Of Dignity
Business is imposing virtual slavery in the developing world
- and only we, the consumers, can stop it.
Paining
Sweat Shop. 32" x 40", mixed media. It is hard to
tell exactly what year it is by looking at this picture. No,
this is not the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that burst into
flames in 1911. This is a depiction of a factory in the 1990's,
eighty years later. With the advent of Unions and Labor laws
beginning in the 1920's, the sweat shops went underground. Nowadays,
under the aegis of the Global Economy, sweat shops are still
alive and well here and in other countries where wages are cheapened
but the misery is still the same. The difference is high profile
companies pocket a larger profit with designer shirts commanding
prices that are typically $40 to $200 each. It makes you wonder
where the term "fashion conscience" comes from. ©
sol robbins
Text by Anita Roddick, 22/9/03, The Guardian
In the past two years, 500 export assembly factories have shut
down in Mexico, throwing 218,000 workers on to the street. Their
crime was the $1.26-an-hour base wage they were paid by companies
such as Alcoa Fujikura to produce auto parts for export to the
US. Those wages are now "too high" in the global economy.
Never mind that the Alcoa workers in Acuna live in makeshift
cardboard huts that lack potable water. Never mind that many
of the workers in nearby Piedras Negras were selling their blood
plasma twice a week to Baxter International for $30 in order
to survive. Those same auto parts are now being made in Honduras
by workers earning 59 cents an hour, in Nicaragua for 40 cents
an hour and in China for 27 cents an hour.
Right now, in Nicaragua and Honduras, factory workers report
that management is telling them to get ready to work harder
and longer for lower wages, because there are 1,000 people in
China lined up and ready to take each of their jobs. If they
don't like it, the company will just have to shut down the plant
and leave.
Multinational companies sourcing production in China are having
an enormous impact on the global economy, lowering wages and
rolling back labour rights. Workers in China assembling healthcare
products for companies such as Viva and Sport-Elec are being
forced to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week (with just
12 days off a year) for 16 cents an hour. There is no overtime
premium. The workers have no health insurance and no pensions.
If they try to organise, they will be fired, perhaps even beaten
and imprisoned.
It does not have to be like this. But what happens when workers
dare to stand up to ask that their basic rights be respected?
When young women in Bangladesh, being paid just five cents for
every $17.99 Disney shirt they sewed, asked for one day a week
off, the Walt Disney Company responded by pulling its work from
the factory. These women needed these jobs, but they also wanted
to be treated as human beings. The message Disney is delivering
to workers across the developing world is that if you dare to
raise your voice, you too will be fired and thrown out on the
street with nothing.
One thing is certain in the new global economy: workers struggling
for their rights cannot succeed if there is not also simultaneous
pressure on the corporations in their marketplaces. I am not
talking about a boycott. It must be the very opposite: what
is needed are campaigns to keep jobs in the developing world
while at the same time working to guarantee respect for worker
rights.
This is where the consumer comes in. We in the developed world
hold the key to ending child labour and sweatshop abuses. If
enough of us care, and if enough of us act, the squeaky wheel
gets the grease.
Corporations continue to hide the factories they use around
the world to make the goods we purchase. Wal-Mart, for example,
uses 4,400 factories in one Chinese province alone. As a first
step, we need full public disclosure of all factory names and
locations. Such transparency will make it much harder to hide
abuses.
Corporations have long demanded all sorts of enforceable laws,
such as intellectual property and copyright laws, to defend
their products and trademarks. Corporations tell us that there
must be a level playing field in the global economy, or they
cannot function and everything descends into chaos. However,
when you say to the companies, "that sounds reasonable,
but can't we also protect the fundamental rights of the 16-year-old
who made the product?", these same companies say that would
be an impediment to free trade. So, in today's global economy,
the product is protected but not the human being who made it.
We must not let this stand. We need enforceable laws to defend
workers' rights - laws every bit as strong as those currently
afforded to products.
In the short run, there is plenty we can do. We need to draw
up a "preferred companies" list, made up of corporations
which may not be perfect but are far better than average and
moving in the right direction. We need to reward companies that
are doing the right thing.
I would suggest the following standards for companies on the
preferred list: full public disclosure of factory names and
addresses; adoption of a code of conduct which calls for strict
adherence to all local laws and core International Labour Organisation-recognised
rights; release at least once a year of monitoring reports regarding
the conditions in their factories; an agreement to respond to
allegations of worker rights' violations.
At this very moment, while the Bush administration is pressing
to impose the free trade agreement of the Americas, unions across
central America are being wiped out as part of a campaign by
companies seeking to roll back any rights workers have won.
The US-based national labour committee is about to release dozens
of documented reports of worker rights struggles in Honduras,
Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Haiti, Bangladesh and China.
These are not just academic reports - they are calls to action
to support these workers in their struggle for dignity and justice.
Are we listening?
anitaroddick.com nlcnet.org
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