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How shoppers can help prevent Bangladesh-type disasters

Fri, 03 May 2013 11:45:00 +0000

While rescue workers continue to dig through the rubble of Rana Plaza, the collapsed Bangladeshi garment factory responsible for the deaths of 433 people (and counting), Americans are faced yet again with the stark reality of consumer culpability in these disasters.

Major clothing retailers like Wal-Mart, Joe Fresh, JCPenney and the Children's Place were each found to have subcontracted manufacturing to the crumbling factory in Savar, where workers were making an average of $38 a month and coerced to report to work even after the walls of the building were literally falling apart. In November, fire ravaged another garment factory near the capital city of Dhaka, leaving 112 dead. Again, pieces of clothing from Sears, the Walt Disney Co. and other major retailers were found among the scorched remains.

In the aftermath of such tragic, and preventable, losses of life, many consumers are left asking themselves what role they can play in discouraging disasters like this from happening again. And, fortunately, there are answers. The collective power of workers is a real thing, and the collective power of consumers is, too.

Sweatshops still make your clothes

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:36:00 +0000

It’s been 16 years since Charles Kernaghan made Kathie Lee Gifford cry on national television, revealing that her Wal-Mart-sold clothing line was produced by Honduran children working 20-hour shifts. It was an essential moment in bringing labor conditions in the developing world -- specifically in the garment industry -- to the attention of the American public.

But not that much has changed. Looking back on the movement and its achievements in an interview, Kernaghan sounds defeated, even as he reels off the list of horrific factories exposed by his Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights.

Kernaghan’s gloomy mood stems from the report he is writing now on a recent trip to Northern Bengal, where the Institute secretly met with workers from the Rosita and Megatex factories to follow up on a previous exposé. The two factories produce expensive sweaters for an array of European apparel companies, companies which assure their customers that the workers are guaranteed the core rights established by the International Labor Organization (ILO), including freedom of association and the elimination of child labor.

Universities dump Adidas over labor abuses

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:53:00 +0000

Top universities are dumping sportswear company Adidas over labor rights abuses. As the Nation reported, "Within the last three weeks, Cornell University and Oberlin College both decided to sever ties with Adidas for its refusal to pay $1.8 million in stolen severance pay from 2,800 workers who sewed its products at an Indonesian factory called PT Kizone. Wisconsin's attorney general and Adidas are entangled in a lawsuit after the University of Wisconsin threatened similar action."

The German sports apparel giant has faced a worldwide slew of strikes and protests over sweatshop conditions, wages and worker treatment. "PT Kizone workers rallied in Jakarta to demand Adidas pay the $1.8 million in severance, just hours before three million Indonesian factory workers went on strike to protest sweatshop conditions," reported the Nation, adding:

Is Adidas exploiting its workers?

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:40:00 +0000

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Am Phalla sits outside the factory gates of apparel maker Shen Zhou (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., sharing a lunch of rice, vegetables and fried fish with coworkers.

She has been sewing clothes at Shen Zhou for a little less than a year, but is unaware that the company, which produces Olympic merchandise for sportswear giant Adidas, is currently under investigation over allegations that it short changes its workers in places like Cambodia.

The London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (Locog) is conducting the investigation in response to a July 14 Daily Mail article, claiming Adidas is in violation of an agreement with Locog that merchandisers must pay workers a sustainable living wage. Full of quotes from Cambodian workers, the article contrasts their seemingly meager earnings with the relatively high cost of a single Adidas Olympic garment.