The Law of Work
  • Home
  • About
  • Professor David Doorey
  • Osgoode Hall LLM
  • Books
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
  • Home
  • About
  • Professor David Doorey
  • Osgoode Hall LLM
  • Books
  • Guest Contributors
  • Useful Links
    • Archive
The Law of Work
Law of Work Archive

Is Your Olympic Apparel Clothing Made In a Sweatshop?

by David Doorey January 19, 2010
written by David Doorey January 19, 2010

clearingThe Vancouver Olympics are days away.  It’s a nice time to reflect on the conditions of work in the hundreds of factories around the world where Olympic branded apparel is manufactured.  Here’s a great report called Clearing the Hurdles that considers the state of working conditions in the apparel industry.
One the eve of the Beijing Olympics, a coalition of NGOs and unions asked leading apparel producers what steps they were taking to ensure the conditions of work in their supplier factories satisfied a list of factors that the coalition asserted are ‘hurdles’ to decent labour conditions in the apparel industry. (Here  is the letter that was sent to the brands). The result of the survey  was just released in a fancy, cool website format.  It is a very impressive piece of work.  In fact, there is so much in this publication, that it will take me some time to read and reflect on for my own research in this field.  The remarkable people at Toronto’s Maquila Solidarity Network were involved.
Start with a quick look at the short video that accompanies the report.
The report identified four key ‘hurdles’ that companies needed to address to improve working conditions in their supplier factories.  It asked the companies (including Nike, Adidas, Puma, New Balance, and others) what steps they were taking to address these issues:
1.Develop a positive climate for freedom of association and collective bargaining;
2.Eliminate the use of precarious employment in sportswear supply chains;
3.Lessen both the frequency and negative impacts of factory closures;
4. Take steps to improve worker incomes, with the goal of reaching a living wage for all workers.
A colour-coded chart summarizing the companies’ responses to the various key criteria in the survey is found here. See what the companies said in response to the factors listed in the report.  As I said, there is too much here to cover in a blog post.  I will only refer to two issues here:  ‘living wages‘ and ‘pricing‘.
Will the firms ensure workers are a paid a ‘living wage’? Only Pentland claimed the workers were paid a living wage (I don’t know if Pentland actually does ensure a living wage).  The other companies said they will not commit to a living wage.  The living wage is a measure that attempts to cost out a bundle of goods to estimate what a worker in a particular community needs to pay for the basics of life.  Many companies challenge how the living wage is calculated and verified, but also reject it as a principle, as do many governments in developing countries, who see it as an attempt to destroy the comparative advantage in low wages that their workers enjoy.

Should workers be guaranteed a ‘living wage’?

Will you ensure prices are sufficient to pay a living wage? Now that’s an interesting one.   Remember that companies like Nike don’t actually ’employ’ people to make their clothes or shoes (with some exceptions).  They contract with other companies to make the clothes.  The issue this question gets at is whether Nike (and the others) actually pay the suppliers enough money to enable the suppliers to pay their workers a decent amount and comply with labour laws, and still make a profit.  If not, then the suppliers have no way of complying with labour laws: they either go out of business, or pay very low wages (benefits, etc) to make a small profit.  The labour activists are now after information that would enable them to assess what role the major brand companies play in pressuring suppliers to keep labour conditions crappy.
Not surprisingly, the companies aren’t eager to give out this costing information.  Nike, though, claims it might support training for unions on how to cost products!  I’d love to go to a training session on supply chain costing put on by Nike for union organizers.  Where do I sign up for that.  [Caitlin, can I come?]   Of course, companies refused vehemently to disclose the identify and location of their factories for decades too, but now many companies do give out this information (I’ve explained this development before).  So, who knows.

What do you think about the idea of pressuring companies to disclose the tender prices for goods sourced from factories as a means of learning whether the amounts being paid for orders are actually driving down wages and labour conditions?

Check out the report.  There’s lots of good information in it.

0 comment
0
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is Academic Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. Professor Doorey is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B., Ph.D), London School of Economics (LLM Labour Law), and the University of Toronto (B.A., M.I.R.).

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

previous post
Guest Blog: Secunda on Regulating Captive Audience Meetings in the U.S.
next post
Thanks for the plug Y-File

You may also like

This Blog Entry is About the Lunacy of...

July 21, 2019

A Cross Country Update on the Card-Check versus...

October 3, 2018

The Folly of Not Voting to Strike in...

September 16, 2018

Unifor Posts Photos of Replacement Workers as Gander...

September 10, 2018

A Wrongful Dismissal Case and the Absence of...

August 29, 2018

China Said to Quickly Withdraw Approval for New...

August 27, 2018

The Latest Hot E-Commerce Idea in China: The...

August 27, 2018

The Trump Administration Just Did Something Unambiguously Good...

August 27, 2018

Unstable Situations Require Police In Riot Gear Face...

August 27, 2018

Trump’s War on the Justice System Threatens to...

August 27, 2018

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 338 other subscribers

Follow Us On Social Media

Twitter

Latest Tweets

David J. Doorey🇨🇦Follow

Law Prof. Talking #labor & #employment #law #Gig to the masses. Alpaca ❤️ @YorkUniversity @OsgoodeNews @LSELaw @LWPHarvard @Jacobin @OnLaborBlog https://t.co/5V9r8VPHsh

David J. Doorey🇨🇦
Retweet on TwitterDavid J. Doorey🇨🇦 Retweeted
jamesbrad263Brad James@jamesbrad263·
7h

@TheLawofWork @OFLabour Thanks for giving me space on your blog last December to bloviate and whine about this broad topic: https://lawofwork.ca/james_whysoquiet/

Reply on Twitter 1559880762480070657Retweet on Twitter 15598807624800706571Like on Twitter 1559880762480070657Twitter 1559880762480070657
TheLawofWorkDavid J. Doorey🇨🇦@TheLawofWork·
8h

It is rather striking that the @OFLabour is not leading a charge for improved access to collective bargaining.

Emphasizing improved labor standards over collective bargaining rights.

Brad James@jamesbrad263

Private sector union membership is slipping. Ways to address that could include better rights for employees to form unions (as BC has done) or building a broader-based bargaining system for franchise workers. But those aren't in this list of goals from Ontario's union federation. https://twitter.com/OFLabour/status/1559242326391791616

Reply on Twitter 1559872838995218437Retweet on Twitter 1559872838995218437Like on Twitter 15598728389952184374Twitter 1559872838995218437
Retweet on TwitterDavid J. Doorey🇨🇦 Retweeted
greenhousenytSteven Greenhouse@greenhousenyt·
22h

Breaking- NLRB says workers at Amazon warehouse in Albany NY area file petition for union election for 400 workers to join Amazon Labor Union

Reply on Twitter 1559661375890268163Retweet on Twitter 1559661375890268163182Like on Twitter 1559661375890268163930Twitter 1559661375890268163
Load More...

Categories

  • Alberta
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Australia
  • British Columbia
  • Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Childcare
  • Class Action
  • Climate and Just Transition
  • Collective Bargaining
  • Common Law of Employment
  • Comparative Work Law
  • competition law
  • construction
  • COVID-19
  • Diversity
  • Employee Classification
  • Employment Insurance
  • Employment Regulation
  • Europe
  • Financial Industry
  • Fissured Work
  • Freedom of Association
  • frustration of contract
  • Gig Work
  • Health and Safety
  • Health Care
  • Human Rights
  • Immigration
  • Interest Arbitration
  • International Law
  • Labour Arbitration
  • Labour Economics
  • Law of Work Archive
  • Legal Profession
  • Manitoba
  • Migrant Workers
  • Minimum Wage
  • Nova Scotia
  • OLRB
  • Ontario
  • Pension Bankruptcy
  • Privacy
  • Public Sector
  • Quebec
  • Real Life Pleadings
  • Saskatchewan
  • Scholarship
  • Sports Labour
  • Strikes and Lockouts
  • Student Post
  • Supreme Court of Canada
  • technology
  • Transnational Law
  • Uncategorized
  • Unions and Collective Bargaining
  • United States
  • Videos
  • Women and Work
  • Wrongful Dismissal
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Guest Contributors
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive
Menu
  • Legal Scholarship
  • Useful Links
  • Archive

2020. Canadian Law of Work Forum. All Rights Reserved.