It’s been some time that I’ve
been pondering this topic- not just about the garment industry, but about
ethical consumerism in general. These conversations date back 10 years to
debates with a friend about globalization and how the export of labor is just plain
smart business. Topics followed such as thoughts about food security and
conversations around buying local.
Two discussions really stuck in
my mind above all others. The first was more than a discussion, more like a
retreat at which was broached the topic of “love and concern for our neighbor”
even if they lived on the other side of the world. The speaker used Gandi’s
“non-violent” language to give a voice to the human beings around the world who
suffer at our hands by the products we consume. He played through just a single
morning- waking up to our alarm clock, lying in our 600 thread count bamboo
sheets. And then the questions began: “ Where did that bamboo come from? Who
sewed the sheets? What country do they live in? Are they poor, do they have hungry
mouths to feed, do their kids go to school? Are they treated fairly in their
work? Are they abused, wounded in the process? What about the metal used to
hold your bed frame together? Where did it come from? Africa maybe? Who minded
it? How many people have died in that mine? What do they get paid in a month?
And on and on through just a single morning.
It was overwhelming to walk through the start
of a day like that- being faced with the reality that the vast majority of the
items that we wear or are in our homes that we take for granted were made on
the backs of someone we’ve never met- will never know. The speaker stepped
back, reminding us not to be overcome by these things, but just to slowly be
transformed, slowly changed and slowly come to see those people we’ve never met
who harvest our coco-beans and our coffee and our diamonds as brothers and
sisters. But he closed with that
reference to Gandhi in saying that by our naïve actions or inaction, we do violence
to those people, and that’s wrong.
The other
was a conversation I had with a roommate I once had. She told me that her
mother had taken a very strict stance on chocolate after she had read an
article about the unethical practices that riddle the cocoa industry. The article asked the reader to use their
imagination, and picture a bloody handprint. Now, it said, picture that
handprint on everything that you might purchase, that hurt someone in the
process of its production. Imagine that chocolate bar with a bloody handprint
wrapped around it. Not so appealing now is it. This same roommate inspired me
with her own commitment to buying clothing that she knew was sewn ethically.
She had a practice of asking the people at the till if they knew anything about
where the garment was made. Most of the time, the answer was no- as has been
the response in my own questioning at places like David’s Tea and Lululemon.
These are
hard topics with even harder more convoluted answers. Below is some of the
reading that I’ve done and articles that I found. Mostly I’ve let the articles
themselves do the talking by quoting pieces and then siting the URL address
below.
In these
musings, I’ve realized that ignorance can really be bliss. Sometimes I don’t
like how wide open my eyes have become to what the world is really like. But,
it’s the better way. I fail miserably at abiding by the things I preach (for
example, had a Nestcafe’ at the school cafeteria today- so much for my “Boycott
Nestle’). But I’m trying, and my hope is that we all embrace a little more
expanded horizon.
This blog
thought came about after making a trip to the Children’s and Women’s hospital
which is right in the heart of one of the big garment sectors in Dhaka. Lots of
the women seen at this hospital work in the garment industry. Almost all of
them are dirt poor. Their jobs require them to work long shifts, often cutting their
breastfeeding short, and leaving their kids at home. Many of them are widowed
or have deadbeat husbands who left them. It’s a sad scene. And it made me think
about the garment industry in general.
In November
112 people died in a horrific factory fire. Since we’ve been here, there’s been
more fires. This calls to question the safety standards and what the current
political and ethical take on the matter is. Below are articles about the fire, about
Walmart’s unfortunate tie into all of it, about the empowerment of women, about
globalization, and about what we can do as consumers.
In commenting about the Nov 2012 Fire:
“Nova also called Walmart’s role in the 2011 Dhaka meeting
“especially revealing.” He described Walmart’s position as “1) We know these
factories are unsafe. 2) We know it will cost substantial sums to make them
safe. 3) We are not going to pay for this. 4) We are going to keep using the
factories anyway.”
“Walmart’s greed and arrogance appear to be boundless,” said
Nova. This is a company that siphons billions in subsidies from US taxpayers,
that has made billions in profits on the backs of Bangladeshi workers, then
scoffs at the notion that it should be asked to pay one dime to protect those
workers from dying in factory fires while they sew Walmart clothes.”
"These
are workers who make clothes for the world's leading brands, so it's expected
that they should have international standards in these factories," he
said. "But since 2006, 600 factory workers have died in fires
like this one."
Bangladesh
has about 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The
country annually earns about $20bn from exports of garment products, mainly to
the US and Europe.
Testimonials of women who work in these
factories:
“I have been working [here] for more than a year.
Auditors visit the factory but there is no visible change in our working
conditions [...] I have been having a constant leg pain since I joined. I have
complained to the supervisors but have not got time off to see the doctor.”
“Throughout the interview of the workers conducted
by the social auditor, management kept a strict vigil. I was not comfortable at
all while conversing with the auditors. I was so scared by the management's
presence that under pressure I even gave wrong answers.
So, just because a company says they
do routine audits or investigations doesn’t actually mean that anything
changes. It sounds good, people will buy it, but are changes actually being
implemented or not? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Unfortunately I’d guess no is
the more predominant answer.
Being ethical is trendy, just like
being Green is trendy. I once asked Severn Suzuki- David Suzuki’s daughter what
she thought about this. She said “go with whatever works!” If people are buying
the local hemp t-shirt to be cool, they’re still buying the local hemp t-shirt.
I had to agree. But, the problem comes when companies used these current terms
like “ethical” and “fair trade” as solely marketing tools with no real outcomes
behind them.
A
blog by a woman who has spent months in Bangladesh trying to understand the
industry and its effect on women:
“Women workers
offer cheap, and easily exploited, labour force that allows the Bangladeshi
garment industry to compete in the global market. While studies have shown that
women’s employment in Bangladesh’s export-oriented garment industry has
narrowed the gender gap in many spheres including participation in labour
force, social prestige, control over income and decision making, there remains
widespread gender discrimination in wage rates and social working conditions.”
“The most detrimental, and most tabooised, social impact of
women’s
employment in the export-oriented garment industry of
Bangladesh is sexual violence and abuse, which the female workers at the bottom
of the assembly-line work-chains are a particular high-risk group. Dhaka Police
reports have shown that whereas, female garment workers account for only two to
three percent of the total population of women in the metropolitan area of
Dhaka, whereas they account for 11 percent of rape cases. Besides the
exploitative nature of their work, workplace and supervisors, this is partly
due to their unsafe long commutes home to the poorer slum areas where they tend
to reside. These rape cases make suicide rates among female garment factory
workers shockingly high.”
This is a great blog. She speaks
from direct experience that isn’t tainted by an “industry” perspective. A lot
of the arguments that are “pro” cheap labor speak to the fact that these women
literally have NO other way of gaining an income. What’s better? Them starving
to death, or them at least being able to make a little bit of money to keep
themselves and their children alive. It’s a hard pill to swallow. The article
below, “ in praise of cheap labor” speaks to this issue as well.
Thoughts
on globalization- maybe there is a positive spin on it all? It’s an inevitable
process- the exporting of cheap labor. It’s an unfortunate step towards growth
and progress for any developing country. Look at China, or even India. China
has changed SO much even in my lifetime. They are no longer considered a
“developing nation” and India is close behind. They are now exporting a lot of
their cheap labor to places like, well, unfortunately, Bangladesh. It’s these poor countries that are lagging
behind that make things even worse for them. There’s even more demand from more
countries that have climbed the ladder and want cheap crap. Sad.
I’ve
heard rumors that countries like India are actually being encouraged (by big
countries like the US) to keep neighboring countries (like Bangladesh) stunted
enough so as to maintain a cheap labor market here. I believe it. But the most
unfortunate piece is that is keeps this country on the cusp- it could go either
way, becoming just another Afghanistan or rising up like China.
“Such moral outrage is common
among the opponents of globalization--of the transfer of technology and capital
from high-wage to low-wage countries and the resulting growth of
labor-intensive Third World exports. These critics take it as a given that
anyone with a good word for this process is naive or corrupt and, in either
case, a de facto agent of global capital in its oppression of workers here and
abroad.”
Bangladesh
is considered one of the worst countries for standards in factories. Being
here, we’ve observed only a small portion of the absolutely rampant corruption here.
The stories are unbelievable. Stories of nice cars getting imported and on the
delivery route somewhere the motor and all other parts get swapped out for
pieces of junk. Stories of drivers funneling gas out of engines, selling it for
1/4th the cost and then asking for more gas money. There’s heaps of construction always going on
here as well. Just last night Karen was telling us about concrete. She was
talking to a guy about how to get your hands on good concrete. It’s cut and cut
and cut and filler is added so many steps down the line that you have no idea
what you’re actually getting in the end.
Because of
the corruption, it’s hard to put the sole blame on big companies. So you invest
20M in redoing the wiring in some factory. Is it really plausible that that
money is actually going to get used for what it’s supposed to? Highly unlikely.
There will be payoffs and bribes and pilfering. Lots of these factories are so
shoddily built in the first place that trying to backtrack now and do upkeep is
virtually impossible. You may as well
start over which most companies aren’t to willing to budget for. The corruption keeps this country to stunted
on so many fronts.
It’s a
tough one. I think there’s a little bit of truth to all of this. Yes we’re a
globalized economy, yes it’s a step in the right direction for women. But no,
it’s not Ok for women to be sexually harassed while in the industry, no it’s
not OK for Walmart’s bottom dollar to keep getting bigger on the backs of these
workers.
I think we can all start asking questions and building
awareness about these issues.
Change happens frightfully
slowly- something I can’t stand! But we can start by researching the brands we
like, asking questions of managers at the shops we enter, and by making
informed choices. And mostly, by not buying cheap crap we don’t need. I
think this is one of the biggest ways that we can create change- by investing
in quality products not throw away pieces of junk. It’s the 5$ Tshirts that you
wear once that are made in the worst garment factories. If we use our resources to invest in companies
that value quality and high standards, we’re making a difference. You can bet
that companies that have high standards for quality treat their employees a lot
better- you can’t have a good product which still treating your workers like
crap. The two go hand in hand. But the bottom line is addressing our excessive
consumerism in general.
I realize as I write, that these
choices can be made only by people who can afford to make them. Maybe shopping
at Target or Walmart is the only way to put shoes on your kids feet. It’s actually a privilege to be able to
consider these things. Even in our own country and in the US, there are vast
numbers who still live paycheck to paycheck and are barely making ends meet.
The unemployment rates are still so high.
I think
everyone has to embrace their own take on the issue. I know that I for one am
guilty of “preaching” about things like this, and then not taking the necessary
steps to do something about it in my own life. What about the issue of oil?
Some of us (me) love to get all riled up about the proposed pipeline, but am I
prepared to embrace a world without oil? Am I ready to give up my car, pay way
more for food, and not be able to get on a plane to see my family- or come her
to Bangladesh? I want to avoid being a hypocrite at all costs- so please, this
isn’t me telling you what you should do.
The only person I really need to speak to is me, and so I’ll start
there.
Heidi
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