The pictures of Joe Fresh labels amid the rubble of a collapsed factory complex in Bangladesh have caused many Canadians to think about their place in the global supply chain. As well they should. At last count, at least 500 people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured, after bosses reportedly ignored an evacuation order.
There isn’t much point in feeling vaguely guilty about the fact that we can buy $14 shoes, and continuing to buy them while trying not to think about it. Conversely, there isn’t much point in refusing to buy them and feeling self-righteous about it. We shouldn’t try to remain blissfully ignorant of the connection between consumers in Canada and workers in Bangladesh; neither should we try to sever that connection.
We should strengthen that connection and use it for good.
Boycotts do have their place, for specific products or specific countries, when there’s a political goal to be achieved and a reasonable expectation that a boycott will achieve it. It makes no sense, though, to adopt a buy-local approach to clothing as a way to protest working conditions in developing and emerging countries. The ideological battle over sweatshops is long over and the sweatshops won.
Countries are emerging from poverty all around the world and industrialized, low-cost labour is one reason for that. Even if we could force countries such as China and Korea to revert to small-scale agriculture and rural poverty, why would we?
The existence of a garment industry is not a sufficient condition for economic success; if it were, Haiti wouldn’t still be mired in poverty. But if anything ever helps Haiti rise out of that poverty, it will likely be its garment industry. A sweatshop job is better than no job at all.
But that isn’t where the conversation stops. A recognition that workers in Bangladesh will not be paid Canadian wages does not mean we shrug at clear human-rights violations such as child labour or unsafe workplaces.
Neither does it mean that wages and working conditions must remain stuck where they are in any country, or that the global economy is dependent on the existence of winners and losers. Working conditions and wages can improve when employers start having to compete for workers, especially if those workers organize.
Yes, relatively low wages attract companies. But once an industrial cluster springs up in an emerging country, the region can remain attractive to companies for other reasons, such as expertise or the regulatory and taxation environment.
Conditions can also improve when citizens in emerging economies demand regulation and legal protection from their governments. And conditions can improve when employers, and their international partners, are embarrassed into it.
That’s where we come in. Multinational corporations have a duty to maintain rigorous audits and inspections, to change practices and partners when they don’t live up to the company’s stated standards, and to pay compensation when accidents happen. We can demand accountability, as consumers and citizens, from Canadian companies that produce their goods in other countries.
An independent and powerful ombudsman for the Canadian resource sector would be an excellent way to increase transparency and accountability — and to improve Canada’s international corporate image.
One of the best ways companies can demonstrate their desire to not be evil is to be as transparent as possible of their own accord. The layers of suppliers and sub-contractors can make corporate connections murky, until someone films an undercover documentary or finds a label in wreckage. After a fire in a Bangladesh factory last year, Walmart said it didn’t even know its products were being produced there. It has since made efforts to improve its monitoring of its supply chain.
So Joe Fresh deserves the credit it’s getting for making a statement right away about its involvement in the factory that collapsed. That doesn’t absolve it of the duty to improve conditions and demand better from its partners, but it is a good start.
I’m not going to stop buying clothes made in Bangladesh. But I will be watching to see what steps clothing retailers take to improve safety standards there.
