This Labor Day weekend is a natural opportunity to reflect on the state of work. Discourse of late has largely focused on workforce changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. But when we discuss this new landscape, we usually focus on the changes taking place closer to home, like the shift to remote work. What is getting lost is our collective focus on the work being done farther away — in our supply chains.
Just as COVID-19 changed the way office employees work, it also changed the atmosphere in factories around the world, impacting the ethics of global supply chains as production pressures shifted to adapt to the pressure cooker of a rapidly evolving crisis. According to the United Nations, as many as 160 million children are believed to be forced into child labor — an increase of more than 8 million since 2017. Opaque supply chains are a major contributor to this crisis. True transparency is rare, increasing risk of mistreatment of workers down the chain, 80% of whom are women.
Supply chains are the reason for the goods in our home, the coffee in our cabinets and the clothes we wear. And while sustainability in supply chains is growing increasingly popular among consumers, sustainable doesn’t mean ethical.
Workers process export products on the production line of a tourism outdoor goods enterprise. Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, China, June 20, 2020. (SIWEIJS/Future Publishing via Getty Imag)
Ethical is a bigger, more important word that includes prohibiting child labor and forced labor, operating with proper sanitization, conducting annual safety audits, having a grievance system for reporting dangerous conditions and more. In short, it means celebrating the worker as much as we celebrate sustainability. Printing the word “sustainable” on a clothing tag doesn’t guarantee that.
When I started my business, I had a vision that companies’ supply chains would reflect the values that the companies espouse publicly. Investors would reward businesses that prioritized safe and healthy working conditions, and consumers would decide that the exploitation of another wasn’t a reasonable price to pay for a cheap shirt.
I still hold that vision today. But after years of seeing the inner workings of this industry, I’ve learned that better isn’t always a linear upward path. One thing that’s clear is that while improving any aspect of the industry is great, changes can be more isolated than you’d think. When a factory switches from conventional to organic cotton, that’s a win. But if the line worker has had her passport taken by the factory so she can’t leave freely, or the company fails to provide a structurally sound building in which to work, the sustainable material switch won’t make much of a difference in her life.
Some factories are hot, poorly ventilated, and put employees at risk of injuries sparked by loud noise, repetitive motion or unprotected exposure to chemicals. Since January 2021 alone, at least 279 workers have been injured in garment and textile factories, and 131 have lost their lives.
There is also the risk of gender-based violence. In a 2019 study on the $34 billion Bangladeshi garment industry, 73.5% of workers reported experiencing or observing workplace violence in the previous four weeks. In a 2019 ActionAid survey, 80% of garment workers surveyed said they’d experienced or witnessed sexual violence and harassment at work, with 90% reporting that their job was negatively impacting their health. They reported witnessing colleagues fired for being pregnant, sexual assault on the factory floor and more.
A report published earlier this year by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre shared testimonies from 90 women who worked in 31 factories across three major garment industry hubs in India, a place where much of the world’s modern fashion is manufactured. The factories that employed these women were suppliers for at least 12 major global fashion brands. In the report, every single woman interviewed reported either experiencing or witnessing gender-based violence and harassment in their factories, often associated with whether they meet unreasonable production targets on the job. The report notes that pandemic-related production pressures have made the problem worse over the past two years.
As grim as this may sound, there is cause for optimism: Research suggests that if we prioritize the goal of safe work, other aspects of the industry could quickly improve along with it. Employers who focus on preventing workplace accidents and provide adequate ventilation, lighting, breaks and protective equipment can create a positive ripple effect on the health of workers’ families and entire communities. From an economic standpoint, investing in health and safety interventions tends to pay for itself in employee productivity, retention and competitive edge.
In my view, the key is to focus on progress, not perfection. This includes companies thoroughly vetting the working conditions of their suppliers and committing to bringing more production closer to home; consumers choosing products that are made without the taint of forced labor; and investors rewarding businesses for caring just as much about the operator embroidering the company’s tags as its corporate teammates collaborating on Zoom.
This weekend, as we honor the extraordinary contributions of the American laborer, let’s pledge to authentically extend the values we espouse publicly to the global supply chain.
Mosbacher Morris is the founder and CEO of To the Market and author of “Buy the Change You Want to See.”
Copyright © 2022, New York Daily News
Copyright © 2022, New York Daily News