What's Stopping Us?

Besides the reasons I've previously listed about convenience and price, there is also a certain stigma that surrounds advocating against issues. Unfortunately we live in a time and have lived in a time for quite a while where not caring is cool. Advocating for causes and issues is not seen as something admirable, instead it is seen as pretentious and annoying. "Tree Hugger" "Bible Thumper" are a couple names tossed around for those who care more than most about certain topics. This prevents a large amount of people from standing up for what they believe in and speaking for a cause, it limits our ability to get involved when we're constantly bashed for doing so. I think this is a way to deal with our insecurities about the issue, instead of admitting that sweatshops are a major problem and that we contribute to it daily we ignore it and bash those that acknowledge it. Hopefully as trends change it becomes more accepted to advocate for causes or people become more willing to speak their minds, because there is no room for progression with muffled opinions and ignorant remarks.
Really the only thing stopping change is us, we're the only ones who get to decide how important an issue is to us and it's our responsibility to do something about it.
Do you care? Do these facts bother you? If the thought of sweatshops and people your age and younger being forced to work under grueling conditions daily bothers you, then why aren't you doing anything about it? Progress is simple and so is change, what isn't simple is getting everybody involved, but shouldn't that be the easiest part? If you're looking for a way to make a difference, start today. Do some research, find a company that really pisses you off and talk about it to anyone willing to listen, What's stopping you?

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What Can You Do About It?

1. Raise Awareness
No progress will be made if it's not a talked about issue. We have to all not be okay with what is going on and stop ignoring the problem. If we're not against the current system at our end, we can never expect change on their end. We can't accept what is currently happening as a norm and carry on purchasing freely as if this doesn't matter.

2. Boycott
This is an extreme action and has arguably less of an impact than expected, however it relates to #1 with spreading awareness. If enough people were publicly unhappy with a current company and the way they choose to manufacture their products eventually they would be forced to comply with our wishes and the laws as they fell under public radar. Companies could get away with less and would be more inclined to change their ways as the image of their brand declined.

3. Buy Fair Trade
This is also something that may not be the easiest solution but it really is one of the only ones. Buying fair trade ensures that the products you purchase don't come from these horrible places, however it's more money and less convenient. It's unrealistic to expect that everyone can afford, has access to and is willing to purchase all fair trade products. It's going to take a dramatic shift in the way fair trade is sold, marketed and made available before it becomes a more popular trend.

4. Buy Secondhand
The damage has already been done, buying secondhand not only saves you money but it also doesn't support the large brands that use sweatshops. This is of course a temporary fix, it doesn't stop the mass productions but it does lessen the amount of purchases you make. This is more of a solution to a guilty conscience than anything, but it is somewhat beneficial.

5. Don't Say You Can't Do Anything

"When pressured, companies have demonstrated they can deliver products at good prices while providing fair wages and working conditions, as the recent example of hand-stitched leather soccer balls proved.

Pakistani children 6-14 years old were crammed into dirt-floored shacks, laboring over tiny stitches that crippled undeveloped fingers sewing six sides of 32 panels to create one "handmade" soccer ball. The ball would sell for $30-50 in America, and the child would receive about 30 cents. Balls were sold by Nike, Reebok, Adidas and other familiar names.

Consumer pressure led to the world governing body of soccer signing a code of conduct forbidding child labor or forced labor in soccer ball production. As a result, now Nike and Reebok plan to build soccer ball factories in Pakistan employing only adults and developing education programs for children. These programs will also employ other members of the family when children are removed from the factory."

There may not be any quick fixes or ways to end it all at once, but like most things it's something you have to work at. If everyone just cared a little bit more these problems would eventually be solved, but they aren't going to solve themselves. 

The main solution to these problems is to educate everyone as much as possible and don't stop talking about it until something is changed. 

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Bangladesh

One of the more recent scandals that took place was the building collapse in Bangladesh which killed around 400 people. The factory was run by Loblaws who faced a string of complaints of unsafe working conditions. Police had ordered an evacuation of the factory the day before the collapse due to large cracks in the wall and yet more than 2,000 workers returned for work the next day at the owner's request who was later arrested for this decision

With this in mind it isn't the full responsibility of Joe Fresh for this tragedy, however they play the largest role in the lack of regulations for the factory. They apologized and offered compensation for the families affected however this does nothing to correct the problems. This relates a lot to the mindset that Forever 21 holds with 'we'll fix it later'. They don't regulate the factory, they don't do regular check-ins and play no role in maintaining the facility. If this happened in North America the outrage would be ridiculous, yet this is something that most people my age have never heard of. As I've mentioned in the past the problem doesn't lie solely at the consumer level however we do have the responsibility for lack of a better phrase to give a shit. Loblaw still made a tremendous income and those 400 families are still suffering a loss of income and family member. This was a completely preventable situation that should never have happened and the worst part is that it will likely happen again.

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Brands Not To Avoid

These websites have listed the companies that don't supply from sweatshops. Most of these brands are very small and are lacking almost all of the major companies. The fact that the most popular brands are involved in the worst sweatshop scandals is extremely concerning to all of us. Have a look at some of these brands if you're looking to avoid supporting sweatshops:

http://www.veganpeace.com/sweatshops/GoodCompanies.htm

http://www.groundswell.org/6-quality-clothing-stores-that-dont-use-foreign-sweatshops/

http://humaneeducation.org/blog/2013/04/03/5-tips-keeping-sweatshop-free-closet/

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/05/08/1978501/consumers-shop-retailers-bangladesh/

The problem is that these brands aren't easily accessible, well known, or affordable. They exist to those who make it their main priority to avoid supporting sweatshops but not to the general public who are slightly less passionate. There will never be a solution if we don't make one. Unless products become easier to get and afford the incentive to stop purchasing from big name brands will never be there because the alternative is nearly impossible to rely on. Personally I purchase 90% of my household products at WalMart,  I have no means or knowledge of how to avoid it and no funds to start purchasing anywhere more expensive. It isn't an option for me to spend more, I simply could not afford to spend $5-$10 more per product. As much as the world advocates for change we don't really do much about it at a business level.

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What changed?

"As its moniker implies, Forever 21 targets college students, who belong to the very age group of those who crusaded for higher pay and better working conditions at apparel factories in the nineteen-nineties. The grand opening of F21 Red, however, was marked not by picketers but by customers who lined up early for gift cards. What changed?"  


In 1911, 146 workers died as a part of sweatshop fire in New York. In 1995 an apartment was raided in in El Monte, LA which revealed 70 Thai workers being held in slavery conditions sewing garments for well-known retailers. Students were outraged with concern, staging sit-ins and rallies to protest the mistreatment of workers and demanded change. Even in 2009 nearly a hundred universities protested Russell Athletic's and insisted recent workers who had been let go had been rehired. In the most recent years however a certain silence has been surrounding sweatshops, with much more private protests and less public awareness. It seems as though we have given up, however there are several factors that influence the quietness of this issue. The main reason being the economy-students don't want to risk having clothing prices hired. As selfish as it sounds, the price for clothing is 3-5x higher when manufactured at a salary regulated factory which is enough to cause most people to ignore the issue further. With tuition prices raised and the cost of living increasing it's an issue that will be present for many years to come without much opportunity for change.


The only other reason besides prices that I can think of is that it isn't happening here. Both of the above examples took place within the US as did the rallies and protests. America isn't Canada, and the third world countries are even further away which starts lack of compassion because it isn't directly effecting us. It's one of those things that we think "that's horrible." and that's about as far as it goes because nothing in our world is affected. But all of it is our world, and it's happening to people the same age as us with the same thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams and we refuse to acknowledge that this is a problem. We find ways to justify it to ourselves or completely let it slip our minds because it's not something we want to think about and address, but we have to. Students need to take the initiative, we make up so much of the consumer population and although we can't all fly to Bangladesh and shut down the factories ourselves we can let the companies know it's not alright. We can raise as much awareness as possible because half of the problem is not knowing, and everyone should know what is happening, even if isn't happening to you.

The sad reality is that nothing has changed, companies just got sneakier and students got quieter. We've gotten stuck in the mindset of 'what can I do about it?' and never bothered to find out the answer. But we are the answer, we are the only ones who can control what we buy and who we buy it from. How have we gotten so selfish that cheaper products have become more important than human lives? How are we able to justify wearing clothing that we know was manufactured in a place where human rights, lives and freedom are taken away every single day?

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Forever 21

  It isn't a surprise that this extremely cheap retailer has several flaws in need of addressing. However it's unique because it not only has sweatshop-like conditions in third world countries, it also has received lawsuits of the conditions near the company headquarters in LA. 
   In 2001 Forever 21 was sued for inhumane working conditions at a manufacturing factory in Los Angeles. The workers were payed way less than minimum wage, worked 12 or more hours 6 days a week and worked alongside many cockroaches and mice. A documentary called "Made in LA" was released describing people's experiences working in these conditions and won several awards, however made little progress at the consumer level. Many organizations have attempted to boycott F 21, but little impact was ever made. The problem lies within the target market-college students. As a member of this target group I can completely understand the justification process of purchasing from a store that sells 8$ jeans. No one makes a profit selling 8$ jeans unless it took them 2$ to make, we're not blind to the facts. However, with 90% of each paycheck going towards rent, food and paying back tuition, 8$ jeans can not only feel tempting, but necessary. With a flakey, changing, and generally poor target market Forever 21 has branded themselves in an amazing way, selling cheap clothing but maintaining a socially acceptable brand name, and with this success comes power.
"I realized that they've been caught so many times, they've been publicly exposed so many times, they've even been sued — although many fewer times, because all they do is settle — and the light bulb went off: This is just part of their business strategy. They go ahead and they take what they want, and when they get caught, they pay up. It's probably cheaper than licensing it in the first place." -Susan Scafadi, Legal Expert. 

Forever 21 has launched new stores called F21 Red, producing even cheaper clothing. 
What amazes me most about this company's issues is that they are happening in North America and still no one cares. This is a problem that's happening in our backyard and it still isn't deemed important enough for us to change our shopping habits. "Up to 30 percent of the store's offerings are still made in Southern California. One Los Angeles factory worker told Bloomberg BusinessWeek she was paid 12 cents a piece to sew vests that sell for $13.80. It would take 67 vests an hour to earn $8 minimum wage."

So what do you think? How should we respond to these allegations and law suits, do we urge for a boy cot or accept that we value clothing more than lives? 
Let me know in the comments below.

Main Source:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-secret-behind-forever-21s-dirt-cheap-clothing-2012-2#ixzz3V9LkhMXw

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GAP- Guilty And Proud

GAP and associating brands including Old Navy and Banana Republic are guilty of having suppliers from some of the worst human working conditions. They currently are responsible for over 75% of total production at the New Collections Limited factory in Ashulia, Bangladesh where 3,750 workers are being forced to work over 100 hour weeks with little to no pay. It has been a publicly known fact for 2 and a half years and minimal efforts (if any) have been made to fix this problem. A 20 year old woman recently lost her baby during her seventh month of pregnancy due to an extreme amount of hours worked, while working on Old Navy jeans. The following is an executive summary of an article released by globallabourrights.org who did extensive research on Old Navy's partnership with New Collections Limited. 

"Executive Summary

Next Collections Sweatshop, part of the Ha-Meem Group in Bangladesh

• The 3,750-worker Next Collections factory in Ashulia, Bangladesh on the outskirts of Dhaka is part of the Ha-Meem Group, Bangladesh’s second largest garment exporter which owns 26 factories and employs over 30,000 workers.
• At the Next Collections sweatshop, approximately 70 percent of production is for Gap and Old Navy.  Gap is the largest specialty apparel chain in the U.S.
• Next Collections workers are forced to toil 14- to 17-plus-hour shifts, seven days a week, routinely putting in workweeks of over 100 hours.  Workers are visibly sick and exhausted from the grueling and excessive hours.
• Workers live in poverty, earning just 20 to 24 cents per hour.
• Physical punishment and illegal firings are the norm.
• Pregnant women are illegally terminated and denied their legal paid maternity leave.
• For the last two-and-a-half years, Gap has been complicit with Next Collections/Ha-Meem Group in a scam to defraud the workers of their legal wages and benefits.

─ Management hands out phony pay slips to pretend that Gap is in compliance with legal hours and wages.
─ Workers are paid in cash, off the books and cheated of 15 percent of their grueling overtime hours.  At Next Collections alone, workers are being robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and millions if one includes all the factories of the Ha-Meem Group.

• Workers live in miserable poverty in tiny primitive hovels.  By the third week in a month, most have no money left for food.
• Bangladesh garment workers continue to be the hardest workers in the world and are also among the poorest."

Unlike Nike I had a very hard time finding any statements given from the company and overall it publicly seems they have simply ignored it this far. As one of the top US retailers, they have consumer power not to address the current situation and it's not as if many people seem to mind. 

In 1999 GAP was on of 18 companies caught in a major lawsuit against the mistreatment of workers in Saipan, resulting in a $20 million compensation payment to the workers.

In 2004 a report was released by the CEO of GAP stating that GAP was addressing the problem head on and released a 40 page report outlining the steps they planned on taking. 

In 2007 the police raided an illegal manufacturing factory that kept 18 children between the ages of 8 and 15 with little to no pay. The children were forced to work and were rescued by a reporter who pretended to be a fashion boutique owner from London. Police rescued the children and reunited them with there families, but the troubling part was that GAP was supposedly aware of all of this and agreed to continue gaining supplies from them. 

In 2014 it appeared that GAP had finally took matters seriously and launched an investigation to there Bangladesh supplier. The full report is in the link below, but it appears that GAP has at least become aware of the major problems existing. People are being threatened death, sexual and physical abuse, many are not just threatened. Pregnant women are being forced to work up to 23 hours a day, and in some documented cases their unborn children are dying. GAP has launched investigations and has attempted to address these problems by firing those in charge of the factory, raising wages and surveying employees to see what they felt needed to be improved most. However, at the end of the report it states that not much has actually changed and many workers are back to working in there poor conditions. It will be an uphill battle to abolish sweatshops completely but I was pleasantly surprised to know that attempts were being made. GAP, in my opinion, is one of the shadier companies in regards to the fact that they make up 75% of sales from these factories therefore having the power to dictate what goes on there based on the fact that without them as a client the factory would have no demands. Even with this power the sweatshop continues to mistreat, abuse, scam and over work thousands of people every single day. As the third largest retailer in the world GAP has the power and the duty to correct what is going on in their factories consistently. I feel compelled to insist that until GAP gains a sense of morals they should not be receiving a ton of negative publicity from consumers. 

http://www.globallabourrights.org/alerts/gap-next-collections-bangladesh 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1567849/Gap-sweatshop-children-saved-in-India-raid.html

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Nike

Let's start with Nike- a popular, generally respected sports brand that takes up a large space in my closet and sports equipment. I found the information horrifying, I've chosen not to go into extreme detail because it's not really necessary in order to make an impact. Nike remains defensive on it's involvement with sweatshops and child labour and have worked hard to keep there hands clean legally.
"'By far our worst experience and biggest mistake was in Pakistan, where we blew it,' the report said. In 1995 Nike said it thought it had tied up with responsible factories in Sialkot, in Pakistan, that would manufacture well-made footballs and provide good conditions for workers. Instead, the work was sub-contracted round local villages, and children were drawn into the production process. Now, it insisted, any factory found to be employing a child must take that worker out of the factory, pay him or her a wage, provide education and re-hire them only when they were old enough.
Mistakes, however, continue to happen. In recent years, Nike has been criticized for its employment of child labor in Cambodia, but the company defended itself by saying fake evidence of age could be bought in Cambodia for as little as $5." (http://commondreams.org/headlines01/1020-01.htm)
Along with this scandal the following were documented:

• Nike was caught with the use of sweatshops in the 90s, Jim Keady (who was a coach of a University) resigned because he refused to endorse Nike based on the released information after a deal was made.  This brought Nike into the spotlight and the company promised to put more consideration on their suppliers.
• In 2001 Nike was caught  by BBC using sweatshops again in Cambodia with children working 16+ hour days.
• Nike once again promised a solution, they personally audited each manufacturing location and gave them an average 'B' rank.
• In 2011 it was discovered that Nike operated over 2/3 of its factories as sweatshops.
• Currently Nike is still documented to be operating sweatshops that allow rape and beating as a form of employee control, since most workers are female in certain countries.
• In 2012 a factory in Thailand was found to be highly carcinogenic.

Nike has issued several statements explaining that they don't intend for these problems to happen and they certainly don't condone it. As mentioned above, it is extremely easy for third world countries to forge birth documents and get employed at a young age which in turn should not reflect the intentions of the company. However, with all of the released information and current problems it's safe to safe that although Nike may not want there manufacturers to work in poor conditions, they certainly aren't doing much about it.
The problem in my opinion isn't simply with the company itself. In the past Nike was criticized for their support in child labour and poor working conditions however they do seem to be addressing it as best as they can given the circumstances, which is something I will discuss in further detail in a later post. Nike is definitely guilty of causing and supporting human rights issues, but they aren't completely to blame and the only real solution isn't at a consumer or even retailer level.

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Brands To Avoid

Here are a list of companies that either have confirmation or extreme allegations that they currently supply from sweat shops. (Including child labour)

1.Nestle                      
2.Joe Fresh                
3.Children's Place    
4.Wal Mart              
5. Gap                    
6.H&M                    
7. Victoria's Secret  
8. La Senza              
9. Forever 21          
10. Aeropostale      
11. Toys R Us        
12. Disney              
13. Sears                
14. Nike                                                  
15. Nordstorm        
16. Gymboree
17. J.Crew
18. American Apparel
19. Abercrombie & Fitch
20. Adidas
21. Kraft
22. Dole
23. Converse
24. Billabong
25. Ann Taylor
26. Banana Republic
27. Dickies
28. Fila
29. Jansport
30. Ralph Lauren
31. Speedo
32. The North Face
33. Columbia
34. DKNY
35. Esprit
36. Fairtrade
37. JC Penny
38. Levi's
39. Macy's
40. Old Navy
41. Puma
42. Reebok
43. Tommy Hilfiger
44. Ikea
45. Kohl's
46. Pier 1 Imports
47. Calvin Klein

These are just a few of the many that I feel are extremely relevant to my demographic of consumers. I own at least 1 of something from every one of these brands and I wasn't aware just how many companies actually made this list. Our entire retail market is dominated by sweatshop supporting companies, and I do agree that as consumers we aren't given many alternatives. I will go into more detail of particular headlining brands in following posts and I will admit that their is a small window of chance that few of these companies are either wrongfully accused or have since cleaned up their act, however I can confidently say that the largest brands listed here have the largest amount to hide.

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Chosen Ignorance

We're not dumb, we know exactly why some jeans cost 50$ and others cost $8. We aren't ignorant enough to believe that Walmart just wants to make less of a profit, or happens to find cheaper suppliers. We know how, we know why, and we still buy.

I chose this topic because I read a few articles of recent tragedies involving child labour and sweatshops and I realized how real this issue is and how it's happening right now, in several parts of the world to people exactly like me. I understand the necessity of a job and as I stood in my Tim Horton's visor complaining about my life I realized that people my age and even younger are forced to work in devastating situations for hours that far surpass my 8. We know how lucky we are, but do we actually? Do we realize that we live in a place that is so different than 90% of the world who fear for their life every single day? Who have to work 22 hours a day, 6 days a week while being mistreated and abused to simply survive?

When I first chose this topic I had a very strong opinion that the companies choosing to knowingly support sweat shops were scum and consumers were undeniably selfish. However with further research I did realize it wasn't that simple, Chosen ignorance is the theme of this blog, the mentality that what we don't know can't hurt us. Most North American consumers are unaware of the hell-like conditions thousands of people are forced to work under every day, yet the resources to know about this exists everywhere. We all have a basic knowledge of where our clothes come from, but how often do we stop to think about it while we put on our clothes in the morning, or when we're at the mall?

The point of this blog isn't to guilt trip you every time you feel like shopping, but to encourage you to think and talk about it. The solution doesn't lie solely at a consumer level, but the only way to take it further is if we as a whole demand a change. Boycotting a company or only buying 'fair trade' products brings up a string of problems that would inevitably cause a chain-like reaction to more and more problems. The poverty stricken countries rely on exporting mass amounts of products to North America and other continents that purchase from these sweatshops. Simply boycotting the main company supporter of a certain sweatshop would only lead to worse conditions, lower pay, and a poorer economy for the country as the factory struggles to make ends meet. If more and more people demanded that certain companies regulate the standards of who they supply from, the solution would be at the retail level. These major name companies are responsible for knowing the working conditions of their suppliers and regulating the conditions, As many of these large companies own more than 70% of the products being produced from these sweatshops, they have the power and the duty to demand better for everyone involved.

We've all just gotten stuck with the question of 'what can I do about it?' and never bothered to find out the answer.

Have any ideas? Let me know if you agree/disagree or have any sugeestions below:

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