Selling+Our+Souls+for+Fashion+-+The+Global+Village+Myth

= =
 * Name: Jacinta Wildman **
 * Student Number: N7179138 **
 * Tutor: Abbey Diaz **
 * Topic: Blood, Sweat and T-shirts **

media type="custom" key="24294188" align="center"

** “Triangle Returns” – Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights ** This video, distributed by the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights highlights the appalling conditions of factory workers in developing countries like Bangladesh. The short documentary reveals that simple changes to labour laws and workplace health and safety regulations, which were made within two months of a large fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in the United States in 1911 still had not been brought in to regulate the sweatshops in developing countries in 2011. Charles Kernaghan, the Director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights is the narrator and passionately speaks of the need for these laws and regulations to be brought in to greatly improve the lives of third world factory workers.

** “Why should we care about sweatshop workers in third world countries?” ** The use of cheap contract and child labour and the exploitation of people living in poverty is a worldwide public health issue. The inhumane living conditions within specially regulated areas of developing countries known as ‘Export Processing Zones’ – where workers sleep under their sewing machines, work three overnight shifts in a row without making it home in between – and often, according to Naomi Klein die of exhaustion, directly oppose the transparency and accountability which underpin the public health system that we, as a western society automatically assume large corporations taking advantage of these impoverished areas of the world, would adhere to. By blindly believing their brands create a “Global Village” which Naomi Klein describes as a term “used to glamourize the use of cheap contract labour by super brands” these large companies are able to take advantage of the world’s poorest countries, not level out the global market with increased jobs and opportunities as they would have us believe.

** What do the experts say? Is it really an issue? ** Transparency and accountability are key terms when considering an ethical framework that could be used in public health care, but not terms which could ever be used to describe the working conditions of third world factory staff. They work all day (and all night sometimes) to try and earn what little money they can to feed their families while the companies they sew and sweat for, make millions if not billions, of dollars. In her piece in The Star (2013), Jennifer Wells explains that transparency keeps the large corporations “honest and accountable” as the human costs are otherwise too high, following her investigation into sweatshops in third world countries. The “Global Village” is a term used by large corporations to glamourize the use of this cheap labour as Naomi Klein explains in No Logo (2000) “IBM claims that its technology spans the globe, and so it does, but often its international presence takes the form of cheap third world labour producing the chips and power sources that drive our machines.” A concept definitively explained in a comment by a 16 year old factory worker who said that they made computers but did not know how to operate computers (Klein, N., 2000.) // “For garment or textile workers, the industry examplifies the challenges associated with global manufacturing: low wages, "flexible" contracts and sweatshop conditions. Add to these the isolation, invisibility and lack of power experienced by informal workers, especially those who produce from their homes.” // (WIEGO, 2013.) These large brand based corporations limit free expression by having the power over western societies to sensor what we read, watch and listen to (Klein, N. 2000). They are totally disengaged from human rights and human justice. Naomi Klein, in her book No Logo takes an in depth look into the importing and exporting powers of large corporations and poor developing countries on the other side of the world. She brings to light the mere two dollars a day paid to workers in a garment factory in Indonesia and compares it to the $11.7 million worth of anoraks and ski jackets being supplied by Indonesia into Canada in 1997 (Klein, N. 2000); just one specific item of clothing, to one country, in one year. She invites her readers to share and reproduce her book in the hope that these large corporations won’t continue to get away with the almost unimaginable profit margins which they have become increasingly used to, at the expense of the lives of hundreds of workers in less privileged communities around the world. In protest of unpaid, compulsory overtime and increasingly poor working conditions in Jakarta, workers in a garment factory engaged in a three-day walkout. However, instead of being granted a basic safe working environment, which the majority of the developed world takes for granted, they were offered for optional overtime with their compensation to remain illegally low which the workers were happy with and looked at the strike as a step forward in their fight for basic rights (Klein, N. 2000.) They then returned to work, to buildings with faulty infrastructure and dangerous work sites. It is these increasingly dangerous buildings which are the cause of mass death and injuries in factory fires, when workers become entrapped in a building which easily catches alight and is almost inescapable. A terrifying example of this was the garment factory fire in Bangladesh in May of this year. With no transparency and accountability demanded of large corporations, these Export Processing Zones continue to allow factories to operate below the legal standard. Instead of being in line with the support of systems concerned with the greater good of society, the large corporations are running parts of their businesses in countries where there is no one to check up on the well being of the workers. It is the continued added pressures by western societies such as the fight for human rights and environmental sensitivity which is starting to damage the reputations of these of these large corporations, finally giving them reason to try and introduce western society’s largely accepted ethical frameworks into these Export Processing Zones (Rothlin, 2010) and creating a need for them to produce their products with some degree of social responsibility. According to International Business Ethics, if an organization wants to take ethics seriously, it needs to “identify the core values to which it wishes to be committed and held accountable and then translate those values into guidance for all employees on how to act responsibly” (IBE, 2013). However, as Charles Kernaghan aptly explains in “Triangle Returns”, we still have such a long way to go. The relationship between poverty and poor health has been highly researched and is widely recognized in the medical profession (Inequality Watch, 2012), however the precise affect that income has on health is yet to be determined. This relationship between poverty and health was examined by measuring the worsening of health with a decrease in wage by the Inequality Watch and explored in their article titled Poverty and Health and determined that there is a “bidirectional relationship between health and income” (Inequality Watch, 2012.) The social and cultural groups most affected by the use of these Export Processing Zones in the production of high quantities of goods for super brands are those living in developing countries without access to fair workplace health and safety regulations and wages. Public health within Australia focuses on improving and maintaining the health of all Australians, while the Global Village operations of some large corporations set out to purposefully take advantage of those areas of the world which don’t follow similar frameworks. Instead of being in line with the support of systems concerned with the greater good of society, the large corporations are running parts of their businesses in countries where these standard ethical frameworks have never been used or considered in working practice. As discussed by Charles Kernaghan in the video //Triangle Returns// (Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, 2011) the implementation of health and safety regulations and a minimum wage increase which improved the lives of factory workers in the United States occurred in 1911, puttig the factory conditions in the Export Processing Zones of third world countries such as Bangladesh, some 100 years behind the developed world (Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, 2011.) But “it would be naïve to believe that western consumers haven’t profited from these global divisions since the earliest days of colonisation” (Klein, M., 2000.) These factories may at times make the western world occasionally feel sorry for the workers, or perhaps grateful for their own jobs and living conditions, but are we missing a key public health issue? It has recently been discussed that the many items of clothing sold on the market that are not labeled as “fair trade” or “organic” may have a large number of toxic chemicals included in their production due in part to use the use insecticides on cotton plants, which also contribute to pollution – an international issue given much publicity in recent years by environmental activist groups.
 * “But it only affects those living in third world countries, right?” **

Transparency and accountability are hugely important aspects of a successful Public health system and are required to redress the issue of the use of sweatshops and cheap contract labour. A clear and definitive ethical framework would need to be implemented and adhered to by large corporations, allowing for the regulation of the wages and factory standards.

** “Triangle Returns” and modern day sweatshops ** The video, //Triangle Returns// distributed by the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights in 2011, clearly makes a point of comparing the working conditions of factory workers in the United States in the early 20th century to those of today in developing countries around the world. And, there really aren’t that many differences. I was blown away by the lack of change that has occurred in the factories in third world countries. Particularly following Charles Kernaghan’s explanation that following the fire in the New York factory in 1911, it only took two months for new laws and workplace health and safety regulations to be put in place by the American government to protect the lives of factory workers. It is this blatant disregard for human rights and equality that creates such a profit for already multi-billion dollar companies worldwide. Why, in a world where companies are earning enough to sponsor and promote certain athletes and entire sports teams or college students; are the workers creating the marketable product, not being treated with the dignity and respect that we, as members of western society would expect? It is far cheaper and profitable for brands to control society, by creating and marketing a lifestyle, look, or culture (Klein, N. 2000.) so that we, as the consumer buy into a philosophy, with the purchase of their product. ** Reference List **

African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. (2013). ACERWC Charter – full text. Retrieved October 5, from, []

Fair work Ombudsman. (2013). National Minimum Wage**.** Retrieved October 2, from, []

Huff Post (2013). The Truth About the Clothes We Wear: How Fashion Impacts Health and the Environment. Retrieved on October 1, 2013. []

Inequality Watch. (2012) Poverty and Health. Retrieved on September 28, 2013. []

Klein, N. (2000). No Logo. Hammersmith, London, Flamingo.

International Labour Organization. (2013). International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC). Retrieved September 24, from []

International Labour Organization. (2010). Global child labour developments: Measuring trends from 2004 to 2008. Retrieved September 29, from []

Kirk O. Hansen, S. R. (2010). "Taking your code to China." Journal of International Business Ethics 3(1).

Library of Congress. (2013). Children’s Rights: China. Retrieved September 29, from []

The Star (2013). 20 lessons learned from the world’s sweatshops. Retrieved on October 29, 2013. __http://www.thestar.com/news/world/clothesonyourback/2013/10/27/20_lessons_learned_from_the_worlds_sweatshops.html__

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (2013). Garment Workers. Retrieved on September 28, 2013.

Woolf, L.M. (2008) Women and Sweatshops. Retrieved from []

(2013). "International Business Ethics." Retrieved September 30, 2013, from __ [|www.ibe.org.uk/index.asp?upid=71&msid=12][|.] __

_________________________________________________________________________  REFLECTIONS: [] []