The proliferation of sweatshops puts pressure on the global textile industry, including on factories in some sub-Saharan countries already made vulnerable by globalization. The Centre international de solidarité ouvrière (CISO), with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has started a wide-ranging campaign to reach Québec-based organizational consumers (cities, unions, school boards, large businesses, etc.) asking them to adopt a responsible purchasing policy and thereby support factories that offer acceptable working conditions to their employees.

In Lesotho, a small country enclosed within South Africa, the main employer is the textile industry. Among an approximate total of two million residents, over 50,000 work in textile factories. In 2004, when it published its first social responsibility report, the American giant The Gap admitted that many of its 3,000 suppliers offered deplorable working conditions. Among the businesses at fault, many were established in China, El Salvador, Guatemala and Lesotho.

In the context of market globalization, Lesotho comes in competition with countries that have little regard for workers’ rights. The situation was made more dire by the abolition, in 2005, of the importation quotas that had governed the global textile industry since the 1960s. Developing countries are now very vulnerable to the Indian and Chinese giants who offer low-priced products thanks to their use of sweatshops.

Workshop misery (sweatshop) in China Photo: Bureau international du travail

An Ethical Turn
“The market deregulation allows buyers to bypass countries where labour is more expensive in favour of those offering the lowest prices. Small countries like Lesotho feel tremendous pressure to reduce their production costs. Of course, the situation makes the people more vulnerable, as they need to work”, explains Marie-Noëlle Roy, coordinator of the Coalition québécoise contre les ateliers de misère (CQCAM), a coordination group within CISO.

In 2005, the future looked bleak for Lesotho. As forecasted, thousands of textile jobs were lost during the year. Thankfully, voices were raised elsewhere to denounce the large companies who get their supplies from sweatshops, and Lesotho has found a way out by taking an ethical turn. U2 singer Bono and his wife have indeed chosen Lesotho as the location where a great part of their EDUN ethical clothing items are made.  The efforts of the Losotho government to encourage companies to adopt ethical standards have had excellent results, and most of the jobs lost have been recreated.

Adopting a Policy and Ensuring Follow-Through
The consumer trends of industrialized countries thus have a direct impact on the working conditions offered to workers in southern countries. This is why CISO is taking part in a national campaign to encourage cities, school boards, universities, private businesses, unions and other institutional consumers in Québec to adopt a responsible purchasing policy.

“With this campaign, we do not only wish to denounce practices – we want to encourage consumers to commit to put an end to sweatshops, says Ms. Roy. The distributors who buy merchandise from southern countries must ensure that nowhere along the production line those products went through a sweatshop.”

CISO encourages Québec-based institutional consumers to adopt a code of conduct that includes at least the seven norms established by the International Labour Organization and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as the right to non-excessive working hours, the abolition of child labour and the right to decent working conditions. To ensure that the code of conduct is actually applied, CISO is also asking organizational consumers to form a partnership with a NGO that can ensure an adequate follow-through.

CISO is also working with subcontractors, to make them respect international labour standards. “When a distributor realizes that a subcontractor is not following the code of conduct, it is crucial not to simply change suppliers, because it does not solve the problem. The subcontractor should rather be informed of his lack of respect for international labour standards and be made to comply,” explains Ms. Roy.

As an example, she mentions that the University of Toronto managed to get its promotional t-shirt supplier, Gildan, to adopt such a code of conduct.

Slowly But Surely
CISO’s campaign has been ongoing for a little over a year, and results seem good. “Last April, we held a conference of the issue of responsible purchasing, and our target audience attended. Various approaches have taken shape. Among other initiatives, we have formed a work group with the City of Montreal. Since the city already has a sustainable development plan, it was easy to make the link with responsible purchasing. Furthermore, the French-language Montreal school board and the province’s universities have shown openness towards the project”, Ms. Roy is happy to report.