Sweatshops
See how major sportswear brands rate on workers' rights
In response to protests about working conditions in their supply factories, some sportswear brands have developed labour rights monitoring and compliance programs and taken action on a number of issues and cases. Despite these efforts, substantial violations of worker rights and poverty wages are still the norm for workers in the sportswear industry. Just before the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Play Fair and The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) published a report called Clearing the Hurdles: Steps to improving working conditions in the global sportswear industry. We identified four key hurdles facing workers in the sportswear industry and recommended four ways to overcome them:
- Develop a positive climate for freedom of association and collective bargaining;
- Eliminate the use of precarious employment in sportswear supply chains;
- Lessen both the frequency and negative impacts of factory closures; and
- Take steps to improve worker incomes, with the goal of reaching a living wage for all workers.
Learn more by visiting http://www.clearingthehurdles.org/
Sweatshop is a word that brings to mind slave labour conditions from centuries ago. But as more and more people learn of the miserable conditions endured by the workers in the clothing industry, outrage has grown and, increasingly, consumers want to know where and how their clothes are made.
Big companies in the garment industry are looking all over the world for the cheapest labour. Canadian companies are also taking advantage from abusing the rights of workers in developing countries. But we believe that we have to take a stand against sweatshop abuses and exploitation and ensure better jobs and working conditions for everyone. No Sweat campaigns’ main objective is to hold retailers, brands and manufacturers accountable for the conditions under which their products are made.
The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) is involved in a national campaign with its partners in the Ethical Trading Action Group (ETAG).
ETAG and MSN
The Ethical Trading Action Group (ETAG) is a coalition of faith, labour, teacher and non-governmental organizations advocating for government policies, voluntary codes of conduct and ethical purchasing policies that promote humane labour practices based on accepted international labour standards. ETAG promotes greater public access to information on where and under what conditions clothes, shoes and other consumer products are made, and greater transparency in monitoring and verification of company compliance with international labour standards and local laws. The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) acts as the secretariat for ETAG.
The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) is a Canadian-based labour rights and solidarity organization committed to decent work and wages for garment workers worldwide.
MSN’s program combines policy advocacy, corporate campaigning and engagement, coalition building, international networking and solidarity