Monitoring Sweatshops: Workers, Consumers, and the Global Apparel Industry

290 Pages·2004·11.45 MB·English

by  Jill Esbenshade

Monitoring Sweatshops
Workers, Consumers, and the
Global Apparel Industry
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Monitoring
Svveatshops
Workers, Consumers, and the
Global Apparel Industry
JILL ESBENSHADE
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia CopyrightedMaterial
JILL ESBENSHADE is an assistant professor ofsociology at
San Diego State University.
Temple Universiry Press
1601 Norrh Broad Sneer
Philadelphia PA 19122
www.temple.edultempress
Copyrighr© 2004 byTemple Universiry
All righrs reserved
Published 2004
Prinred in rhe Unired SraresofAmerica
I§i The paper used in rhis publication meets the requirements ofthe American
National Standard for Information Sciences-PermanenceofPaper for Prinred
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Esbenshade,Jill Louise.
Moniroringswearshops :workers, consumers,and theglobal apparel
industryIJill Esbenshade.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-59213-255-3 (c1orh :alk. paper) - ISBN 1-59213-256-1 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Sweatshops. 2. Clorhingrrade. 3. Clothingworkers. 4. Wages
Clothingworkers. 5. Globalization. 6. Consumers-Attitudes. I. Title.
HD2337.E83 2004
331.25-dc22 2003067209
2 4 6 8 975 3
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For my mother and father
and the family they have nurtured
And in memory of
Patricia Sanabria-Candido (1979-2003)
Quien en vida tuvo al cielo par sombrero
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Contents
Preface
IX
Acknowledgments Xlii
Introduction: Monitoring, Sweatshops, and
Labor Relations 1
1 The Rise and Fall ofthe Social Contract
in the Apparel Industry 13
2 The Social-Accountability Contract 33
3 Private Monitoring in Practice 60
4 Weaknesses and Conflicts in Private Monitoring 89
5 The Development ofInternational Monitoring 119
6 Examining International Codes of Conduct
and Monitoring Efforts 145
7 The Struggle for Independent Monitoring 165
Conclusion: Workers, Consumers, and
Independent Monitoring 198
Appendix 1: Confessions ofa Sweatshop Monitor
byJoshua Samuel Brown 209
Appendix 2: Research Methods 214
Appendix 3: List ofInterviews 219
Appendix 4: Acronyms and Abbreviations 226
Notes 229
References 249
Index 261
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Preface
How DID Icome to study monitoring in the apparel industry?
As the great-granddaughter, granddaughter, and niece ofJewish garment
retailers, onecould saythat Iwas bornto thesubject. As thesister-in-law
oftwo Salvadoran garment workers, onecouldsaythat Imarried into it.
As a former staffmember at the International Ladies' GarmentWorkers'
Union (ILGWU),Iseemedto cometo itthrough myownprofessionaland
political development. And as someone who has been schooled in ethnic
studiesandfocused hergraduatecareerontheplightofimmigrants,espe
cially in regard to labor, Iwas educated into it. Butperhaps, as they say,
all roads lead to Rome.
In any case, I came upon the subject of monitoring in the garment
industry in 1996, as the Gap campaign took off and the press began to
link maquilas in El Salvador to garment makers in the United States. I
was searching for a dissertation topic at the time. As Iembarked on my
research, I discovered that there was a ripe case study much closer to
home. In my native Los Angeles, garment manufacturers were engaging
in a new and innovative experiment of monitoring contractors, and it
appeared to behavingsomepositiveeffects.Themonitoringprogramwas
winningawards, receivingpraise,and apparentlymakinga difference. Yet
ithaddetractors. Myimaginationwascaptured.Were these improvements
real? And mostinterestingfor me, how did workers themselvesfeel about
this apparent solution?
Iwas intrigued bytheproblemand, to boot,itappeared thattherewas
a ready-made collection of data waiting to be explored. The ILGWU
(nowpartofa merged union, UNITE) and numerous workers had filed
lawsuits against jeans-maker GUESS?, Inc., and obtained boxes of docu
mentation on the company's monitoring practices, including workers'
testimony, monitoring reports, and depositions ofcompany officials and
monitors. What graduate student could walk away from an interesting
question accompanied by thousands of pages of primary data? Unfortu
nately, ajudge'sconfidentialityorderindefinitelydelayed myaccess to the
legal files. But by the time I discovered this, I was already hooked.
SoIturned tothe livesourcesthemselves ratherthan theirpapercoun
terparts, which turned outto beawhollypositiveturn ofevents. Nothing
couldhavesubstituted for actuallyobservingduringmonitoringvisits.The
peopleItalked with were more forthcoming than Ihad imagined, thanks
in no little measure to my sympathetic female ear, I am sure. Moreover,
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