Material girls

31/3/2022

'What is the true cost of a hoodie?' (Hannah Marriott)

I hate it. She works in a textile factory in South East Asia, more commonly known as a sweat-shop, for £4.50 (US$ 6) per day. It’s long hours in sweltering conditions and arduous, back-breaking work. The little money she earns is barely enough to feed herself and her small children. If she, or they, get sick or injured, they're in deep trouble. With no discretionary income, she would need to borrow from a loan shark to pay for a doctor, medicine, or whatever else they may need. The extortionate fees and harsh interest rates make even the most rudimentary healthcare impossible, out of reach.

The parent company, a well-known global brand, feels pressure from its customers to ensure that its clothing is produced ethically. Most consumers don’t wonder or ask how it’s possible we can buy a t-shirt in the UK for just £5 that was manufactured on the opposite side of the planet. Somebody, somewhere at the sharp end, is paying a heavy price. The company decides to visit the factory to carry out an inspection. On hearing this, the local HR manager calls all the employees, mostly women, together: ‘You will smile and tell them we pay you £10 per day and provide you with 3 healthy meals a day – or else.’

This half-whispered threat is far from idle. The women know that, if they were to blow the whistle, they would be dismissed as soon as the inspectors leave. That would plunge them and their families into even worse poverty, if that were possible, and there are plenty of other poor women outside willing to take their place. All the while, the local managers pocket the difference that the parent company intends for its workers. They wear smart clothes, live in nice houses and drive around in expensive cars. They know they can bribe any official to whom a desperate worker may dare to appeal. Money talks.

Do we care? What can we do? Write to your MP (your political representative). Write to your favourite brand CEO. Check out: Clean Clothes Campaign; Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.

('The Asia Pacific region employed roughly 65 million garment workers in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the International Labour Organisation. 80% of garment workers globally are women.' Tara Donaldson, WWD)

29 Comments

Mariel Sabraw

1/4/2022 11:38:19 am

Hi Nick. Thanks for sharing. Great writing! I have shared it with our team at Open Apparel Registry (https://openapparel.org/). OAR's mission is to improve human rights and environmental conditions in and around factories and facilities by opening up supply chain data as a free, public good. When everyone working in global supply chains enjoys equal access to quality, open-licensed data, it leads to more sustainable and equitable outcomes for the most vulnerable communities affected by the apparel sector.

Nick Wright

1/4/2022 11:46:58 am

Thank you, Mariel. I enjoyed meeting you recently and I find OAR's mission inspiring and important. Tracking and testing ethical practice throughout complex global supply chains is notoriously difficult. I wish you and the team well as you continue to do this vital work.

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Hannah Matthews

1/4/2022 12:02:23 pm

Hi Nick. Are you talking about a specific woman, working for a specific brand?

1/4/2022 02:15:03 pm

Hi Hannah. Yes, it is an account from a woman I know well and spoke with this week. She asked me to share her story, to speak up for the millions of women in such factories who are silent and silenced - because they don't feel safe to speak. The factory she works in produces sportswear for 2 major global brands.

Victoria Perez

1/4/2022 12:07:26 pm

Hello Nick. If I may ask, which country does this woman live in?

1/4/2022 12:09:15 pm

Hi Victoria. She lives in the Philippines. As you may be aware, these kinds of factories and experiences are common for women throughout many countries in the Asia Pacific.

1/4/2022 12:10:13 pm

Thank you, Nick. I think your eyes are more open than mine when it comes to the poverty in my country. It's embarrassing.

1/4/2022 12:11:49 pm

Hi Victoria. It's sometimes easier to see things clearly from a distance. I imagine you would notice all kinds of things in my context that lay completely outside of my awareness.

Hans Vogel

1/4/2022 12:15:41 pm

Why are you writing about this? Why is the fashion industry so important?

2/4/2022 10:45:03 pm

Hi Hans. Thank you for your questions. Firstly, at a personal level, I was asked to share this story to raise awareness - a voice directly from a sweat-shop floor in a part of the world where women are silenced, too afraid to speak, because they don't feel safe. It's a voice that deserves to be heard, and needs to be heard. I feel humbled and privileged to play my small part in amplifying this voice in the world.

Secondly, the global fashion-apparel industry is estimated to be worth US$1.7 trillion in 2022. A tiny proportion of that wealth is distributed to those millions of poor (mostly) women who play such a key part in its success. Apart from wider ethical and practical issues that surround the fashion-apparel industry as a whole, that, in my view, is an equity and human rights issue that demands attention and needs to be addressed.

2/4/2022 10:45:42 pm

If it's that bad, why don't the women leave the factories and get different jobs?

2/4/2022 10:47:12 pm

Hi Hans. I guess a different way of framing the question could be: what does the fact that so many women are willing to work in such terrible conditions tell us, perhaps, about the wider circumstances in which they - and their families - are living?

In many of these countries, employment opportunities are rare, especially for women. It's partly, therefore, a supply and demand issue. There are so many people living in poverty that the factories know they can exploit people easily - and without facing any real accountability for their actions. Wealthy countries and companies take advantage of this poverty and vulnerability to boost their own profits and power.

The situation in the Asia Pacific region has been exacerbated significantly, as elsewhere, by the Covid pandemic and related unemployment and, now, the dramatically rising costs of fuel, energy supplies and food etc. (partly as a consequence of the war in Ukraine). This is on top of broader environmental pressures such as climate change, resulting in e.g. floods, droughts, typhoons, crop failure, disease etc.

This all points towards very limited life opportunities for the region's poorest people. It's less a question of which work or career option to choose - and more a question of how to stay alive.

Christina Schmidt

1/4/2022 12:34:44 pm

Hallo Nick. Thank you for sharing this interesting and disturbing story. I have hear similar stories from my friends in Thailand. I feel very sad. Why do people in rich countries allow this to be happening, especially to so many girls and women? Shouldn't the fashion and clothes industry be a feminism priority and action?

1/4/2022 02:24:17 pm

Hi Christina. Yes, this is a very widespread issue and experience that, sadly, appears to create very little interest or concern in wealthier countries. I sometimes wonder if we choose, subconsciously, to ignore such issues and the serious questions they raise to avoid feeling guilty; or overwhelmed by the scale and complexity of the challenges they raise; or having to question too deeply our own values and comfortable-convenient consumer lifestyles.

The feminism question is a complex one for me to answer. I'm a man who doesn't have the lived experience of this woman or her circumstances; the potential benefits and consequences of sharing her story are different for me to what they are for her; I have the privilege and power of citizenship in a wealthy country that benefits - which means I benefit too - from what I regard as the social and economic exploitation of women in poorer countries. How legitimate is my voice?

That said, an observation is that popular feminist discourse here has often focused on, say, the disempowerment of women e.g. as models in the fashion industry, creating cultural stereotypes that pressure other women to conform to unreachable social expectations and norms; or gender identity, expression and representation in the fashion industry; or the sexual exploitation of women by powerful men in the fashion industry if they (the women) want to progress their careers.

In that sense, my impression (rightly or wrongly) is that the focus in wealthier countries has been primarily at the consumer end of the issue, rather than necessarily on the social, political and economic implications and consequences for the poor. What do you think?

John Platter

1/4/2022 02:34:49 pm

Hi Nick. I've seen the dark side of the fashion industry come under the media spotlight from time to time. Stacey Dooley did an excellent BBC documentary in 2018 called "Fashion's Dirty Secrets - Are your Clothes Wrecking the Planet?"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5a1a43b5-cbae-4a42-8271-48f53b63bd07

1/4/2022 02:47:42 pm

Hi John - and thank you for sharing the link. Yes, I remember watching that documentary on TV. I think the reasons why the fashion-apparel industry is so significant on the global stage include, firstly, that it is huge and influential and, secondly, that it represents an imperfect storm of inter-related issues including: poverty (e.g. equity, economics and corruption); environment (e.g. water, pollution and carbon footprint); human rights (e.g. exclusion, oppression and social justice). This makes the issues and diverse stakeholder interests it presents incredibly complex and difficult to uncover, disentangle, challenge and resolve.

Marion Webster

1/4/2022 02:50:35 pm

I'm worried about this woman and other women like her. How can she and her family survive? What must her day be like? What pressures does she face that she hasn't mentioned in this story?

1/4/2022 03:10:12 pm

Hi Marion. I asked her that same question. She explained that she gets up at 4am; prepares a simple breakfast for her children (and has no time to eat for herself); waits in long queues alongside other workers to try to get transport; travels by bus for an hour to work (spending a significant portion of her income for the day on the fare); works a 12 hour shift: then does the reverse queueing and journey at the end of the day. She sometimes has to do additional work after her shift to buy enough basic food for her family to survive.

During the 12 hour shift itself, she has to stand all day; she's not allowed to sit down; she's only allowed a short break every 4 hours; she's not allowed to eat or drink at her work bench; she often feels dizzy from hunger and thirst in the heat; she has persistent back pain and headaches and has developed a stomach ulcer from eating so poorly and irregularly; she has no money to pay for medical treatment. Whatever she achieves in her work, the manager simply increases the targets required - with no extra compensation.

When she was pregnant and asked for an occasional break because she felt so sick during the mornings, her supervisor told her that 'morning sickness is psychological - all in the mind', and that she should get over it and stop complaining; when she became faint and almost collapsed, he reported her to senior management and reprimanded her for insubordination. I find it harrowing to imagine that this experience is replicated throughout so many factories and people's lives - the poor and most vulnerable are hidden from sight.

2/4/2022 02:25:14 pm

Hi Nick. That sounds terrible. Can the women get together to organise a protest? Or is that too risky?

2/4/2022 02:39:03 pm

Hi Marion. That's a good question. It can be very risky for women to complain or organise themselves to protest in these contexts, partly because they are often in countries where employment rights and-or trade union protections are weak or, for all practical purposes, non-existent. Partly also because, if a woman tries to organise something along these lines, she never knows if one or more of her colleagues will report her to the management in order to improve their own status and circumstances in the factory.

Having said that, courageous protests have erupted from time to time in the Asia Pacific region. Here's an example from 2020 in Cambodia, as reported by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre: https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/cambodia-thousands-of-garment-workers-from-different-factories-protest-to-demand-unpaid-wages-from-suspended-factories-due-to-covid-19-impacts/

Pete Davidson

2/4/2022 02:54:24 pm

Hello Nick. Please pass on my prayers to the woman who shared this life story with you - and thank her for her courage in sharing it here with us. It feels very humbling and concerning and is making me think harder about the brands I wear.

I wonder if NGOs partner with commercial companies to ensure ethical practice in these factories and supply chains? I saw something like that idea presented by an entrepreneur on TV programme Dragon's Den, but I don't think it was an NGO.

2/4/2022 03:07:54 pm

Thank you, Pete. I will certainly pass on your prayers. The woman is a passionate follower of Jesus so I know she will appreciate it.

Yes, there have been experiments with collaborations between different parties, including e.g. commercial organisations, NGOs and other civil society actors for some years now. They are often known as multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs). However, there are increasing concerns about the actual effectiveness and impacts of these initiatives, including for those people and groups that these initiatives - at least from an NGO/civil-society perspective - are intended to benefit most.

In case of interest, here is a link to an important critique published in 2020 by the Institute for Multi-Stakeholder Initiative Integrity, called 'Not Fit-for-Purpose: The Grand Experiment of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives in Corporate Accountability, Human Rights and Global Governance':
https://www.msi-integrity.org/not-fit-for-purpose/

Here's a link to a particularly challenging chapter of the report, called 'Stakeholder Participation: MSIs Entrench Corporate Power by Failing to Include Rights Holders and by Preventing Civil Society from Acting as an Agent of Change.': https://www.msi-integrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/MSI_INSIGHT_2.FINAL_FORWEBSITEpdf.pdf

Alex Swarbrick

2/4/2022 03:31:57 pm

Hi Nick. I appreciate your constant love for the poor - the world over. Who or what inspires this passion within you?

2/4/2022 10:56:07 pm

Hi Alex - and thank you for such heart-warming feedback. In answer to your question, in a word: Jesus. These words from Jürgen Moltmann resonate deeply with me: 'Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it and to oppose it...Because I believe in eternal life, I shall be active for the life of the people. Because I hope in the resurrection, I shall take part in the revolt of the people against deadly oppressive powers.'

I want my life and work to make a difference - to be and bring even the smallest ray of hope to the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world who, so often, live without hope. I was reminded of this wider vision and aspiration again this week as I did some work with Christian medical organisation, Mercy Ships. Its mission is: 'To follow Jesus by bringing healing and hope to the poor.'

Ian Henderson

6/4/2022 09:56:01 am

Thank you for such an insightful article Nick, which highlights the global injustices that exist and that we take for granted and, therefore, support?

6/4/2022 10:09:33 am

Hi Ian and thank you for your encouraging feedback - as always. Yes, as consumers, are we complicit in so many issues in the world that I would regard as social injustices, yet often without being aware of it. The apparel-fashion industry is an example of an incredibly complex system, partly owing to global supply chains etc. This makes it very difficult to track, monitor, influence and change. It can leave consumers wondering what to do, even if they do feel concerned about the ethical dimensions of this industry.

I was once contacted, after a visit to the Philippines, by a commercial company in Canada to ask if it would be worth outsourcing their services to the Philippines because it would reduce their labour costs and increase their profits. Although I could understand their pragmatic, mathematical reasoning, I absolutely saw red!! The company then tried to justify their reasoning by saying that, at least it would provide work for people in the Philippines. That is, of course, true...yet raises more ethical questions than we could hope to address here..!

Anja

27/4/2022 03:41:26 pm

Thank´s for the great article, Nick. I´ve heard a lot about this topic, it´s horrible. I find it really hard to find a way not to support brands who are producing in such factory. Almost every company does it and it´s not recognizable where and under which working conditions the clothes are produced.

27/4/2022 07:06:57 pm

Thank you, Anja. Yes - that is a real challenge. Even if someone wants to buy clothes ethically, it's difficult to know which brands to trust as there are so many complexities and hidden vested interests in global supply chains etc.

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