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In an ideal world, people and profit would go hand-in-hand. Businesses would operate in a way that put people first and benefit the community both economically and environmentally. But, the reality is that across multiple industries the environment and marginalized communities are exploited for increased profits. From slave labor and poverty wages to the unsustainable extraction and pollution of natural resources businesses don’t always provide a positive impact. Standing up against these issues are NGOs, activists and environmental and human rights organizations that ensure that economic, social and environmental well-being are considered across the various parts of supply chains. Many of these solutions work in tandem with the Fair Trade Association and its sister fair trade foundations. Not only do they offer solutions and better systems to address these problems, but they also offer brands certifications to communicate with customers the steps they’ve taken to ensure that their products are made ethically. As conscious consumers this can be reassuring when shopping for ethically-made products.
If you’ve come across these labels and have ever wanted a more in-depth look at what fair trade is, this quick guide will higlight the ways in which it makes a difference. Fair Trade has ten principles that are in line with the United Nations Sustainable Developement Goals. Since several of those overlap and for the ease of understanding how fair trade makes a positive difference, this guide will highlight three main areas about how fair trade fights poverty, injustice and inequality while making a positve impact.
Fair Trade Ensures Livable Wages,
Fair trade is important because it provides a livable wage to workers that allows them to cover the cost of their basic necessities- shelter, food, health care, education.
Currently, a majority of wages within the fashion industry are unlivable. Oxfam Australia publishes reports about factory workers’ wages in Bangladesh and Vietnam. Despite the fashion industry generating $23.5 billion in Australia alone in 2018, garment workers routinely earn poverty wages. In Bangladesh all of them earned below the minimum wage of $128.20 per month, 9 out of 10 of them stated that their wages weren’t ‘enough’ to cover basic needs and 85% of them took loans to cover their necessities. If you think these stories are isolated to certain parts of the world, know that they’re not. In December 2019, Fashion Nova came under fire when it was revealed that sewers making their clothes were paid as little as $2.77 per hour in factories in Los Angeles.
Organizations such as the Fairtrade Foundation and Fair Trade Certified ensure that everyone throughout the supply chain from farmers who grow the cotton to textile dyers are treated with fairness and paid livable wages. These certifications are only offered through a vetting process that monitors and evaluates safe working environments and improved conditions, wages, working hours, benefits and the elimination of forced labor and poverty.
More than $846 million in financial benefit has been delivered to producer communities between 1999-2020.
Fair Trade Certified
Safe Working Conditions,
Human rights watch groups advocate for garment factories to be transparent, audited by 3rd parties and to meet the minimum safety standards such as limiting the amount of weight on a single floor or having ventilation in rooms where chemicals are used. Because, when no such standards are met, the cost of a $5 tee shirt is workers’ lives.
In 2013, the fashion industry was exposed about unsafe working conditions in garment factories. In what is considered to be the worst disaster in the industry, Rana Plaza, a factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapsed and took the lives of 1,000 people. More than 2,000 were injured. Suddenly, the fashion industry was under fire for its poor regulation over the factories that made their clothes. For the workers who do make it to their homes safely at night, the horror doesn’t stop at the factory floors. In many of these towns where garment factories are, locals are often plagued by toxins polluting their drinking water. According to Eco Watch, “In China, it is estimated that 70 percent of the rivers and lakes are contaminated by the 2.5 billion gallons of wastewater produced by the textile industry.”
Fair Working Conditions,
Imagine if you didn’t know your rights- that your boss should pay you on a regular schedule, that 16-hour days, 6 days a week are not fair, that physical harassment is not okay. Our rights as employees are something that you and I might take for granted, but for many they are not educated about these rights to even be able to advocate for themselves.
In October 2019, The Guardian spoke with female factory workers in Bangladesh who claimed that they were physically beaten and emotionally harassed. These women gave detailed accounts of the daily physical and verbal violence they endured to make a pair of $88 Lululemon leggings that cost more than their monthly salaries.
Organizations like Fairtrade America work with approximately 220 large farms or factories representing a total of 204,000 workers to strengthen workers rights and ensure safer workplaces. That includes ensuring that workers receive accident compensation, discrimination is prohibited, that workers are allowed to organize and bargain and that their rights are in the workplace are effectively exercised.
Women should be offered trainings on financial management and human rights. Empowering women on the community level will enhance girls’ education.
Florence Wanjiru Wanjiku for Fair Trade International
And No Child Labor!
According to The Common Objective there are 106 million children working in the agriculture industry- including cotton. More than 1 million children are used to cross pollinate cotton plants. And, this doesn’t only happen across the seas. In the U.S the Human Rights Watch notes that more than 50% of children labor deaths are related to agriculture. Under Federal law children aged 12 or older can work an unlimited number of hours on farms… as long as they don’t miss school. Yet, these farms are heavily under-regulated to ensure children’s safety. From cotton picking to finishing a garment, child labor is prevalent across the fashion industry. They’re small fingers are often prized for sewing on buttons, sequins , and embroidery. Sometimes, these children are not given the option to go to school and are forced to work long hours in unsafe conditions.
These child laborers are forced to work long and can suffer exhaustion, heat stroke and malnutrition. Children can be exposed to harsh chemicals causing tremors, weakness, blurred vision, extreme dizziness, depression, and even paralysis or death.
~ The Common Objective