Under the regime of private company or multi-stakeholder voluntary codes of conduct and industry social auditing, workers have absorbed low wages and unsafe and abusive conditions; labour leaders and union members have become the targets of both government and factory harassment and violence; and trade union power has waned. Nowhere have these private systems of codes and audits so clearly failed to protect workers as in Bangladesh’s apparel industry. However, international labour groups and Bangladeshi unions have succeeded in mounting a challenge to voluntarism in the global economy, persuading more than 180 companies to make a binding and enforceable commitment to workers’ safety in an agreement with 12 unions.
The extent to which this Bangladesh Accord will be able to influence the entrenched global regime of voluntary codes and weak trade unions remains an open question. But if the Accord can make progress in Bangladesh, it can help to inspire similar efforts in other countries and in other industries.
The following information is based on incoming communication with the National Human Trafficking Hotline from January 1, 2016 – December 31, 2016 about human trafficking cases and issues related to human trafficking in the Northern Mariana Islands...Read More
Slavery is a complex phenomenon and a pervasivescar on humanity. The control of another person, theexploitation of their body and labour, and the removalof their rights, is a degradation of all concerned. It isall too easy to see this as a problem o...Read More
This report is one of a series of case studies to supplement the global campaign report, Ripe for Change, drawing attention to the plight of specific groups of small-scale farmers or workers in international food value chains and/or promoting succes...Read More
The Responsible Mining Index (RMI) supports the principle that minerals and metals mining should benefit the economies, improve the lives of people and respect the environments of producing countries, while also benefiting mining companies in a fair ...Read More
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