Corporations have increasingly turned to voluntary, multi-stakeholder governance programs to monitor workers’ rights and standards in global supply chains. This article argues that the emphasis of these programs varies significantly depending on stakeholder involvement and issue areas under examination. Corporate-influenced programs are more likely to emphasize detection of violations of minimal standards in the areas of wages, hours, and occupational safety and health because focusing on these issues provides corporations with legitimacy and reduces the risks of uncertainty created by activist campaigns. In contrast, these programs are less likely to emphasize workers’ rights to form democratic and independent unions, bargain, and strike because these rights are perceived as lessening managerial control without providing firms with significant reputational value. This argument is explored by coding 805 factory audits of the Fair Labor Association between 2002 and 2010, followed by case studies of Russell Athletic in Honduras, Apple in China, and worker rights monitoring in Vietnam.

post

page

attachment

revision

nav_menu_item

custom_css

customize_changeset

oembed_cache

user_request

wp_block

wp_template

wp_template_part

wp_global_styles

wp_navigation

wp_font_family

wp_font_face

acf-taxonomy

acf-post-type

acf-field-group

acf-field

ai1ec_event

exactmetrics_note

National Hotline Cases Occurring in Hotels and Motels
GuidancePublications

The National Human Trafficking Hotline knows that hotels and motels are frequently utilized by traffickers to facilitate forced commercial sex or forced work. In many cases, hotel and motel owners may not be aware of how their businesses are being u...Read More

At Risk: Exploitation and the UK Asylum System
News & AnalysisPublications

The British Red Cross and UNHCR report, At risk: exploitation and the UK asylum system, finds that people seeking asylum in the UK are at risk of exploitation and have been exploited in the UK. When people are forced to flee, they leave behind m...Read More

TAGS: Europe
What’s Changed In 10 Years?
Publications

A LOT CAN CHANGE IN A DECADE. FOR BETTER, AND FOR WORSE. Ten years ago, in the early hours of April 24, 2013, a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, crumbled. Within its walls were thousands of workers, many of whom never returned home to their ...Read More

TAGS:
The Effects of COVID‑19 on Trade and Global Supply Chains
COVID-19 resourcesPublications

The purpose of this brief is to provide an analysis of the near-term effects of the COVID‑19 pandemic on enterprises and workers engaged in trade and GSC-related activities and to explore the medium and long-term implications of the pandemic on su...Read More