Comments on: How sweatshops benefit workers and why they are unjust

By: M4 – Misty Karella – Business Ethics

M4 – Misty Karella – Business Ethics — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 08:36:32 +0000

[…] http://blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk/jwi/2013/11/24/how-sweatshops-benefit-workers-and-why-they-are-unjust/ […]

By: David Somervell

David Somervell — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 10:10:05 +0000

Dear Kieran and Karen
My understanding is that the UK National Union of Students Supplies Ltd (NUSSL) has gone further than most when faced with difficulty of finding a reliable long term supply partner for the many hoodies and t-shirts sold through Students Unions resorted recently to buying Epona – a UK-based company.
While not yet evident on their website [at http://www.eponaclothing.com/ ] I understand that NUS plan to establish a small factory that offers UK customers the opportunity to buy garments which are both Fair Traded AND Living Wage. Now that would be progress. Not the cheapest but enabling the wearer to know that they have genuinely contributed to the well-being of the people who made it AND not exploiting them. Looking forward to hearing more about this from Sophie Sharp at NUS.
All best, David Somervell, Sustainability Adviser, University of Edinburgh

By: Karen Bowman

Karen Bowman — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:31:16 +0000

Thanks Keiran for this which advocates a ‘fair trade’ or ‘ethical procurement’ engagement approach for Scotland’s first Fairtrade University and first Scottish institution to join the Workers Rights Consortium, http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/procurement/sustainableprocurement/sustainable-procurement/wrc-affiliation

I agree that rather than ‘boycott’ which can be a breach-of-contract or have other ‘fairness’ challenges, we can improve procurement/supply chain exploitation if we ask for assurances as part of ‘normal business’ and we should aim to do so as student and staff procurers (for our shops, sports teams or uniforms). http://blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk/jwi/2013/05/21/what-can-we-do-as-procurers-of-goods-to-prevent-future-factory-disasters-in-developing-countries/

We have in our universities and colleges student/procurement/environmentalist work going on within Scotland to extend the supply chain sustainability and collect data within a broadly drafted code of conduct http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/procurement/policies-procedures/apuc-supply-chain-sustainability but all such codes or aspirational activities require some verification and validation on site.

The factory in Rana Plaza had passed some assessors hurdles, see slide 7 of the WRC slidepack at http://www.workersrights.org/university/memo/110113.html

The students, staff and alumni of the University spend much much more on garments than the official channels, and now 100 firms have signed up the the Bangladesh Accord but will we put our own money at risk and reduce our demand for ever ‘cheaper’ clothes?

We could buy more from our student SHRUB http://www.shrubcoop.org/what-we-do/ or from local charity shops – a win-win for both the environment (less waste) and the individual charity of your personal choice.

Karen Bowman