The politics of corporate responsibility and child labour in the Bangladeshi garment industry

International Affairs

Volumn 81, Issue 3, 2005, Pages

  Nielsen, Michael E ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 19544366218     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2005.00469.x     Document Type: Article

References (179)

1. Memorandum of Understanding between BGMEA, UNICEF and ILO Bangladesh regarding the placement of child workers in school programmes and the elimination of child labour, 4 July 1995. This and other documents referred to are on file with the author.
2. See e.g. testimony of Gabriela Stoikov, manager of ILO-IPEC, in US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Public Hearings on International Child Labor, 12 April 1994, Official Record (Washington DC: Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 1994);
3. Rachel Marcus and Caroline Harper, Small hands: children in the working world, Working Paper no. 16 (London: Save the Children, 1997 [October 1996]);
4. Susan Bissell and Babar Sobhan, Child labour and education programming in the garment industry of Bangladesh: experiences and issues (Dhaka: UNICEF Bangladesh, 1996).
5. See also Jo Boyden, 'Postscript: implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child - who decides about children's welfare?', in Allison James and Alan Prout, eds, Constructing and reconstructing childhood: contemporary issues in the sociological study of childhood, 2nd edn (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003),
6. and Naila Kabeer, The power to choose: Bangladeshi women and labour market decisions in London and Dhaka (London: Verso, 2000).
7. There is one quite elaborate text on the background: Bissell and Sobhan, Child labour. Susan Bissell was UNICEF's daily point person in the negotiations of the MoU.
8. Morten Ougaard with Michael E. Nielsen, 'Teaching CSR: agendas and inquiries', in Mette Morsing and Christina Thyssen, eds, Corporate values and responsibility: the case of Denmark (Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur, 2003).
9. ILO-IPEC, '15 examples of selected successful action programmes', available at www.ilo.org, accessed 8 Sept. 2001.
10. e.g. ILO-IPEC, 'Pakistan - IPEC successfully applies model programme in football-making industry', available at www.ilo.org, accessed 8 Sept. 2001.
11. Put briefly, the traditional approach was characterized by an emphasis on international standard-setting and technical assistance through the ILO and legislation and enforcement by national governments. The process arguably did, however, play an important role in relation to a number of specific companies, as well as more broadly in relation to the emerging wave of codes of conduct.
12. For a critique, see e.g. Samuel Grumiau, Garments 'Made in Bangladesh': the social reality behind the label (Brussels: ICFTU, 2000). In these respects, the MoU - for better and for worse - is similar in kind to a number of 'focused' initiatives (and served to inform many of these), but different from e.g. codes of conduct, which tend to operate with different inclusions and exclusions.
13. The quotation is from Mojibul H. Bhuiyan and Harvey Shaw, 'Profile of the textile and clothing industry in Bangladesh', Textile Outlook International, May 1094, p. 91;
14. the figure is from World Bank, Bangladesh: from stabilization to growth (Washington DC: World Bank, 1995), p. 27.
15. World Bank, Bangladesh, p. 76;
16. GATT Secretariat, 'GATT trade policy review: Bangladesh', World Trade Materials 4: 4, July 1992, p. 6;
17. Anisul M. Islam and Munir Quddus, 'The export garment industry in Bangladesh: a potential catalyst for breakthrough', in Abu N. M. Wahid and Charles E. Weis, eds, The economy of Bangladesh: problems and prospects (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996), p. 187.
18. The figure for 1993 was 2.18%, according to Gary Gereffi, 'International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chain', Journal of International Economics 48, 1999, p. 50
19. See World Bank, Bangladesh.
20. See Gary Gereffi, 'The organization of buyer-driven global commodity chains: how US retailers shape overseas production networks', in Gary Gereffi and Miguel Korzeniewicz, eds, Commodity chains and global capitalism (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994).
21. The New Industrial Policy of 1982 involved a fundamental shift from an import-substituting to an export-oriented industrialization strategy - a shift which was reinforced in the Revised Industrial Policy of 1986 and in the Industrial Policy of 1991, and which, of course, mirrored similar shifts in many other countries at that time.
22. Gereffi, 'International trade', p. 49.
23. These - and the underlying competitive pressures, such as the retail revolution and the double squeeze on 'manufacturers' - have been analysed extensively elsewhere, including in Gereffi, 'The organization'. World Bank, Bangladesh. The MFA was a multilateral system of voluntary export restraint' agreements first signed in 1973.
24. For an in-depth analysis, see Geoffrey D. Underhill, Industrial crisis and the open economy: politics, global trade and the textile industry in the advanced economies (London: Macmillan, 1998).
25. Negotiations to phase out the MFA had been under way since the mid-1980s as part of the GATT Uruguay Round, and an agreement was reached in late 1993.
26. World Bank, Bangladesh, p. 78.
27. See e.g. 'US team calls on BGMEA president: no child labour in any garment factory', Telegraph (Dhaka), 14 Oct. 1993.
28. Grumiau, Garments, p. 3;
29. Asian-American Free Labor Institute (AAFLI), Report on child labor in Bangladesh, prepared for the US Department of Labor (n.p.: AAFLI, 1994), p. 22.
30. Marilyn Rock, 'The rise of the Bangladesh Independent Garment-Workers' Union (BIGU)', in Jane Hutchison and Andrew Brown, eds, Organising labour in globalising, Asia (London, Routledge, 2001).
31. AAFLI, Report. Bangladesh had not ratified the ILO Convention 138, concerning minimum age for admission to employment (1973);
32. ILO Conventions 29, 87, 98, 105 and III were ratified on 22 June 1972;
33. Convention 100 was ratified in 1998, and Convention 182 in 2001 (International Labour Organization, ratifications of the ILO fundamental conventions, as of 25 Sept. 2003, available at www.ilo.org, accessed 25 Sept. 2003). Bangladesh had, however, ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on 2 Sept. 1990 (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, status of ratifications of the principal international human rights treaties, as of 7 July 2003, available at www.unhchr.ch, accessed 25 Sept. 2003).
34. Embassy of Bangladesh to the United States, 'Written testimony', in US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Public Hearings on International Child Labor, 12 April 1994 (Washington DC: US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 1994).
35. Bissell and Sobhan, Child labour, p. 14.
36. A situation hardly unique to Bangladesh: see Assefa Bequele and Jo Boyden, eds, Combating child labour (Geneva: ILO, 1988).
37. US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, By the sweat and toil of children, vol. 1: The use of child labor in US manufactured and mined imports (Washington DC: US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 1994), pp. 32-3;
38. Grumiau, Garments, p. 16.
39. See e.g. Rhys Jenkins, Ruth Pearson and Gill Seyfang, 'Introduction', in Jenkins, Pearson and Seyfang, eds, Corporate responsibility and labour rights: codes of conduct in the global economy (London: Earthscan, 2002).
40. Meryl Davids, 'Global standards, local problems', Journal of Business Strategy, Jan.-Feb. 1999.
41. William Maroni (responsible for government affairs and public policy at Levi Strauss), testimony, in US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Public Hearings on International Child Labor, 28 June 1996 (Washington DC: US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 1996);
42. Karl Schoenberger, Levi's children: coming to terms with human rights in the global marketplace (New York: Grove, 2000).
43. Not only are statistics on child labour generally notoriously difficult to establish (see e.g. Alec Fyfe and M. Jankanish, Trade unions and child labour: a guide to action [Geneva: ILO, 1997], pp. 13-14), but the problem is aggravated in this particular case by the fact that the Bangladeshi manufacturers had already started to lay off children before the spotlight really focused on the problem in late 1992. What is more, the figures reported at the time should be approached with more than a little caution as they also reflected the narrow interests of those reporting them. Statistics on child labour in the Bangladeshi garment industry, in other words, were part and parcel of the politics of child labour and corporate responsibility analysed below.
44. Kabeer, The power to choose.
45. Primary education in Bangladesh was both free and compulsory, but the education system was of a very poor quality, school accessories still had to be paid for, and formal education was often (perceived to be) of little use for the future. See e.g. US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, By the sweat and toil of children, vol. 1, p. 33;
46. AAFLI, Report, p. 14.
47. AAFLI, Report, p. 13-14.
48. See e.g. US Department of State, Bangladesh economic policy and trade practices (Washington DC: US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 1994).
49. Rock, The rise';
50. AAFLI, Report, pp. 12-14;
51. US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, By the sweat and toil of children, vol. 1, p. 30.
52. This is not to argue that the children employed in the industry would otherwise have been attending school, but it is important to point out that there was a change in the real social relations of production and not merely in the discursive politics of child labour.
53. AAFLI, Report, p. 13.
54. AAFLI, Report, p. 13 (emphasis in original);
55. Bissell and Sobhan, Child labour, pp. 8-9;
56. Grumiau, Garments, p. 14.
57. AAFLI, Report, p. 12.
58. See e.g. US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, By the sweat and toil of children, vol. 1, p. 31.
59. Cited from Rock, The rise', p. 40.
60. Child labour in the Bangladeshi garment industry had not gone entirely unnoticed, and there had been skirmishes between American trade unions and the local manufacturers. See e.g. Denis Campbell, 'Young Guardian: slaves to our appetites - the exploitation of child workers around the world', Guardian (London), 21 June 1989;
61. Robert A. Senser, 'On their knees', America 167: 7, Sept. 1992.
62. The bill had actually been introduced earlier, but had not yet been passed. See Congressional Record, 'Statements on introduced bills and joint resolutions (Senate, August 5, 1992)';
63. Congressional Record, The introduction of the Child Labor Deterrence Act of 1989' (House of Representatives, 24 May 1989);
64. Congressional Record, 'Statements on introduced bills and joint resolutions' (Senate, 24 May 1990)';
65. Congressional Record, 'Introduction of the Child Labor Deterrence Act of 1991 - Hon. Donald J. Pease' (Extension of Remarks, House of Representatives, 15 Nov. 1991).
66. Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain (BGMEA president), letter to BGMEA members, 14 Nov. 1992.
67. It also made allegations that Chinese clothing had been mislabelled to avoid import quota restrictions. See Don Longo, 'Wal-Mart must address some "press"ing issues', Discount Store News 32: 1, 4 Jan. 1993, p. 14;
68. 'Wal-Mart stock falls ahead of TV show's report on imports', Wall Street Journal, 22 Dec. 1992.
69. AAFLI, Report, p. 21.
70. Quotes from Terry Collingsworth, telefax to Pharis Harvey, 23 March 1993. See also 'US labour body offers to train garment workers' and 'Garment manufacturers likely to clean low-age workers to protect US market: BGMEA warns members of dire consequences of employing children', Telegraph (Dhaka), 31 Dec. 1992;
71. 'AAFLI, BGMEA to solve problems of child labour', Bangladesh Times, 31 Dec. 1992.
72. AAFLI, Report, p. 21.
73. 'Garment manufacturers', Telegraph (Dhaka); Collingsworth, telefax to Harvey, 23 March 1993.
74. 'Malpublicity in United States against readymade garments of Bangladesh', Morning Paper (Dhaka), 6 Jan. 1993 (AAFLI translation);
75. United States Information Agency (Dhaka), Memorandum 0340, 'Bangladesh atmospherics for 1/13/93: child labor in the garment industry', 13 Jan. 1993;
76. 'Unwanted garment workers', Daily Star (Dhaka), 18 Jan. 1993;
77. AAFLI, Report.
78. 'US companies start taking actions against Bangladeshi contractors', Daily Star (Dhaka), 15 March 1993;
79. AAFLI, Report;
80. Louise Kehoe, 'Bold fashion statement: Levi Strauss's decision not to invest in China', Financial Times, 8 May 1993;
81. Joanna Ramey, 'Wal-Mart sets sourcing rules to monitor labor conditions', Women's Wear Daily, 10 June 1993.
82. See e.g. 'US companies', Daily Star (Dhaka);
83. Congressional Record, 'Statements on introduced bills and joint resolutions (Senate, 18 March 1993)';
84. AAFLI, Report;
85. United States Information Agency (Dhaka), Memorandum 02339, 'TPC on child labor', 29 March 1993;
86. Memorandum 02432, 'Bangladesh media reaction - March 31', 31 March 1993;
87. Memorandum 02523, 'Bangladesh media reaction-March 31', 2 April 1993;
88. Memorandum 02622, 'TPC on child labor/the Harkin bill', 7 April 1993;
89. Memorandum 02705, Bangladesh media reaction - April 7', 8 April 1993.
90. See Bissell and Sobhan, Child labour, AAFLI, Report;
91. 'BGMEA can help avert adverse effect of Harkin Bill', Daily Star (Dhaka), 3 Aug. 1993;
92. 'Harkin Bill "won't hit local industries'", Morning Sun, 3 Aug. 19931
93. 'Harkin Bill a reflection of protectionism', Morning Sun (Dhaka), 9 Aug. 1993;
94. 'Harkin Bill to damage garment industry in Bangladesh', Telegraph (Dhaka), 10 Aug. 1993;
95. 'AAFLI working against interest of workers', New Nation (Dhaka), 10 Aug. 1993;
96. Nur Khan Liton, 'Fair deal for the kids: Harkin's Law will do more harm than good to Bangladesh's working children', Dhaka Courier, 10 Sept. 1993;
97. 'No child labour', Telegraph (Dhaka), 14 Oct. 1993.
98. Congressional Record, 'Introduction of the Child Labor Deterrence Act of 1994 - Hon. George E. Brown, Jr.' (Extension of Remarks, House of Representatives, 1 July 1994);
99. Agence France Presse (AFP), 'Bangladesh's garment industry to end use of child labour', 5 July 1994;
100. Rahman Jahangir, 'US pressure forces Dhaka to free 36,000 child labourers', Saudi Gazette, 6 July 1994;
101. AFP, 'Bangladesh garment exporters ban child labour', 24 July 1994.
102. ILO-IPEC, Action against child labour: lessons and strategic priorities for the future (Geneva: ILO, 1997), pp. 23-4;
103. AFP, 'Bangladeshi child labour lay-offs postponed', 31 Oct. 1994.
104. E.g. Nick Nuckley and Nick Fielding, 'Why I'll never buy a pair of Levi's again: just 3p on the price of jeans would double the wages of these sweatshop girls in Bangladesh', Mail on Sunday (London), 27 Nov. 1994.
105. President of the National Consumers League.
106. Linda Golodner and Pharis Harvey, telefax to Redwan Ahmed (BGMEA president), 30 Jan. 1995.
107. The BGMEA had a tremendous PR opportunity to sign an agreement around the time of the forthcoming visit of the US First Lady, Hillary Clinton, to Bangladesh. According to the BGMEA, however, an agreement required the approval of an extraordinary general meeting: Redwan Ahmed, telefax to Pharis Harvey, 25 April 1995;
108. Humayun Kabir (Bangladesh ambassador to the US), telefax to Harvey, 25 April 1995;
109. UPI (United Press International), 'Bangladeshi child labor takes spotlight', 2 April 1995.
110. Pharis Harvey, telefaxes to Redwan Ahmed, 13 March, 14 April, 19 April, 20 April 1995;
111. 'Bangladesh, Guatemala under fire', Women's Wear Daily, 25 April 1995;
112. 'Bangladesh makers: we'll try', Women's Wear Daily, 26 April 1995.
113. Tabibul Islam, 'Bangladesh - child labor: Bangladesh, US clash over child labor', Dhaka, Inter Press Service/Global Information Network, 7 June 1995.
114. Linda Golodner and Pharis Harvey, telefax to members of the Child Labor Coalition, 18 May 1995;
115. Pharis Harvey, telefax to Terry Collingsworth and Lydia Sigelakis (AAFLI-Bangladesh), 19 May 1995;
116. Pharis Harvey, telefax to Redwan Ahmed, 20 May 1995;
117. Jack Sheinkman and Carolyn Kazdin (president and legislative director, respectively, of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, ACTWU), telefax to Redwan Ahmed, 25 May 1995;
118. Pharis Harvey, telefax to Redwan Ahmed, 26 May 1995;
119. Jay Mazur and Evelyn Dubrow (president and vice-president/legislative director, respectively, of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, ILGWU), telefax to Redwan Ahmed, 26 May 1995;
120. Linda Golodner, telefax to Redwan Ahmed, 31 May 1995;
121. Nadeem Qadir, 'Bangladesh garment exports to US threatened by row over child labour', AFP, Dhaka, 20 May 1995;
122. Joanna Ramey, 'Bangladesh apparel seen facing boycott', Women's Wear Daily, 22 May 1995;
123. Joyce Barrett, 'Boycott of apparel made in Bangladesh planned', Women's Wear Daily, 23 May 1995.
124. AFP, 'Bangladeshi clothes trade hits at US protest against child labour', 22 May 1995;
125. UPI, 'Bangladeshi manufacturers to protest boycott', 23 May 1995;
126. AFP, 'US welcomes call for talks on child labour by Bangladeshi garment exporters', 25 May 1995;
127. Redwan Ahmed, telefax to Linda Golodner, 3 June 1995.
128. This move followed a CBS exposé of child labour in the production of surgical instruments in Sialkot, Pakistan, which was incidentally also the first major step in the ensuing controversy over child labour in the soccer ball industry, in which UNICEF and the ILO-IPEC again partnered up. See Maggie Jackson, 'Children make US soccer balls, UNICEF tools in Pakistan', Associated Press (AM cycle), 5 April 1995;
129. Barbara Crossette, 'Unicef vows not to buy from companies that exploit children', New York Times, 25 May 1995;
130. Elliott Schrage, Promoting international worker rights through private voluntary initiatives: public relations or public policy? A report to the US Department of State on behalf of the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights (Iowa: University of Iowa Center for Human Rights, 2004, available at www.uichr.org), ch. 2.
131. Redwan Ahmed, telefax to Linda Golodner, 3 June 1995;
132. Lydia Sigelakis (AAFLI Bangladesh), telefaxes to Pharis Harvey, 5 and 7 June 1995;
133. Pharis Harvey, telefax to David N. Merrill (US ambassador to Bangladesh), 9 June 1995;
134. Lydia Sigelakis, telefax to Pharis Harvey and Terry Collingsworth, 21 June 1995;
135. Joanna Ramey, 'Bangladesh apparel agreement may be inked as soon as today', Daily News Record 25: 123, 27 June 1995;
136. 'Pact nearly set on child labor in Bangladesh', Women's Wear Daily, 27 June 1995;
137. AFP, 'Bangladesh garment manufacturers sign child labour agreement', 4 July 1995.
138. The existence of the problem - i.e. the actual use of illegal child labour - was not seriously disputed. There were some occasional denials by the BGMEA, but overall there was 'little room for any credible denial that there are significant numbers of child workers in the Bangladesh garment industry': AAFLI, Report, p. 4.
139. Indeed, as Pharis Harvey recollects, the AFL-CIO were not 'that happy with child labor being a major part of Terry's work'. Interview with Pharis Harvey, Corralitos (CA), 6 May 2003.
140. Interview with Terry Collingsworth, Washington DC, 20 March 2003.
141. Interview with a former senior official of the US Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Washington DC, 15 April 2003;
142. see also Rock, 'The rise'.
143. Bissell and Sobhan, Child labour, p. 3.
144. On statistical warfare, see Joel Best, Damned lies and statistics: untangling numbers from the media, politicians, and activists (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).
145. AAFLI, Report, p. 6.
146. See e.g. Telegraph (Dhaka), 31 Dec. 1992;
147. Morning Paper, 6 Jan. 1993;
148. Daily Star, 23 Jan. 1994.
149. E.g. Morning Paper, 6 Jan. 1993;
150. 'Harkin's bill is going to be passed in the current month', Daily Janakantea, 4 May 1994;
151. Costa had aided the NBC crew back in 1992 and had been active from early on, cf. p. 569.
152. AAFLI, Report, p. 17.
153. AAFLI, Report, p. 15.
154. AAFLI, Report, p. 23.
155. Bissell and Sobhan, Child labour, p. 10.
156. Pharis Harvey, in 'Working for labor rights: an interview with Pharis Harvey', Multinational Monitor, Dec. 1993.
157. Interview with former Labor Department official, 15 April 2003.
158. Interview with Harvey, 6 May 2003.
159. Interview with Collingsworth, 20 March 2003.
160. Quote from Bissell and Sobhan, Child labour, p. 14;
161. see also Kabeer, The power to choose.
162. Bissell and Sobhan, Child labour, p. 14;
163. see also Rock, 'The rise'.
164. Harvey, telefax to Merrill, 9 June 1995;
165. Sigelakis, telefaxes to Harvey, 5 and 7 June 1995.
166. See e.g. Golodner and Harvey, telefax to Ahmed, 30 Jan. 1995.
167. Collingsworth, telefax to Harvey, 19 May 1995.
168. Harvey, telefax to Ahmed, 20 May 1995.
169. The Labor Department and the US embassy, along with the government of Bangladesh, also played a role in the exclusion of AAFLI: 'At some point. . . [Terry Collingsworth's] personal influence was becoming a hindrance; he was just becoming a lightning rod . . . And so we talked to him about it and said, "We'll continue to talk to you, let you know what's going on, and you can continue to work on the sidelines, but right now you're the lightning rod, and so, can you step back?'" Interview with former Labor Department official, 15 April 2003.
170. Sigelakis, telefax to Harvey, 5 June 1995;
171. Harvey, telefax to Ahmed, 20 May 1995;
172. Harvey, telefax to Laura E. Jones, USAITA, 31 May 1995.
173. Interview with former Department of Labor official, 15 April 2003.
174. Sigelakis, telefax to Harvey, 5 June 1995. From early on, the BGMEA sought to link a possible programme to development assistance funds from the US, but this was rejected at the time: see United States Information Agency, Memorandum 02622, 7 April 1993.
175. MoU; Sigelakis, telefax to Harvey, 5 June 1995.
176. See Sigelakis, telefax to Harvey, 5 June 1995;
177. Harvey, telefax to Merrill, 9 June 1995;
178. Collingsworth, telefax to Harvey, 28 July 1995;
179. Sigelakis, telefax to Harvey, 13 Sept. 1995.