Child labor, sweatshops and other human rights issues has always been in the back of my mind when shopping for clothing especially, however I felt uneducated on the subject and not confident enough to make that promise to my husband.   So, I began searching websites and calling companies to find out what policies they inforce to protect their workers basic human rights and how closely they monitor the factories where their garments are made.  

This will be an extensive and ongoing post, but I'm happy to provide compassionate shoppers with the information I've gathered in my quest for an acessable, affordable, fairly traded wardrobe.

Clothing and goods that are truly "Fair Trade" are becoming more widely available in eco-friendly shops and online.  My goal, however was to find out as much as possible about the brands that we are all familiar with and that can be easily bought at a local store.  By contacting major brand companies and voicing my concerns for their garment factory workers, I also hoped to raise the awareness that their customers do care and that the demand for fairly traded goods to become the norm is on the rise. 

My first stop was at Gap Inc. (the parent company of Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Piper Lime.)  I chose to begin my search here because Gap Inc. was the poster-child for child labor and sweatshop practices after media reports exposed them to the public some years ago.  However, what I found out at GapInc.com is that the company currently has the most transparent factory monitering reports available to the public (on the internet) since 2004.  Does this mean that all of the Gap factories are compliant with the companies statement of ethics?  Well, it's a start.  As a blogger, I'd like give my summary of the company's 2006 social responsibility report. 

I learned that most clothing companies do not own the factories where their garments are made.  The actual factories are independant contractors and so who we think of as the clothing "manufacturer" is really just responsible for designing the garments, contracting out the construction of them, then distribution, sales and marketing, of course.  Some clothing companies, like Gap Inc., have a team of people responsible for monitering relationships with factories and enforcing (by threat of terminating the working relationship) basic human rights standards.  Some clothing companies just work with whatever factory will save them the most money and don't maintain relationships with the contractors at all. (Nike brand has been accused of such.)

  From what I have found, any company that is conscious enough to make attempts at enforcing basic human rights policies for the employees of their contracting facilities is going to have a public statement about it somewhere on their website.  I have foud this to be true for Columbia, Patogonia, Tommy Hilfiger,  MEC and others.  I have also found brands such as Carhardt who actually own some of their factories and also have what they call "union made" garments.  In this case it is the union overseeing the rights of the workers.  (More on this in future blogs.) 

Getting back to the Gap report, on page 30 there is a comprehensive list of a factory's potential violations as well as a chart revealing which countries have the highest rate of which occurences.   If using the Gap report as a snapshot of common factory practices in the country of occurence for all clothing companies, one can begin to make more educated shopping choices based on personal values.  For example: North Africa had the highest percentage of reported cases of workers proven to be under 14 years of age (a.k.a. child labor) although the actual percentage was fairly low, as in <10%. China was reported to have <1% of violations in this catagory. However, in the more vague catagory of "not in full compliance with local child labor laws" China, India, North Africa, South America and even Europe all recieved violations, but still relativly low at <10%.   The highest percentage of violations regarding the potential use of child labor was in the catagory of "poor age documentation" with China, India and Northeast Asia recieving the highest percentage of violations at up to <25%, and Africa, Europe and South America recieving violaions in this catagory on <10% of inspections.

Gap Inc. reported that no instances of violaitons concerning child labor were found in any of their factories in Mexico, Central America, the Carribean, Persian Gulf, the United States or Canada (per thier 2006 social responsibilty report.)

Based on this report and in attempts to keep my agreement with my husband about not supporting child labor,  I have been reading the labels on each piece of clothing I buy to check the country of origin.  I now feel more comfotable buying clothing "made in Guatamala" as opposed to the more common "made in China" option.  I've also discovered clothing brands made in the USA (American Apparel for instance.)  More on domestically made fashion in my next blog!

Gap Inc.'s 2006 social responsibility report can be found here: http://www.gapinc.com/public/documents/CSR_Report_05_06.pdf