Missing Links between Global CSR and Local Labour Conditions:

A global commodity chain is linked through different players participating in the production process, and any consumer driven action will influence those players in a remote countryside. Accompanying the anti-sweatshop movement in the core countries initiated by Western consumers, Western brand name companies and Asian subcontracting companies, which are mostly from newly industrialised countries, are obliged to take corporate social responsibility (CSR) to improve third world workers ’ conditions. However, the effectiveness of the global CSR is often under suspicion. If CSR is effective, why there are so much discontent in these CSR implemented factories in Vietnam in the past few years? This paper will discuss how the CSR is applied to Taiwanese factories in Vietnam, to understand the change of labour conditions, and to explore what factors contribute to the outcome. Our case study is from the footwear industry in Vietnam, and interviews with managers of a Western brand name company, Taiwanese managers in Vietnam, Vietnamese workers and trade unions are made in year 2007 and 2008 to support our argument that without democratic participation of local workers to represent their interests, any top-down CSR implementation from brand name companies and subcontracting companies will have its limitation, and will not be able to change the curren