Can We Put an End to Sweatshops?: A New Democracy Forum on Raising Global Labor Standard

The MIT scholar who broke the news about Nike\u27s sweatshops argues, with two colleagues, that consumer choices can improve workers\u27 lives globally Seventy-five percent of Americans say they would avoid retailers whom they knew sold goods produced in sweatshops. And almost 90 percent said they would pay at least an extra dollar on a twenty-dollar item if they could be sure it had not been produced by exploited workers. Knowing that information about the conditions of workers around the world can influence what we buy, Dara O\u27Rourke, Archon Fung, and Charles Sabel argue that making that information widely available is the best way to improve conditions. Although watchdog agencies have tried to monitor working conditions and pressure corporations to adhere to international standards, the authors show how these organizations alone cannot do enough; only consumer action and the threat of falling profits will force corporate owners to care about the conditions of their workers. Respondents include activists, scholars, and officials of the International Labor Organization and World Bank.https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/books/1167/thumbnail.jp