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Is Fair Trade a good fit
for the garment industry
Is Fair Trade a good fit for
the garment industry? A Discussion Paper from the Maquila Solidariry
Network - September 2006
Fair Trade coffee and bananas
are making their way into mainstream markets. But, with the exception of a
few alternative trading companies that market clothing manufactured in
worker-owned cooperatives or unionized factories as 'sweatfree' or 'Union
Made', to date there have been only minimal efforts to create alternative
markets for fair trade apparel products.
All of that could change with
the emergence of a number of new initiatives in North America and Europe
in which fair trade and/or labour rights organizations are moving toward
the certification of apparel products as 'fair trade' or 'sweatfree'.
Can a 'fair trade' apparel
brand expand the fight for worker rights or would it reduce the pressure
on mainstream apparel companies to change their labour practices? Would
fair trade apparel brands finally give consumers an effective way to
"vote with their dollars" or could they actually confuse and
demobilize consumers? And what will it mean for worker organizing in the
apparel industry?
The Maquila Solidarity Network
explores this emerging debate in the first of an exciting new series of
Discussion Papers profiling critical issues, challenges and debates in the
labour rights movement as we enter our second decade of activism against
sweatshop abuses in the garment and sportswear industries.
Download Is Fair Trade a good
fit for the garment industry? at www.maquilasolidarity.org.
We would welcome your comments
and are planning to publish alternative perspectives on this important
issue on our website. We also welcome suggestions for other themes and/or
debates to profile as part of this series.
Watch for our next Codes Memo
in December assessing developments and trends in voluntary codes of
conduct and implementation systems over 2006.
Lynda Yanz, Coordinator
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Maquila
Solidarity Network / Ethical Trading Action Group
606
Shaw Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6G 3L6
416-532-8584
(phone) |
416-532-7688
(fax)
www.maquilasolidarity.org
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