Inditex released a statement saying that they can not be held accountable for “unauthorized outsourcing” but would compensate the workers because AHA had violated Inditex’s code of conduct. The response has not satisfied Brazilian authorities and they released a statement of their own by the lead prosecutor in the case. “AHA is a logistical extension of its main client, Zara Brasil,” said the prosecutor, Giuliana Cassiano Orlandi. “The company is responsible for its employees. Its raison d’être is making clothes and it follows that it must know who is producing its garments.”

Renato Bignami, who led the investigation, said the workers – who lived on the premises – worked 12-hour shifts in dangerous and unhealthy conditions. One Bolivian migrant worker stated that the labor component of a pair of Zara jeans selling at $126 (£76) was $1.14, which was divided between the seven people involved in the process. The workers earned between $156 and $290 a month. The minimum wage in Brazil is $344. The investigation began after unions reported last June that sweatshops in São Paulo were producing garments for Zara.

The following is a statement by lead investigator Renato Bignami: “They work 16 or even 18 hours a day,” he said. “It is extremely exhausting work, from Monday to Saturday, sometimes even Sunday depending on demand. I’ve seen workers who have taken home R$150-250 (£57-94) at the end of the month – after paying off housing debt, food debt, telephone card debt, debt [to people traffickers] for the journey here. Many have to work for three or four months to pay off the “coyotes” who have smuggled them into the country.” “These are classic cases of immigrant sweatshops,” Bignami said, adding that he had no doubt that such labor conditions characterized modern-day slavery. Workers often face “threats, coercion, physical violence. All this to increase productivity,” he added. To read the full article on ‘The Guardian’, published online on August 18th, 2011 please visit the following link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/18/zara-brazil-sweatshop-accusation

There have been some recent developments to this case since the accusations were first leveled at Zara.

Inditex, Zara’s parent company and the world’s largest clothes retailer, has said that the supplier has accepted full responsibility and that it was going to improve the subcontractors’ working conditions to bring them in line with those at facilities audited and approved by Inditex inspectors. According to the BBC, Inditex has approximately 50 suppliers in Brazil, which employ more than 7,000 workers. The company said it wanted to “foster the best conditions possible in the Brazilian textile industry”. The BBC also published that there are hundreds of factories in São Paulo state, producing garments for Brazil’s booming market and that recently the Brazilian authorities formed a special task force to locate and shut down sweatshops. To read the full article on ‘BBC News’, published online on August 18th, 2011 please visit the following link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14570564

In a more recent article published online on August 26th, 2011 by ‘Just-Style’, Zara has said that it will consider appealing some $700,000 in possible fines stemming from the Brazilian Labor Ministry investigation into “slave labor” conditions at one of its suppliers, after insisting it wasn’t aware of the violations. According to the article, Pablo Sexto, spokesman for retail giant Inditex, which owns Zara, said the Labor Ministry is currently reviewing the case. However, if the company is fined or taken to trial, it will likely lodge an appeal as it disagrees with the Ministry’s view that it is responsible. In the wake of the findings, Brazil’s Labor Inspectorate said that even though the workshops were subcontracted, the responsibility of their working conditions rested with Zara. It added AHA has a close relationship with Zara in which it acts as a “logistics extension” to its local subsidiary Zara Brazil. However, the ministry said the firm had the right to appeal any fines that could be assessed in the case. To read the full article on ‘Just-Style’ please visit the following link: http://www.just-style.com/analysis/zara-denies-wrongdoing-in-brazil-sweatshop-row_id112016.aspx

In a follow-up report by the The Sunday Leader titled ‘The Classic Factory Workers’ Nightmare’ the Institute stated that an alleged serial rapist of Sri Lankan nationality was inexplicably freed by Jordanian officials after being arrested on June 17, 2011 to face charges of rape and torture of a young woman guest worker at the Classic factory. The accused, Anil Santha, a general manager for the Classic Fashion Apparel Industry in Jordan, went right back to work at Classic to the devastation of workers according to IGLHR. Charles Kernaghan, Director of IGLHR, had the following to say about Sri Lankan authorities who he claims were fully aware of the situation at the Classic factories in Jordan, but chose to ignore them. “I think the Sri Lanka foreign employment bureau knows exactly what’s going on, and they have done nothing. This is a cover-up. Their main aim is to increase the flow of workers to foreign countries. They are willing to sacrifice young Sri Lankan women for the economy of Sri Lanka. These women are not in a position to fight back. If they testify, they will be beaten by Classic managers, and not only forcibly deported, but shamed. From what I understand, they believe that their lives are ruined, and their chances of having a successful marriage are next to zero,” said Kernaghan.

The IGLHR went on to explain that they learned of the abuse taking place at Classic ’s factories through the large network of factory workers in Jordan and that they have carried out three campaigns on Classic over the last few years. The sexual abuse charges came to light in December when the Institute was in Jordan and held a secret meeting with Classic factory workers. The women workers taped their testimonies using cell phones. IGLHR also claims that Jordan’s Ministry of Labour has been aware of the sexual abuse these women have suffered since as early as 2007, but has done nothing about it. The report can be found at the following link: http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/06/26/the-classic-factory-workers-nightmare/

The national press brought this to the attention of the general public when The Huffington Post published an article titled ‘Major American Brands Silent on Alleged Rights Abuses At Overseas Factories’ on July 21, 2011. The article begins, “A month after a prominent human rights group accused major American brands of purchasing clothing from a factory in Jordan that systematically abuses workers, the companies have yet to declare any public action.” In an interview with The Huffington Post, Charles Kernaghan criticized the American brands for a lack of action following the release of the Institute’s report. “When we first started with this I thought Walmart and Hanes, they are not into human rights,” he said. “But we thought they would draw the line in the sand at these rapes. Instead, they’ve been virtually silent.”

The Huffington Post reported that as American companies have expanded their reach around the globe, riding free trade agreements to tap low-wage countries for goods, Jordan has emerged as a key supplier. In 2001, the United States finalized a free trade agreement with Jordan, lifting tariffs on a range of goods, including apparel. Five years later, exports from Jordan to the United States peaked at $1.2 billion, according to U.S. Department of commerce data. After a dip caused by the global economic downturn, the country’s exports rebounded in 2010. Apparel exports alone reached $1.05 billion. But as trade has burgeoned, so has scrutiny into the conditions confronted by the people making the goods. Guest workers from poor countries employed in the Middle East — and particularly in Jordan — have in recent years been at the center of the debate over whether labor has been treated fairly. Non-governmental organizations, as well as the International Labour Organization, the United Nation’s worker advocacy agency, have in recent years investigated working conditions in Jordan. Macy’s, Target, Kohl’s, and Wal-Mart emailed statements to The Huffington Post regarding their standards in sourcing merchandise. The article mentions an independent workplace monitoring organization named Better Work Jordan which receives funding from the U.S. government. In March 2010, the Jordanian Cabinet agreed to gradually require all factories to submit to Better Work Jordan assessments. One year later, Better Work Jordan evaluated 24 of the estimated 80 factories operating Jordan, including Classic Brands. Of these, 63 percent were found to have coerced workers, 29 percent used bonded labor and 88 percent housed workers in conditions that were in some way deficient, according to the report. A detailed assessment of Classic Brands was made but not included in the online document. When the latest incident at the Classic Factory occurred and the general manager Anil Santha was arrested, it was soon after reported by the Wall Street Journal. The case against Santha is pending after he was released on bail. Of last note is that in the week of the publishing of the article, the US Trade Representative’s Office, which negotiates free trade agreements, said it was aware of the allegations in the Institute’s latest report and has referred the matter to the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues. A State Department spokeswoman said the department is in consultations with the Jordanian government over the issue. To read the full article on The Huffington Post click on the following link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/21/american-brands-abuses-factories-jordan-labor-conditions_n_903995.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

Emma Watson from Harry Poter has collaborated with Alberta Ferretti in producing an eco-friendly fashion line. H& M has also created an eco-friendly fashion line called “Conscious.” Wearing eco-friendly products is no longer for the tree huggers and hippies it is for the worldwide consumer. Other labels such as: Victoria’s Secret, Target Banana Republic and even Nike are also producing green products. Whether it is using organic cotton or recycling a car tire to produce a pair of shoes, consumers are going green and so is the textile industry.

The article itself has a link to the working paper.

Some key points from the executive summary:
- “In the past 10 years, corporate investors have shown an increasing interest in the social responsibility of the companies whose stocks they pick.”
- “The researchers compared 16 countries that required sustainability reporting with a sample of 42 countries that didn’t. Using several measures, they found that the social responsibility of business leaders and managerial credibility increased in those countries with reporting mandates.”
- “The data provide the first concrete evidence that mandating social responsibility reporting actually makes a positive difference.”

A quote from George Serafeim of HBS: “”The number of investors who care about this kind of performance has increased dramatically in the last 10 years,” Serafeim says. “Right now those investors have about $5 trillion in assets under management, so you can say this is a pretty significant amount of money.”

As we can see, mandatory CSR is having an overall positive impact in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, at this point in time mandatory CSR reporting by companies is not prevalent, the opposite being the case for annual financial reporting. Consumers and customers of products and services need to be able to evaluate the offerings of companies and whether they are socially responsible in order to make more informed choices. One can only hope that regulations and legislation will be introduced to legally mandate CSR reporting on a global scale. This effort will obviously take time and resources, but will have a long lasting impact on socio-economic and environmental conditions.

Companies such as Fabrisource in the textile industry have adopted social responsibility into its mission and primary objectives and it benefits society as a whole when investors and consumers alike can make informed decisions based on the ideals and priorities that they hold dear. One can only hope that mandatory CSR reporting is implemented sooner rather than later on a global scale and this seminal research shows that CSR reporting is working and is worth doing so.

The detrimental impact of the fashion world has been largely out of sight, out of mind, until now. Introducing an innovative and sustainable textile collection, dusk till dawn, which reincarnates waste products away from landfill and into textiles that truly fulfill the mind, body & soul.

Alas, the realm of refashioning the “glamour” embedded within the fashion industry is born, by dissecting and turning pre-conceived perceptions of the aesthetics of sustainability on its head! In turn exposing the dark side of fashion; including its astronomical impact on the environment and many of the worlds’ poorest people. Just think for a moment, all the processes involved in the fashion and textile industry, from raw material procurement to product disposal. It is truly mind-boggling. No wonder most t-shirts travel the distance of the globe in their production.

Be seduced by the smorgasbord of enticing and eclectic India. The architecture, patterns, religious monuments and colour reveal a multitude of holes and layers. These are embedded within the textiles of this range through a variety of contemporary and traditional techniques.

dusk till dawn serves up something for every one, whether it’s a sensuous evening gown worn at dusk or a dressing gown that glides over you like a second skin at dawn, a feeling of absolute ecstasy is guaranteed, as well as the ability to sleep better at night, knowing that your purchase has lessened the carbon footprint of this diverse industry, one step at a time.

As members of the textile industry we can all implement sustainability into our industry. Designers and manufactures can make a difference by
-understanding the theoretical, technical and practical considerations of the entire production process of a product
-collaborating with technologists, scientists, growers, and manufacturers
-understanding the performance and aesthetic qualities that are high on the consumer agenda.
Lastly understanding how the consumer will use the product. Once we get a grasp and are aware of these key factors, we will be able to quickly make a difference by creating a more sustainable textile industry.

With forced overtime and harsh conditions, where is the light at the end of the tunnel for the workers? The conditions of their situation are awful; stuck in a financial whirlwind, sweatshop workers have no other choice but to accept this low wage and unhealthy work load. So when we say that work is killing them, we are speaking figuratively.

Well, not anymore.

On Dec. 14, 2010 outside Bangladesh’s capital of Dhaka, a sportswear manufacturing company broke out in fire on the ninth and tenth floors killing 28 of its workers. With blocked escape routes, a lack of an emergency evacuation plan and malfunctioning fire equipment, workers were jumping to their deaths while the others were trampled and suffocated.

This isn’t the first instance either. In January of the same year, another fire broke out leading another 21 Bangladeshi workers to their deaths while injuring another 50.

Fires aren’t the only problem. Perhaps the largest media-covered disaster in the textile industry, the collapse of the nine-story Spectrum-Shahriyar factory in April 2005 killed 64 workers, injured at least 74 and left hundreds jobless. At the time of the collapse, nearly 350 workers were trapped in debris awaiting their rescue. While trapped, oxygen had to be pumped into the wreckage to give fire fighters and rescue teams more time to find the victims.

Local authorities said the building was structurally unsound and improperly constructed for its size. On several occasions, workers had tried to report their concerns about the building. Only days before the incident, a worker reported cracks in the walls, but was dismissed and told to return to work. Although the exact cause of its collapse is still a mystery, it is obvious that the working conditions were unsuitable.
In remembrance of the Spectrum tragedy, a day has been devoted to international workers’ safety and rights, and organizations around the world are making an example out of it.

Sweatshop laborers don’t have the choice to financially survive without their employment. But with working conditions so poor, can they afford to stay at their jobs?

My assertion is not based on conjecture, but rather on research. Penn Schoen Berland, in conjunction with Burson-Marstellar and Landor, surveyed U.S. consumers in their Corporate Social Responsibility Branding Survey 2010. They found that 70% of U.S. consumers are willing to pay more for goods from socially responsible companies. Think about that. The textile industry in general usually assumes that responsible sourcing methods will result in higher costs, particularly for labor. And this may be true to some degree. However, they also found that 55% of U.S. consumers are more likely to buy products from socially responsible companies when given the choice. This means that there is no reason to assume that your revenue will fall if you source responsibly. In fact, the opposite may be true. The fact that most consumers are more likely to buy products from socially responsible companies, and that most are willing to pay more for them, means that your revenue may actually increase if you adopt ethical sourcing as a company policy. So, whether your business buys or produces fashion apparel, footwear, handbags, textile accessories, home textiles or furnishings, technical textiles, wovens, non-wovens…I could go on but I think you get the point: Every business wants to produce what the consumer wants. And in this case, the consumer wants to buy products from socially responsible companies. So, it’s a pretty easy call really, just practice responsible sourcing and happy consumers will flock to your products.

Social responsibility is especially important for the apparel industry. In the same Corporate Social Responsibility Survey, 77% of U.S. consumers said they believe corporate social responsibility is important to the apparel industry. This is perhaps in large part due to consumers heightened awareness about sweatshops, child labor, and environmental pollution in the textile industry in general, and the apparel industry in particular. The global news media, through investigative journalism, has uncovered a number of unseemly practices in the apparel industry in recent years. Consumers respond to those news reports. Who really wants to wear a pair of shoes that were sewn together by a young mother working 18 hours a day? How could a woman enjoy wearing a beautiful evening gown if she knew that children toiled night and day to make it, just so she could listen to the crowd gasp at her radiance when she entered the ballroom? Nobody wants to walk a mile in those shoes and no woman wants the evening of her life spoiled by thoughts of child labor. Again, the solution is simple: Give consumers what they want by sourcing your fashion apparel products responsibly.

Young mothers and children working in the textile industry will thank you for it. Well, they would if they could afford to buy a phone to call you with. But that’s another issue for another day.

Japan has long been known for exquisite blue and white textile design. The traditional Japanese indigo dyeing method is called Aizome and uses no synthetic indigo made from fermented dyer’s knotweed. The blue & white colors that can be achieved with Aizome are famous around the world and unmatched in their appearance.

Indigo dyeing in Japan most commonly is used with fabric, but weavers appreciate the light and dark blues in for their designs. So far, Aizome has not been used much in yarn dyeing for knitwear design.

I am an experienced knitter originally from Germany now living in Japan. For my own designs it is my goal to use traditional Aizome techniques in my knitwear – from sowing knotweed and fermenting the leafs to producing and cultivating the dye and finally dyeing yarn for knitting my designs – the whole process from seed to sweater.

Read more at my blog.

A brief history of Ai

Polygonum Tinctorium

The Japanese word ‘Aizome’ or ‘藍染め’ in Japanese is made of the 2 characters ‘藍’ for ‘indigo’ and ‘染め(る)’ which means dyeing.

Leafs from knotweed are fermented to produce the bases for indigo dye called ‘Sukumo’.

When cloth is dyed with Ai, it is immersed in the dye a number of times until the desired depth of color is achieved. The best and purest color however is achieved. when the dye is at its freshest, immediately having been produced.

There are 2 ways to dye using Ai:

1. A dye resistant paste, which is painted on the fabric to form the negative or white space that becomes the pattern.

2. A tie-dyed style called ‘Shibori’ by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, compressing, or capping the textile.

Indigo has been said to have many beneficial qualities, such as warding off snakes and mosquitoes, and so was frequently used in old times to dye work clothes.

Ai Production

The production of indigo is a rather long process. In spring knotweed is sown, raised during summer. In late summer the first batch of leafs are harvested.

Fresh leafs can be used to dye fabric and yarns. It produces a pale greenish blue. The true indigo blue is produced by fermenting the leafs for several weeks into a product called ‘Sukumo’.

From this Sukumo and other ingredients the dyer produced his vat to dye textiles or yarns.

Indigo dye is still widely used in modern Japan. It takes well to fabrics, such as silk, cotton and hemp, does not fade very much in sunlight and still looks attractive even after repeated washing.

The authors of the study had this to say, “Efforts to move toward ethical production, and promoting that behavior, appear to be a wise investment.  In other words, if you act in a socially responsible manner, and advertise that fact, you may be able to charge slightly more for your products.”

So if you’re in the apparel business what does this mean for you?

In the above table we have broken down the cost structure of a T-shirt using two scenarios:  Responsibly Sourced and Unethically Sourced.  The break down is an approximation based upon our experience in the apparel industry.  Since the previously aforementioned study said that consumers are willing to pay 22% more for a responsibly sourced T-shirt, we have given the responsibly sourced T-shirt a simple 20% premium on the sale price.  So to whom does that premium go?  In this scenario the workers wages have increased 140%, improving their standard of living.  The manufacturer has an incentive to produce the T-shirt responsibly since its profit increased by 150%.  Furthermore, the T-shirt brand’s profits rise by 24%.

Of course, over time marketplace forces may seek to bring the price of a T-shirt down even though it is responsibly sourced.  Because consumers demand responsibly sourced products, it is unlikely workers wages will decline at that point.  It is possible that manufacturer and brand profits could be squeezed in order to bring the price of the T-shirt down.  However, this does not have to be the case.  Effective marketing campaigns highlighting your responsible sourcing practices will ensure consumers choose your products over that of a competitor who sources unethically!  How great is that?  Apparel manufacturers and brands have an opportunity to gain a competitive edge while helping textile workers worldwide enjoy a better standard of living than they do today.

Please note that Brand Profits are greater by dollar value in the Responsibly Sourced T-shirt model even though they are less as a percentage of the cost structure.  Brand profits increase to $10.50 from $8.50 per T-shirt.

The bottom line:  Responsible sourcing will make your business more money, particularly if you are an apparel manufacturer or a recognized apparel brand.