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 Globalization
& Clothes
Check out the tag on the
shirt you're wearing. Chances are it was made far away from
your own home. In the last hundred years clothing production
has moved quickly from our own homes, to places hundreds and
even thousands of kilometres away. Being able to buy clothing
instead of having to make it ourselves, liberates women by
giving us time to pursue other activities. The global market
also offers incredible variety of styles and textiles; the
beauty of cloth and design connects us to women all over the
world. But clothing also connects us in more uncomfortable
kinds of ways.
The
textile and garment industries are among the most globalized
of all industries. Clothing is produced in nearly every country
in the world, often for sale elsewhere, and together the garment
and textile industries make up the largest source of industrial
employment in the world. That means 30 million people are
making clothes and textiles across the globe.1
And of these 30 million, most are women.
Producing clothing and other apparel
has been an important part of Manitoba's history too from
the 1920s until today. But as a walk through Winnipeg's Exchange
District will quickly show you, much is changing. The Canadian
garment industry has been one of the industries hardest hit
by economic globalization. In 1986, there were nearly 8000
people working in Manitoba's clothing industry; in 1996, that
number was closer to 5000; by 2006 there were just over 2000.2
Other provinces have experienced even bigger losses. In the decade after the free
trade agreements were signed more than 30,000 jobs were lost in the garment
industry in Canada.3
While Manitoba companies
have found market niches such as outerwear production, free
trade agreements like the Free
Trade Agreement (FTA) and the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have had a devastating
effect on the Canadian garment industry. And once again, because
most of the workers in the garment industry are women, it
is women who have been hardest hit.
Working in a garment factory
has never been an easy job. Operators are not paid by the
hour but rather by the number of pieces they have produced,
therefore a persons' pay depends on how fast she is able to
work. Engineers decide how much time should be used to produce
each pocket, zipper, and sleeve. If a worker does it faster,
she is operating at over 100% and gets paid more. But if it
takes her longer, she is operating at less than 100% and will
be paid less. If she makes a mistake, she must fix it on her
own time. Although workers are still guaranteed the minimum wage, they are also subject to periodic forced layoffs and shortened
weeks in times of low demand.4
 Despite
the low pay, the work is hard. Repetitive work such as piece
work, creates serious health hazards. Repetitive strain injury
and carpal tunnel syndrome are common experiences among operators,
as well as chronic back and neck problems. Because of pressure
to produce, workers are more reluctant to take breaks to stand
up and stretch or even adjust their chairs. Samantha (see
Samantha's story) spent two years
working as a pattern designer in a Winnipeg garment factory.
As a designer, her pay was reasonable. But Samantha
says her back will probably never recuperate and walking near
the factory where she used to work she still feels the stress of
the demands made on both her body and mind. Free
trade agreements that have developed as a result of economic
globalization have meant increased stress for all those who
work in this industry.
Still, garment factories have provided
a major source of work for women in Manitoba and across Canada,
especially new immigrants. Garment factories are places where newcomers can use
the skills they have and need not speak English. Some Manitoba
garment factories have offered
English classes to their staff.
Free trade contributes to the
loss of jobs in Manitoba by encouraging clothing manufacturers
to move operations to places with lower working standards:
places like China, Bangladesh, and Honduras. But free trade has done more than
contribute to job loss. While wages for Manitoba garment workers
have stayed virtually the same over the last 10 years, the
work has not. Workers report that since the trade agreements,
demands on quality have increased dramatically.5
Retailers are now free to enter factories to check on quality
and can push out workers whose quality does not match the
standard. In this way free trade has forced operators in Manitoba
to compete directly with workers in countries with lower working
standards.
Alongside the added stress of faster and
higher-quality production has been a loss of opportunities
for protection. A disproportionate number of jobs lost within
the garment industry have been unionized jobs. By 2001 fewer
than 50% of jobs in Manitoba garment factories were unionized.
The real number is probably closer to 35%. In 2001 UNITE Local 459 (now UNITE-HERE Manitoba Joint Council),
once the largest of the three unions representing garment workers
in Manitoba, reported a loss of 2500 members since the signing
of the free trade agreements.6
 While
work in a Manitoba garment factory is undervalued and difficult,
stories from factories overseas tell an even more disturbing
story. In many Asian countries including Indonesia and the
Philippines, workers are lured to factories with the promise
of high wages and good conditions. Impoverished rural families
sometimes encourage their daughters to move to the city in
search of paid work in the hope that they might be able to
earn money to send home. Upon arrival, girls discover fenced
'factory cities' called Export
Processing Zones (EPZs), filled with workers like themselves.
Along with the typical low pay and difficult work comes impossibly
long hours, forced overtime, health and safety violations,
stiflingly hot factories with poor ventilation systems, and
unclean drinking water or none at all. Forced pregnancy tests,
sexual violence, and discrimination against workers trying
to organize unions, including unjust job terminations, are
also common. In Mexico Maquiladoras
have sprung up along the Mexico/US border: industrial zones
from which workers tell the same story of an industry that
is far from glamorous.7
And have you ever wondered what's happening
to all the clothes that thrift stores in Canada can't sell?
Much of it is shipped to poor countries in Africa. Instead
of providing clothing for poor people in African countries,
first world 'garbage' merely puts local tailors and textile
makers out of business, while simultaneously creating a sudden
'need' for things western in countries that have long survived
quite well without.
The garment industry was one
of the first industries in which women worked. Garment factories
therefore became one of the key places where women began to
demand their economic rights. These demands took voice in
the development of International Women's Day. On March 8,
1908, needle workers in New York City went on strike demanding
fair working conditions and fair pay. In 1911, a week after
the first official International Women's Day, a fire in a
garment factory in New York City killed 140 young women garment
workers, most of them recent immigrants. This massacre was
remembered in subsequent International Women's Day events.
In 1912, textile workers in Massachusetts walked off the job
demanding "Bread and Roses: the right to live, not simply
to exist." Their demand has become "the rallying cry of the
women's movement."8
Today, women in garment factories are
still joining together to demand their rights.9
At the same time, the rest of us are enjoying the convenience
of ready-made clothing, as well as the variety and plenty
of clothing in our closets. Meanwhile Samantha is dreaming
of a world where things don't have to be this way: "If we
could just sew and make what we needed and actually bought
what we needed, we wouldn't need so much."
The most important thing we
can do as consumers is to ask retailers for information on
the working conditions of the people who make the clothes
we buy. Many retailers will not understand the question and
will not have any answers. Some will be prepared with a memorized
response. But an increasing number of store clerks have heard
of the hazards of working in the garment industry and will
be concerned like you, although they may not know what to
do. Go to the customer service desk and fill out a comment
card. If they don't have comment cards ask them to make one
up. Be sure to ask someone to get back to you either by email,
phone, or regular mail. Don't be satisfied with easy answers.
Check out that what they tell you is true. And remember to
tell them that you'd be willing to pay a little more for your
clothes if you could be assured that the people who make them
are getting paid a living wage.
Another action you can do is to form a
No Sweat group in your school or community. You could
organize a No Sweat fashion show or work to adopt a
No Sweat buying policy in your high school, university,
city or province. For information on how to engage
in some of these activities and for other ideas, visit the
Maquila
Solidarity Network.
For a critique of international protest campaigns against sweat shops and their impacts on workers, read Unraveling the Garment Industry: Transnational Organizing and Women’s Work by Ethel C. Brooks. 2008
For other good websites on globalization
and clothes see our Links
page.
A great book to read to find out more
of the stories behind the brand names is Naomi Klein's No
Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.
Global garment industry photos courtesy of Maquila Solidarity
Network.
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