Nike change direction?

Here's what the ITGLWF say: New Role for Social Auditing after Nike CSR Report

Nike have broken the mould with the publication of their 2007 Corporate Responsibility Report where they commit themselves to a time-bound programme of promoting unionization, social dialogue and mature systems of industrial relations throughout their global supply chain instead of their current reliance on social auditing, the Global Union Federation for textiles, clothing and footwear claimed today.

Speaking in Brussels following the launch of the Nike report, Neil Kearney General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) said Nike’s new tack signaled the end of ‘Codes of Conduct Mark I’ based on extensive auditing of workplace conditions with limited impact and paved the way for a globalization in the textile, garment and footwear sectors which may genuinely empower and reward the workers who fuel global trade in the sector.

Said Mr. Kearney, “Global brands and retailers have undergone a slow learning path since gangrenous supply chains first began to attract attention in the early 1990s.

“This path has taken them from denial, to PR, to a flood of auditing, to a recognition that the antidote to worker exploitation lies in the employment relationship, with every employer shouldering direct responsibility for those they employ and using mature systems of industrial relations as the engine for delivering labour standards compliance.

“Fifteen years of learning will now be followed, according to the targets set by Nike, by four years of embedding a commitment to unionization and collective bargaining and making it work.

“This will demand a major effort on the part of all the stakeholders. Manufacturers will need to commit to a process of adherence to labour law, social dialogue and to the payment of a living wage for a standard work week. Nike and other brands and retailers will need to sharpen their purchasing practices, pay suppliers decent prices and agree realistic delivery schedules while sourcing only from suppliers committed to this new approach.

“For their part trade unions will need to further professionalise their organizing and representational activities, develop greater capacity at all levels and play a full role as social partners, securing the best possible conditions for workers while promoting competitivity based on decent work.

“Codes of conduct and social auditing of production facilities will continue to have an important role in promoting social compliance but will alter radically from the present format, becoming tools of assessment rather than vehicles for effecting change - thermometers rather than medication!”, concluded Mr. Kearney.

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The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation is a global union federation bringing together 220 affiliated organisations in 110 countries with a combined membership of 10 million workers.
For more information, contact:
Neil Kearney (General Secretary) at 32/475932487 (mobile) or nkearney@itglwf.org
ITGLWF Secretariat at tel: 32/02/511.26.06, fax: 32/02/511.09.04 or office@itglwf.org
Visit our website at www.itglwf.org