Mind the GAP

The big supply chain story this weekend has been the UK newspaper The Observer’s report on child and slave labor in an unauthorized subcontractor of one of GAP’s direct suppliers. In a statement Gap announces a full recall of the particular garment line produced in that sweatshop.

An early count of categories of this blog will teach you that social issues in apparel supply chains are among the more publicized supply chain issues. I suppose it is somehow reassuring that these conditions can still make the news prominently after years of people drawing attention to them. It is sad of course that this has not been enough to completely eliminate such practices. Doubly sad, actually, as GAP has a reputation of being a company that works hard on sourcing ethically, not least of which their sustainability report is proof in which the entire first part details their supply chain approach.

A look through their report teaches us that GAP has 90 “Vendor Compliance Officers” who performed 4,438 inspections of 2118 factories in 2006, covering 98.7 % of the factories that received the approved rating in 2005. Terminations of contracts do happen.

Additionally, GAP also invited all its top suppliers to a conference in 2005 to assess their capabilities in an effort to make sure the right type of order ends up with the right kind of factory (high-quality, small order vs. low-quality, quick, bulk orders etc.) and the emphasizes the importance of the relationship. These relationships are a work in progress and perhaps a step to inducting these suppliers into a more transparent ethical sourcing structure, again, as their report details.

It is clear that GAP does not willfully work with sweatshops that condone child and slave labor and actually does quite a bit to stimulate responsible business is its suppliers. But for instance, the Clean Clothes Campaign’s Looking for a quick fix report shows how, codes of conduct, audits and inspections are only half a solution. It is telling in this respect that despite GAP’s impressive inspection figures it only takes a team of inquisitive reporters to find a very rotten apple, just like in 2000, when the BBC reported on poor working conditions and abuses in GAP suppliers in Cambodia.

Granted, this instance concerns an unauthorized subcontractor to one of its suppliers. It is not clear whether this supplier has been inspected recently, but they clearly went outside of the agreements they had with GAP. Despite working on closer relationships with suppliers, this one slipped through the net in an act that the supplier must have known would severely damage their relationship with GAP.

The abuses are a vivid illustration of the dilemma’s faced in the apparel supply chain, between price and ethics incentives and who is responsible for them. Should GAP inspect even more? Or should it simply pay more for the products it sources? How far does their responsibility go down the chain? The first tier? The second? Or should they simply not source from high risk areas? Should the Indian government put more effort into enforcement of labor laws and perhaps take funds from another project or indeed risk its economy as low-costs producer? Where does human decency factor into the economic decision of parents deciding to sell their children and of factory owners that put them to work without pay and the GAP’s supplier’s disinclination to check this adequately when sub-contracting? What about individual consumers? How much doubt about ethics should we tolerate in a product, if any?

If anything GAP’s report is a good tool to highlight some of these dilemmas and how they deal with them. Their quick response to the issue has also been laudable, including ad hoc engagement with all suppliers in the region. The Gap report is a good start to showing how this incident may be the exception rather than the rule. But GAP will have to continue to structurally engage its suppliers, check them, train them and create the conditions for them to successfully meet GAP’s demands for price, quality and ethics.

But should GAP also ask suppliers to report from their perspective? This could help GAP and its stakeholders better understand the dilemmas from both sides. The sustainability report I would really have wanted to read, would have been the supplier’s!

Should Adidas do what Reebok did?

 

In 2002 Reebok, the sportswear company purchased by Adidas last year, experimented with the setting up of worker’s unions in China. They were carefully applauded by some but also criticized for interfering so heavily in their suppliers affairs in order to “appear good”.

 

Recently, Peter Lee, a labor activist, investigated one of these factories five years on, just before the unions reps were due for reelection. The report reflects some of the disappointment among workers with the union, which only seems to organize social events and barely represents the workers. The union will likely not hold an election but instead appoint new members itself, including the unpopular union leader.

Stephen Frost, writing for Hong Kong based CSR Asia Weekly cites this report, openly asking whether it could really be expected that anything else but this would happen. Worker’s unions should be worker owned, not externally implemented or demanded.

Of Reebok’s role he says, somewhat harshly perhaps, that Reebok’s Chinese Trade Union Experiment is yet another example in a long line of examples that demonstrate how workers’ aspirations are repackaged into forms that suit external agendas.” What can a company do in environment were organizing an independent labor union is already difficult, if not impossible?

He answers that the new client Adidas should do everything within its power to make decent work possible, such as ensuring decent workplace conditions and place orders in such a way that the factory can actually comply with local labor law.  This would allow somewhat normalized relations where industrial action doesn’t automatically entail missing a very tight order deadline.

I would tend to agree with this. A union should be independent and not set up under the auspices of a client. This, of course does not stop the necessity of an enabling environment, and a clear picture of the issue suppliers and their workers are facing. Arguing along the lines of Oxfam’s Offside! Report that transparency is key in this respect.

More and more brand companies are releasing their lists of suppliers, but “Transparency does not, however, end with the release of supplier addresses”, companies will still be asked about their sustainable supply chain management efforts. People will want to know about the actual improvements being realized for workers, or indeed, what improvements workers can realize for themselves, through unions. I think that getting this type of information and presenting it is part of what a supplier sustainability report can do, on its own, or as part of the brand company’s communication efforts.