Do You Know Where Your Shoes Come From?
MP3 RadioIt’s a simple question: Do you know where your shoes come from? But the answer can be a challenging one. In today’s global economy most people understand that their shoes come from the store, and that the store bought them from a corporation, but that is often where the thought process ends. In reality very few of our western products, come from western countries. Most of our “products” are made off-shore, in a world that is very different from our own. And in that world, the corporate exploitation of workers in Asia and the Middle East is a very real and growing epidemic.
Western corporations are flocking to countries like the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia due to “cheap” labour costs, but in many of these countries “cheap” labour comes at a cost to the workers themselves. Poor working conditions, low wages, excessive work hours, and dangerous work environments are a living reality for many people. Dependent on the corporation for employment, many workers are trapped in the viscous cycle of poverty, unaware of their human rights.
In attempt to create an environment of corporate social responsibility, Verité, a US-based non-profit organization, was formed in 1995 to ensure that people worldwide work under safe, fair and legal conditions. Verité works with private sector clients (including Fortune 500 brands), non-governmental organizations, trade unions and government agencies on a range of programs designed to strengthen labor protections worldwide.
By creating a system of accountability Verité works to monitor labour rights in factories, remediate human rights violations, provide worker training and education, and to design and evaluate corporate compliance programs.
In this program, ekosRadio co-hosts Starr Munro and Rick Searle, discuss the complex and diverse challenges of being a socially responsibly consumer, and Verité founder, Heather White speaks to the importance and impacts that labor rights monitoring has on promoting corporate responsibility.
I really enjoyed listening to the piece, and I will be visiting Saipan over the next few weeks. I will definately be looking at that place with a new set of eyes after hearing this story. I was appalled by the conditions that I saw when I visited Vietnam, and corporations need to rethink what they’re doing to the planet…or else government needs to pressure them to rethink what they’re doing.