| Eating my words yet again |
Yesterday I found myself admiring Rick Warren, and today I find out that Gap is beginning to lead the way in ethical labor practices?!
From an email I received this morning:
The Ethical Trading Action Group (ETAG) has released an 88-page study, "Coming Clean on the Clothes We Wear: Transparency Report Card."
The Transparency Report Card assesses and compares 25 major retailers and brands selling apparel products in the Canadian market in terms of their efforts to address worker rights issues in their global supply chains and on how and what they report on those efforts.
The full report, plus an Executive Summary, a composite, one-page report card for all companies surveyed, and individual company report cards is available on the Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) website at: www.maquilasolidarity.org. The report includes include recommendations to retailers and brands, the Canadian government, investors and financial institutions, and consumers. The one-page company report card is here (warning: PDF) -- and it ranks both Nike (69%) and Gap (68%) above MEC (58%) in terms of labor rights issues. Color me shocked!
Here's another shocker -- Walmart (30%) ranks above Roots (24%), and Sears and Le Chateau pull up the rear at 5 and 0%, respectively. Well, maybe that's not so shocking after all.
Hmmm, it appears I'll finally be able to break that Old Navy fast I've been on since reading No Logo, a couple years ago.
Go check out the transparency report card to see if you can continue buying your goods in good conscience! |
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Hooray! No more checking the tags on our clothing when we go out to meet Becky!
;-)
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As someone who worked for Roots Canada for a number of years, I must say that I am ashamed of what Roots has become. They closed all of their Canadian manufacturing plants, and opened them in China and Indonesia, for no reason other than profit. When these plants opened, the quality of he goods decreased exponentially, and every store employee noticed. We were bombarded with complaints from our customers, and we were given a list of excuses a mile long from our head offices in Toronto.
All of this, and for what, the savings certainly didn't show up in the pockets of our customers. I was hired by the store manager, because I shopped there constantly, and now I Will Never Shop At Roots Again.
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Marc, you're hilarious.
the_yecart, interesting story! I read some pretty horrible stuff about Roots in No Logo as well -- but it was more about their merchandising angle than labour issues. Good to know, though.e
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Perhaps you should only be snacking on your words at this point, Becky; it looks like they're just getting started. The real test will be to see who continues to regulate labor practices in 10 years when (hopefully) this is no longer the concern it is now. Thanks for giving it attention!
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Hooray! No more checking the tags on our clothing when we go out to meet Becky!
;-)