I don't agree with this at all (4.00 / 1)

he is basically relying on industry to regulate itself.  The reason government no longer has the will is because people like him cede government to unaccountable corporations.  We need fair trade laws, that will accomplish this much better than self regulations of corporations.    Consumers can't be sure the reports they are getting are accurate from a private ngo like this.  This is just substituting real labor rights for admonitions that employers be nice.  No way! If we do go to one world government I won't let the corporations have it.

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by: Dameocrat @ Sun Nov 14, 2010 at 15:15:28 PM CST

a very helpful resolution - (0.00 / 0)

and in this case even I -('a government agent') - believe that corporations have the better chance (Go Padagonia Go!)

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by: pieceofcake @ Sun Nov 14, 2010 at 15:48:20 PM CST

It appears to be an industry green washing organization. (4.00 / 1)

Here is a good article on the problem with the Fair Labor Association.

Poverty wages: The FLA doesn't acknowledge the responsibility of companies to pay a living wage to factory workers. It only calls for companies to pay the local minimum wage or the prevailing industry wage, both of which are usually woefully inadequate. In Indonesia, Reebok (a founding member of the FLA) pays workers a base wage of $23/month when a recent study commissioned by Global Exchange found that the bare subsistence wage for one person was $35/month. According to the National Labor Committee, Liz Claiborne, another founding FLA member, is paying assembly line workers in El Salvador $134/month, which is just 51% of the cost of the basic basket of essential goods and services for the average Salvadoran family. It is indecent that workers who make clothing and shoes for profitable US companies do not earn enough to feed, clothe and shelter their families in a dignified fashion.

Recognizing its failure to adequately address wages, the FLA will ask the Department of Labor to undertake a study of wages and basic needs data, and will then review the data "to consider their implications, if any" on FLA standards. The Department of Labor will only use publicly available data instead of doing original studies in countries that are major producers for US companies. The problems with compiling only already exisiting data are that there will not be a full data set that covers all producing countries and the data will come from different sources collected using different methods and will therefore be inconsistent. Furthermore, data based on government statistics is often unreliable and even contradictory: you might find finances ministries using one set of data that justifies the setting of a low minimum wage as part of their effort to attract foreign investment, while health ministries will have another set of data that is designed to assess what a person really needs to live a healthy life. As part of the FLA examination of wages, the Department of Labor should do original studies with uniform methods that would gather data in an inbiased way.

As the FLA now stands, however, even if the Department of Labor's limited study were to produce useful information, the FLA makes no commitment to use the data to devise new wage standards. The FLA's position reflects the companies' arguments that a living wage is impossible to define and should therefore be off the agenda.

Challenging this notion that a living wage is impossible to define, a Living Wage Summit for the Garment Industry, organized by Sweatshop Watch and Global Exchange in July 1998, came up with a working definition: a living wage is the 'take home' or 'net' wage, earned during a work week of no more than 48 hours, that provides for the basic needs (housing, energy, nutrition, clothing, health care, education, potable water, child care, transportation and an additional 10% for savings/emergencies) of an average family unit divided by the average number of adult wage earners. The group then developed a formula for calculating the living wage and organizations attending the summit started commis........

http://www.citinv.it/associazi...

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by: Dameocrat @ Sun Nov 14, 2010 at 16:13:19 PM CST

I'm Not Surprised (0.00 / 0)

You don't much corporate cooperation unless there's a more force out there that's a whole lot tougher.

Still, that doesn't mean the concept itself is bad.  We just need to significantly up the political pressure.

Having already signed onto the basic operational model, they're in a pretty weak position to argue that it can't be done.  

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Sun Nov 14, 2010 at 17:33:31 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Actuallly The Principle Here Is One I've Long Advocated: (4.00 / 3)

Build social responsibility into corporate charters.

This is commonplace with non-profit corporations.  They are required to have a beneficial public purpose for existing.

Without it, profit is the only motive for for-profit corporations, so naturally they act like sociopaths.

The solution is simple: They lack a conscience, so give them on.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Sun Nov 14, 2010 at 17:28:36 PM CST