Monitoring Sweatshops

Jill Esbenshade is Assistant Professor of Sociology at San Diego State University.

"A important and timely study that demonstrates that voluntary, corporate-sponsored monitoring is no substitute for independent accountability through government regulation and a free labor movement. Especially in an era of globalization and outsourcing of jobs, it is more imperative than ever that monitoring be credible and that consumers be attuned to the conditions under which products are manufactured if the social contract and economic justice are to be preserved. Oversight, whether by concerned industries or benevolent government, will not achieve sustained improvements in working conditions in the absence of free unions organized by employees to safeguard their own rights."-U.S. Congressman George Miller, Senior Democrat, Committee on Education & the Workforce "When clothing companies tried to shed the 'sweatshop' moniker by writing a Code of Conduct and hiring their own monitors to check factory conditions, few were better placed than academic/activist Jill Esbenshade to provide a critique. Monitoring Sweatshops is a fascinating look at companies' attempts to silence their critics, workers' efforts to improve their conditions, activists' campaigns to pressure the companies, and the public's desire to be responsible consumers. Monitoring Sweatshops is the best analysis to date of monitoring that is designed to placate consumers and maintain the status quo. Anyone concerned about the conditions under which our clothes are made should read this book."-Medea Benjamin, Founding Director, Global Exchange "This book is a richly detailed, first-hand account of the rise of private monitoring in the global apparel industry. Esbenshade dissects the power relationships and conflicts of interest within the monitoring paradigm, and presents the challenging conclusion that without greater involvement by workers themselves, international monitoring cannot effectively address the sweatshop problem. Monitoring Sweatshops is a must read for anyone who hopes to understand and change the contemporary global production system."-Gary Gereffi, Duke University "Jill Esbenshade's clear, careful and insightful Monitoring Sweatshops exposes the inadequacy of corporations' claims that they are holding their subcontractors to voluntary 'codes of conduct.' ...As the first serious effort to gather and analyze evidence about new approaches to industrial regulation, Monitoring Sweatshops makes a significant contribution to our understanding of globalization, and to continuing efforts to shape globalization in ways that will benefit workers as well as consumers."-Industrial and Labor Relations Review "In this important book, Jill Esbenshade skillfully pieces together a mass of evidence that challenges the wisdom and effectiveness of private monitoring as practiced in the global apparel industry... This is an ambitious book that draws on rich interview data and case study materials to weave together a complex story of the various corporate, grass roots, and worker efforts to police and abusive industry. It succeeds on all fronts. It should be of interest to students of social movements, stratification, and labor, and for those who are concerned about how their clothes are made."-Mobilization

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Monitoring, Sweatshops, and Labor Relations1. The Rise and Fall of the Social Contract in the Apparel Industry2. The Social-Accountability Contract3. Private Monitoring in Practice4. Weaknesses and Conflicts in Private Monitoring5. The Development of International Monitoring6. Examining International Codes of Conduct and Monitoring Efforts7. The Struggle for Independent MonitoringConclusion: Workers, Consumers, and Independent MonitoringAppendix 1: Confessions of a Sweatshop Monitor by Joshua Samuel BrownAppendix 2: Research MethodsAppendix 3: List of InterviewsAppendix 4: Acronyms and AbbreviationsNotesReferencesIndex