4. INSTRUMENTOS PARA LA EVALUACIÓN
4.3. Instrumentos de evaluación
with the worst record in labor and human rights.74 Press reports in November 1997 listed an address and Web site which one could use in obtaining the list.75 Also, in a related effort, the NLC led a “Mickey is a Rat” campaign against companies paying workers just 33 cents an hour to manufacture Disney clothing in Haiti.76
Second, he encouraged U. S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich to produce a list of “Fashion Trendsetters,” exemplary firms pledged to no-sweatshop operations.77 And he publicized a landmark agreement between the NLC and The Gap to allow independent human-rights monitoring at plants affiliated with The Gap in that country .78
Many tactics were carried out to dramatize the child-labor issue and mobilize public opinion and action. We now summarize some of these.
1. Targeting of Specific Firms. The Gap agreement referred to earlier did not occur by chance. Kernaghan and his colleagues went to 59 cities throughout the country, educating people about poor conditions at the firm’s offshore apparel factories. In each city, a local campaign committee was formed to keep activities going.79
2. Focus on Corporate and Consumer Self-Interests. Kernaghan apparently recognizes that Americans are rather self-centered. They’ll support a project primarily when they feel they’ll gain from it. For example: *Kernaghan publicized the claim that companies which continue investing in Burma may be out of luck there when and if democracy is restored under popular leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Contracts with the current illegitimate regime may not be honored by a future government.80
*He also told Americans that improving working conditions and pay around the world will eventually help workers in the United States.81 Presumably that’s because as wages go up in developing nations, those in western countries will not look so high, by comparison, to
employers. Thus jobs may “stay home” in the States.
3. Telling Consumers How to Make a Difference. Simply letting a company know the issue does concern you as a consumer helps, according to Linda Golodoner, director of the National Consumer’s League. If enough people ask, she believes, word that consumers care is bound to “trickle up” to management.82
he also encourages consumers to ask sales clerks and store managers about company labor practices. In addition, most companies have Web sites with e-mail address to which one can send quick messages.83
Results Achieved
Solid research seldom is available to document clearly the effects of cause-oriented groups such as the National Labor Committee. “Effects” obviously stem in part from many factors not under the group’s control. Also, such organizations have shoestring budgets that do not allow for much formal audience research or content analysis.
However, a review of press coverage and the NLC Web site document several effects. For example, as noted earlier The Gap, Liz Claiborne, and other firms have agreed to monitoring and established codes of conduct involving foreign labor. 84
And campaigns affecting these companies have brought in many messages via telephone, regular mail, and e-mail, suggesting widespread public awareness and concern.85
During the Gap campaign, as noted earlier, NLC personnel went to 59 cities to educate people about offshore conditions. In most of these cities, according to Kernaghan, citizen groups formed during the campaign remained active for at least some time afterward.86
The NLC and allied labor groups generally opposed President Clinton’s 1997 request for authority to expand trade arrangements without congressional approval -- on a so-called “fast track.” Such opposition was based partly on claims that a fast track could bypass provisions protecting workers’ rights. 87
And it seems reasonable to speculate that such opposition, especially within the president’s own party, contributed to Congress’s failure to pass fast-track legislation in 1997.
A U. S. Labor Department survey released in October 1996 reported that, of 45 U. S. companies responding, 36 had adopted policies prohibiting children from producing goods they support. Also, these firms have distributed related codes of conduct to their suppliers.88
At five factories in Haiti, manufacturers with whom Disney had contracted were paying workers about 12 cents an hour to make memorabilia relating to such films as “Pocahontas,” according to Kernaghan. However, after an NLC report on this was released, Disney improved wages to about 30 cents an hour.89
Kernaghan’s activities have generated considerable press coverage. A search of the “News” library in the Lexis-Nexis database with the key words “Charles Kernaghan and the National Labor Committee” yielded 303 articles in leading magazines and metropolitan
newspapers between early 1994 and Thanksgiving 1997. Much of this case study draws on these articles.
Notes
1. Mark Schapiro and Trudie Styler, “Children of a Lesser God; Child Labor in Pakistan,”
Harper’s Bazaar, April 1996, p. 204.
2. Ibid.
3. Joyce Barrett, “Caribbean Rights Group Heading for Gap Offices; National
Labor Committee Organizes Protest Against Working Conditions at Caribbean Clothing Plants,” Women’s Wear Daily, August 2, 1995, p. 2.
4. Schapiro and Styler, “Children of a Lesser God; ...,“ op. cit.
5. Joyce Barrett & Joanna Ramey, “Sweatshop-Buster Charles Kernaghan:
Fashion Hits its Nader; Ralph Nader,” Women’s Wear Daily, June 6, 1996, p. 1.
6. “History,” Web site at http://www.nlcnet.org/History.htm
7. Joanna Ramey & Joyce Barrett, “Apparel’s Ethics Dilemma: the Role of
Apparel Makers in Dealing with Third World Labor Abuses by Contractors,”
Women’s Wear Daily, March 18, 1996, p. 10.
8. Barrett & Ramey, “Sweatshop Buster Charles Kernaghan: ...,“ op. cit. 9. “History,” op. cit.
10. Barrett & Ramey, “Sweatshop Buster Charles Kernaghan: ...,“ op. cit. 11. Ibid.
12. Barry Bearak, “Group Switches Focus from Kathie to Mickey,” Los Angeles Times, June 6, 1996, part D, p. 2.
13. Barrett & Ramey, “Sweatshop Buster Charles Kernaghan: ...,“ op. cit. 14. Ibid.
15. Joanna Ramey, “Kathie Lee to Push Wall-Mart on Cleaning Up Sweatshops,” Women’s Wear
Daily, June 7, 1996, p. 16.
16. Barrett & Ramey, “Sweatshop Buster Charles Kernaghan: ...,“ op. cit. 17. Ramey & Barrett, “Apparel’s Ethics Dilemma: ...,“ op. cit.
18. “Hondurans Seek Expulsion of U. S. Labor Activist,” Reuters Financial Report, BC cycle, June 5, 1997.
19. Peter Zimite, “Honduras-Labor: Envoy Says Claims of Child Labor Exaggerated,” Inter
Press Service, June 7, 1996.
20. Charles Kernaghan, “A Living Wage to End Sweatshops,” San Francisco Examiner, April 30, 1997, p. A-19.
21. Ibid.
22. Joanna Ramey & Joyce Barrett, “Legislative Action Unlikely on Foreign Labor Standards,”
Women’s Wear Daily, March 18, 1996, p. 10.
23. Farhan Haq, “Burma: Sanctions Movement Takes Alm at Mickey Mouse,” Inter Press
Service, October 11, 1996.
24. Robert Weissman, “Stolen Youth: Brutalized Children, Globalization and the Campaign to End Child Labor,” Multinational Monitor, January/February 1997, pp. 10-16.
25. Ibid., p. 12. 26. Ibid., p. 14.
27. Oxford Analytica, America in Perspective (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1986), pp. 180-181.
28. Scott M. Cutlip, Allen H. Center, & Glen M. Broom, Effective Public Relations (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1994), pp. 502-503.
29. Frederick T. C. Yu, “Tao of Mao and China’s Modernization,” in Godwin Chu, Fred Hung, Wilbur Schrarnm, Stephen Uhalley, Jr., & Frederick T. C. Yu, “Communication and
Development in China,” Communications Monographs, no. 1 (Honolulu: East-West Center, September 1976), p. 59.
30. Schapiro & Styler, “Children of a Lesser God; ...,“ op. cit. 31. Ibid.
32. David K. Shipler, A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), pp. 183-185; Studs Terkel, Race: How
Blacks and Whites Feel About the American Obsession (New York: Anchor
Books, 1992), pp. 3-18.
33. Bruce Nolan, “Third World Sweat Fought; U. S. Consumers Awake to Issue,” New Orleans
Times-Picayune, December 15, 1996, p. A-i.
34. Bob Herbert, “Avoiding Clothes Made in Sweatshops Can Be Difficult,” Dallas Morning
News, August 6, 1996, p. 7J.
35. Arthur Friedman, “Monitors Called Key to Tracking Global Ills; Independent
Monitors of Foreign Contractors Suggested by Labor Activists,” Women’s Wear
Daily, April 7, 1997, p. 14.
36. “Kernaghan Invites Wal-Mart President to Meet Workers and in Nicaragua Plants,”
Women’s Wear Daily, November 17, 1997, p. 19.
37. Joanna Ramey, “Anti-Sweatshop Panel Pushes On,” Women’s Wear Daily, July 8, 1997, p. 6.
38. Arthur Friedman, “Monitors Called Key to Tracking Global Ills; ...,“ op. cit. 39. Nolan, “Third World Sweat Fought; ...,“ op. cit.
40. Ramey & Barrett, “Apparel’s Ethics Dilemma: ...,“ op. cit.
41. Aug San Suu Kyi, The Voice of Hope: Conversations with Alan Clements (New York: Penguin Books, 1997), pp. 167-169.
42. Faran Haq, “U. S.-Burma: Garment, Trade Booming Despite Sanctions,” Inter Press Service, July 8, 1997.
43. Joanna Ramey & Joyce Barrett, “Legislative Action Unlikely ...,“ op. cit.
44. James Denn, “He Works to Stop Abuse of Workers,” The Rochester Times-Union, November 15, 1997, p. B-b.
45. James B. Lemert, “Journalists and Mobilizing Information,” Journalism Quarterly, 54 (Winter 1977), pp. 72 1-726.
46. Amy Brecount White, “Putting an End to Sweatshops; Individual Consumers Really Can Make a Difference,” The Washington Post, September 30, 1997, p. E-5.
47. Marvette Darien, “U. S.-Labor: Shop Till Your Conscience Drops,” Inter Press Service, October 22, 1997.
48. William Branigan, “Clinton, Garment Makers Hail Accord on Sweatshops; Critics Say Pact Falls Short on Key Issues,” The Washington Post, April 15, 1997, p. A-b.
49. Ramey, “Anti Sweatshop Panel Pushes ...,“ op. cit.
50. Eyall Press, “Breaking the Sweats,” The Nation, April 28, 1997, p. 5. 51. Darien, “U. S.-Labor ...,“ op. cit.
52. Ibid.; Kenneth C. Crowe, “Turning Up Heat on Sweatshops: New York March Part of Nationwide Effort,” Newsday, October 3, 1997, p. A-68.
53. Crowe, “Turning up Heat ...,“ Ibid.
54. Joyce Barrett, “Caribbean Rights Group Heading for Gap Offices,” Women’s Wear Daily, August 2, 1995, p. 2.
55. Anna Borgman, “Garment Workers Show U. S. the ‘Child Behind the Label;’ Two Central American Teenagers Talk About Factor Conditions,” The
Washington Post, July 24, 1995, p. D- 1.
56. Farhan Haq, “United States: The Politics of Product Boycotts,” Inter Press Service, September 18, 1996.
57. Barrett & Ramey, “Sweatshop Buster Charles Kernaghan ...,“ op. cit. 58. Ramey & Barrett, “Apparel’s Ethical Dilemma ...,“ op. cit.
59. Joyce Barrett, “Human Rights Group Hits Kathie Lee Collection,” Women’s Wear Daily, April 30, 1996, p. 3.
60. Ibid.
61. Ramey, “Kathie Lee to push Wal-Mart ...,“ op cit.
62. Faran Haq, “United States: The Politics of Product Boycotts ...,“ op. cit. 63. Ibid.
64. Schapiro & Styler, “Children of a Lesser God; ...,“ op. cit. 65. Ibid.
66. Kenneth Crowe, “Contract Dispute Quite a Show; Workers Say Disney Runs Unfair Kingdom,” Newsday, May 16, 1997, p. A-40.
67. Faran Haq, “United States: Critics Link Immigration Laws to Sweatshops,” Inter Press
Service, March 26, 1996.
68. Henry Gilgoff, “Praising Labor-Friendly Shops,” Newsday, December 17, 1995, p. A-21.
69. Haq, “United States: Critics Link ...,“ op. cit.
70. Susan Glaser, “Be Aware of How Disney Pays Workers,” The Palm Beach Post, Letter to editor, September 8, 1997, p. 15-A.
71. Faran Haq, “U. S.-Burma: Garment, Trade Booming ...,“ op. cit. 72. Ramey, “Anti-Sweatshop Panel Pushes On: ...,“ op. cit.
74. Darien, “U. S.-Labor: ...,“ op. cit.
75. White, “Putting an End to Sweatshops; ...,“ op. cit.
76. Nicole Volpe, “Haitian Labor Advocates Applaud Sweatshop Accord,” The Reuter
European Business Report, Monday BC Cycle, April 14, 1997.
77. “Child Labor Declining, Study Says,” Newsday, October 22, 1996, p. A-Si.
78. Stephanie Salter, “Crusader Makes Sweatshop Firms Sweat,” The Fresno Bee, September 15, 1996, p. B-S.
79. Ibid.
80. Haq, “U. S.-Burma: Garment, Trade Booming ...,“ op. cit. 81. Denn, “He Works to Stop Abuse ...,“ op. cit.
82. White, “Putting an End to Sweatshops; ...,“ op. cit. 83. Ibid.
84. Denn, “He Works to Stop Abuse ...,“ op. cit. 85. Haq, “United States: The Politics ...,“ op. cit.
86. Salter, “Crusader Makes Sweatshop Firms Sweat, ...,“ op. cit.
87. Tim Shorrock, “Groups Announce Sweatshop Campaign,” Journal of
Commerce, October 2, 1997, p. 5-A.
88. Peter Zirnite, “U. S. Labor: Codes of Conduct Cut Child Labor, But Aren’t Panacea,” Inter Press Service,” October 22, 1996.