Private Regulation and Trade Union Rights: Why Codes of Conduct Have Limited Impact on Trade Union Rights

Codes of conduct are the main tools to privately regulate worker rights in global value chains. Scholars have shown that while codes may improve outcome standards (such as occupational health and safety), they have had limited impact on process rights (such as freedom of association and collective bargaining). Scholars have, though, only provided vague or general explanations for this empirical finding. We address this shortcoming by providing a holistic and detailed explanation, and argue that codes, in their current form, have limited impact on trade union rights due to (i) buyers paying lip service to trade union rights, (ii) workers being treated as passive objects of regulation in codes of conduct, (iii) auditing being unable to detect and remediate violations of trade union rights, (iv) codes emphasizing parallel means of organizing, (v) suppliers having limited incentives for compliance, and (vi) codes being unable to open up space for union organizing when leveraged in grassroots struggles. Our arguments suggest that there is no quick fix for codes’ limited impact on trade union rights, and that codes, in their current form, have limited potential to improve trade union rights. We conclude by discussing ways in which codes of conduct, and private regulation of worker rights more generally, could be transformed to more effectively address trade union rights.

[1]  Bin Jiang Implementing Supplier Codes of Conduct in Global Supply Chains: Process Explanations from Theoretic and Empirical Perspectives , 2009 .

[2]  S. Barrientos,et al.  Do workers benefit from ethical trade? Assessing codes of labour practice in global production systems , 2007 .

[3]  D. Neu,et al.  Multi-Stakeholder Labour Monitoring Organizations: Egoists, Instrumentalists, or Moralists? , 2008 .

[4]  G. Seyfang,et al.  Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights: Codes of Conduct in the Global Economy , 2004 .

[5]  Dara O'Rourke,et al.  Experiments in Transforming the Global Workplace: Incentives for and Impediments to Improving Workplace Conditions in China , 2003, International journal of occupational and environmental health.

[6]  Jeroen Merk Production beyond the Horizon of Consumption: Spatial Fixes and Anti-sweatshop Struggles in the Global Athletic Footwear Industry , 2011 .

[7]  Drusilla K. Brown International Trade and Core Labor Standards A Survey of the Recent Literature , 2000 .

[8]  David Kučera,et al.  Trade Union Rights, Democracy, and Exports: A Gravity Model Approach , 2006 .

[9]  Marina Prieto-Carrón,et al.  Women Workers, Industrialization, Global Supply Chains and Corporate Codes of Conduct , 2008 .

[10]  A Tale of Two Factories: Successful Resistance to Sweatshops and the Limits of Firefighting , 2005 .

[11]  César A. Rodríguez-Garavito Global Governance and Labor Rights: Codes of Conduct and Anti-Sweatshop Struggles in Global Apparel Factories in Mexico and Guatemala , 2005 .

[12]  M. Behnam,et al.  Where is the Accountability in International Accountability Standards?: A Decoupling Perspective , 2011 .

[13]  A. Kolk,et al.  Multinationality and Corporate Ethics: Codes of Conduct in the Sporting Goods Industry , 2001 .

[14]  L. Riisgaard,et al.  Prospects for Labour in Global Value Chains: Labour Standards in the Cut Flower and Banana Industries , 2011 .

[15]  Petra Christmann MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES AND THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT: DETERMINANTS OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY STANDARDIZATION , 2004 .

[16]  Dara O'Rourke,et al.  Lean Manufacturing Comes to China: A Case Study of Its Impact on Workplace Health and Safety , 2007, International journal of occupational and environmental health.

[17]  Lone Riisgaard,et al.  Global value chains, labor organization and private social standards: lessons from East African cut flower industries. , 2009 .

[18]  Xiaomin Yu From Passive Beneficiary to Active Stakeholder: Workers’ Participation in CSR Movement Against Labor Abuses , 2009 .

[19]  Kamal Munir,et al.  A Dark Side of Institutional Entrepreneurship: Soccer Balls, Child Labour and Postcolonial Impoverishment , 2007 .

[20]  W. Scott Institutions and Organizations: Ideas and Interests , 2007 .

[21]  Wendy Nelson Espeland,et al.  The Discipline of Rankings: Tight Coupling and Organizational Change , 2009 .

[22]  Don Wells,et al.  Too Weak for the Job , 2007 .

[23]  Lutz Preuss Ethical Sourcing Codes of Large UK-Based Corporations: Prevalence, Content, Limitations , 2009 .

[24]  Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval Globalization and Transnational Labor Organizing , 2003, Social Science History.

[25]  S. Bradley,et al.  Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , 1994 .

[26]  Participatory Social Auditing: A Practical Guide to Developing A Gender Sensitive Approach , 2004 .

[27]  Hens Runhaar,et al.  Governing Corporate Social Responsibility: An Assessment of the Contribution of the UN Global Compact to CSR Strategies in the Telecommunications Industry , 2009 .

[28]  M. Prieto-Carrón Corporate Social Responsibility in Latin America Chiquita, Women Banana Workers and Structural Inequalities , 2006 .

[29]  Tim Bartley,et al.  Opening the 'Black Box': Transnational Private Certification of Labor Standards in China , 2012 .

[30]  Catherine Dolan,et al.  Fairtrade Facts and Fancies: What Kenyan Fairtrade Tea Tells us About Business’ Role as Development Agent , 2010 .

[31]  Judy Gearhart,et al.  Who should code your conduct? Trade union and NGO differences in the fight for workers' rights , 2004 .

[32]  Martin Müller,et al.  Social Standards: Toward an Active Ethical Involvement of Businesses in Developing Countries , 2007 .

[33]  N. Sum,et al.  Globalization and Paradoxes of Ethical Transnational Production: Code of Conduct in a Chinese Workplace , 2005 .

[34]  S. V. D. Vegt Social Auditing in Bulgaria, Romania and TurkeyResults from survey and case study research , 2005 .

[35]  C. L. Hovary,et al.  Declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work , 2004 .

[36]  Drusilla K. Brown International trade and core labour standards , 2000 .

[37]  Petra Christmann Multinational Companies and the Natural Environment: Determinants of Global Environmental Policy , 2004 .

[38]  R. Ross A Tale of Two Factories: Successful Resistance to Sweatshops and the Limits of Firefighting1 , 2005 .

[39]  T. Reay,et al.  Managing the Rivalry of Competing Institutional Logics , 2009 .

[40]  I. Mamic Implementing Codes of Conduct: How Businesses Manage Social Performance in Global Supply Chains , 2004 .

[41]  Tim Bartley,et al.  Institutional Emergence in an Era of Globalization: The Rise of Transnational Private Regulation of Labor and Environmental Conditions1 , 2007, American Journal of Sociology.

[42]  Mark Anner,et al.  Corporate Social Responsibility and Freedom of Association Rights , 2012 .

[43]  Xiaomin Yu,et al.  Impacts of Corporate Code of Conduct on Labor Standards: A Case Study of Reebok’s Athletic Footwear Supplier Factory in China , 2008 .

[44]  Michelle Greenwood,et al.  Ethics and HRM: A Review and Conceptual Analysis , 2002 .

[45]  Tim Hallett The Myth Incarnate: Recoupling Processes, Turmoil, and Inhabited Institutions in an Urban Elementary School , 2010 .

[46]  Niklas Egels-Zandén,et al.  Suppliers’ Compliance with MNCs’ Codes of Conduct: Behind the Scenes at Chinese Toy Suppliers , 2007 .

[47]  S. Barrientos Corporate purchasing practices in global production networks: A socially contested terrain , 2013 .

[48]  Niklas Egels-Zandén,et al.  Post-Partnership Strategies for Defining Corporate Responsibility: The Business Social Compliance Initiative , 2007 .

[49]  Doug Miller,et al.  The ITGLWF’s policy on cross-border dialogue in the textiles, clothing and footwear sector: Emerging strategies in a sector ruled by codes of conduct and resistant companies , 2008 .

[50]  Hong-zen Wang Asian Transnational Corporations and Labor Rights: Vietnamese Trade Unions in Taiwan-invested Companies , 2005 .

[51]  L. Fransen Multi-Stakeholder Governance and Voluntary Programme Interactions: Legitimation Politics in the Institutional Design of Corporate Social Responsibility , 2012 .

[52]  Richard E. Wokutch,et al.  Child Workers, Globalization, and International Business Ethics: A Case Study in Brazil’s Export-Oriented Shoe Industry , 2005 .

[53]  A. Chan,et al.  ANALYZING EXPLOITATION , 2010 .

[54]  Marcus Taylor Global economy contested : power and conflict across the international division of labour , 2008 .

[55]  T. Kochan,et al.  Beyond corporate codes of conduct: Work organization and labour standards at Nike's suppliers , 2007 .

[56]  Jennifer Zoltners Sherer,et al.  Organizational Routines as Coupling Mechanisms , 2011 .

[57]  L. Graham Globalization and Cross-Border Labor Solidarity in the Americas: The Anti-Sweatshop Movement and the Struggle for Social Justice , 2006 .

[58]  G. Caire Freedom of association and economic development , 1977 .

[59]  Niklas Egels-Zandén,et al.  Evaluating Strategies for Negotiating Workers’ Rights in Transnational Corporations: The Effects of Codes of Conduct and Global Agreements on Workplace Democracy , 2007 .

[60]  Marcus Taylor Race you to the Bottom … and Back Again? The Uneven Development of Labour Codes of Conduct , 2011 .

[61]  S. Zadek The path to corporate responsibility. , 2004, Harvard business review.

[62]  Lutz Preuss Codes of Conduct in Organisational Context: From Cascade to Lattice-Work of Codes , 2010 .

[63]  G. Seidman Beyond the boycott : labor rights, human rights, and transnational activism , 2007 .

[64]  Po-Keung Ip Corporate Social Responsibility and Crony Capitalism in Taiwan , 2008 .

[65]  D. Gallin,et al.  Cross border social dialogue and agreements: An emerging global industrial relations framework? , 2008 .

[66]  Niklas Egels-Zandén,et al.  The processes of defining corporate responsibility: a study of Swedish garment retailers' responsibility , 2008 .

[67]  R. J. Ross,et al.  Clean Clothes Campaign , 2012 .

[68]  David H. Tobey,et al.  Corporate social responsibility initiatives: A stakeholder model for aligning competing values in West Africa , 2012 .

[69]  John W. Meyer,et al.  Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.

[70]  C. Driscoll,et al.  Codes of Ethics and the Pursuit of Organizational Legitimacy: Theoretical and Empirical Contributions , 2007 .

[71]  Niklas Egels-Zandén,et al.  Revisiting Supplier Compliance with MNC Codes of Conduct: Recoupling Policy and Practice at Chinese Toy Suppliers , 2014 .

[72]  Pun Ngai,et al.  Global Production, Company Codes of Conduct, and Labor Conditions in China: A Case Study of Two Factories , 2005, The China Journal.

[73]  H. V. Buren,et al.  Enhancing Employee Voice: Are Voluntary Employer–Employee Partnerships Enough? , 2008 .

[74]  S. Frenkel Globalization, Athletic Footwear Commodity Chains and Employment Relations in China , 2001 .