Presentation by Wenke Christoph of RLF at SYSU

1. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Beyond Corporate Social
Responsibility
Strategies for Public Control and
Accountability
Wenke Christoph
Guangzhou, Dec. 4-6 2011

2. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Global Production Networks:
A regulatory challenge
Fordism: Taylorist mass-production, collective
bargaining, strong trade unions and redistributive
politics
Emergence of global production networks (GPN):
- relocation of production
- downward competitive pressure on wages &
working conditions
- imbalance of power, capacity for regulation
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3. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Global Production Networks:
A regulatory challenge
 Corporate accountability campaigns
 Corporate/industry codes of conduct /
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
 Multiple stakeholder regulation/monitoring
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4. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Corporate accountability
campaigns
 Child labor/forced labor in textile industry (NIKE,
Reebook, The Gap)
 „Clean up your computer!“-campaign
 MakeITfair, PC Global, iSlave, …
- reports on labor & environmental conditions
- public awareness campaigns
“naming & shaming“
 ProcureITfair: socially & environmentally
responsible public procurement
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5. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Corporate codes of conduct / CSR
 Reaction to criticism and campaigns on working
conditions
 Scope: forced labor, child labor, discrimination,
wages and benefits, working hours, occupational
safety and health, working environment
 Part of strategic brand policies, accompanied by
internal monitoring/auditing mechanisms, CSR
departments and reports
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6. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Electronic Industry Code of
Conduct (EICC)
 Global brands, major contract manufacturers, large
software companies
 Lack of enforcement mechanisms, verification
requirements, low level of commitment
 no full protection of free association, collective
bargaining
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7. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Global e-Sustainability Initiative
(GeSI)
 ICT industry, emphasis on telecommunications
sector
 supported by UNEP and International
Telecommunication Union (ITU)
 publication of voluntary sustainability approaches,
support industry contributions to sustainable
development
 GeSI-EICC Supply Chain Working Group:
development of evaluation procedures for the
implementation of EICC by suppliers
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8. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Multiple stakeholder regulation
 Result of broadening of NGO campaigns &
supported by US and European governments
 Predominantly in textile industry: WRAP, FLA,
FWF, WRC
 SA8000: 2,680 factories in 61 countries certified
 China: 392 companies, 98 in textile industry, 66 in
electronics/appliances sector
 1-day audits, dependent on voluntary provision of
information by brands and factories
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9. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
What difference does CSR make?
 Introduction of capital-defined labor rights
supported by new business ethics and institutions
 Re-regulation of labor relations by global firms:
“re-organized moralism” (Pun Ngai)
 Contradictory regime: cost-sensitive global just-
in-time factory regimes vs. systems & procedures
to implement commitment to labor standards
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10. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
What difference does CSR make?
Co-optation of labor politics by the companies &
Politics of containment:
 No genuine concern for labor rights, workers’
representation or participation
 using complaint mechanisms and trade unions as
business institutions for facilitating production and
business goals
 managerial paternalism with labor rights granted
from above
 confining labor rights and struggles to company
codes as a top-down regulatory process
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11. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
What difference does CSR make?
Peter Utting (UNRISD):
“At best, CSR can contribute to raising awareness of
certain social and environmental problems and
serve to caution against blind faith in both market
forces and state regulatory capacity. […]
At worst, CSR involves a transfer of regulatory
authority to largely unaccountable agents and
renders more stable and palatable a model of
capitalism that generates or reinforces widespread
social exclusion, inequality and environmental
degradation. ”
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12. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
What CSR doesn‘t solve:
Challenges to labor regulation
(1) Transparency
(2) Purchasing practices
(3) Empowerment & local regulation
(4) Connecting the dots
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13. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Transparency
Independent, multi-stakeholder mechanisms
that can be made publicly accessible
(e.g. SA8000)
(1) legitimacy
(2) rigor
(3) accountability
(4) complementarity
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14. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Purchasing practices
 Double standards: buyers' demands directly
undermine compliance with their own codes of
labor practice
 Further burden for suppliers: demand to produce
at lower prices, but also to invest in social and
environmental standards
 Financial responsibility and purchasing practices
of global brands need to be addressed
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15. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Empowerment & local regulation
 CSR as paternalist granting of rights/conditions but means
of providing workers with agency or empowering them
 Focusing on CSR for the improvement of labor conditions
could undermine effective labor law enforcement by local
governments and trade unions
 CSR is not an alternative but a supplement to labor law
enforcement and collective bargaining
Workers to be involved in negotiating solutions to problems
and determining workplace conditions
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16. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Connecting the dots
 Resolution of labor issues in GPN requires a global
perspective: power imbalances, lacking transparency and
accountability
 connecting actions and policies of trade unions, NGOs,
(local) governments to produce linkages between
production workers and consumers, to form a common
frame of reference for the regulation of GPNs
 Necessity for pressure and counter-powers to force the
winners of globalization to submit to regulation and
redistribution
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17. ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
Thank you!
谢谢！