Rosa Luxemburg Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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