Love Gap... this is not the end of the conversation
Dear Ms. Strader,
Thank you for your inquiry about the treatment of workers and the
factories that make our clothes. We share your concern, as this is also
a very important matter to us. We want our products to be made in a
safe and humane environment, and we've devoted significant amounts of
time, money and energy toward improving factory conditions and the lives
of garment workers.
We're committed in our efforts. Nearly a decade ago, we created a Code
of Vendor Conduct establishing our principles and the expectations we
have for factories that produce our clothes. Today we have one of the
most comprehensive factory monitoring programs in the apparel industry
with more than 90 employees around the world who are devoted to
improving the factories in which our products are made. We make both
announced and surprise visits that include interviewing workers,
reviewing documents, inspecting health, safety and labor conditions, and
more. In addition, we work closely with nonprofit and governmental
organizations, independent monitors and community leaders, striving to
promote change through greater collaboration among all concerned
stakeholders.
We'd like to share more about our program with you, and we invite you to
visit our web site at: http://www.gapinc.com/public/SocialResponsibility/socialres.shtml.
We've also recently published our first Social Responsibility Report
which is available online as well. We want our customers, employees and
investors to know what we're doing to improve factories, and your
feedback about our efforts is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Jodi
Customer Service Consultant
posted by Sweet T @ 10:57 AM
7 Comments:
What did you say in the letter you sent to the Gap? What do you think of their response?
I like their response, and I'm excited that organizations are starting to post social responsibility reports. Are there independent reports of the same nature? That would be nice if there were. Where are they?
I'm not posting what I write to the companies because (1) I am insecure about my writing and (2) it's clear what I ask and talk about in the letter to them by their response.
I think their response is cordial... but still not good. These companies have a lot of power and like to make it look like they can only change at the speed of snails. While I understand that most change is slow... they make a lot of excuses.
quite frankly, these companies don't care. they're making more money doing what they're doing AND paying damages (if any) for violations. they know their standards don't work, and they just don't care, for a variety of reasons. there may be workers on all levels who do, but they can't be heard this way. smaller businesses are hungrier for change.
Bob- responsibleshopper.org has lists of companies and the good and bad things about them, but it's not an official reporting group or anything. There are things like sweatshop watch or any other sort of watch that watch things. It would be nice though. I'm pretty sure companies have to use an independent verifier. But Enron showed us that that doesn't always matter.
I like that her name is Jodi with an I. It feels friendlier. I hope she uses a heart for the dot of the I.
I would also add to Cat's comment that what companies like Gap do care about (what they are required by law to care about above anything else) is their shareholders. The real struggle is to either reform the law and give companies more freedom to consider their stakeholders, even at the expense of a lower stock price in the short term, or to educate shareholders in the benefits of profits delayed by doing things the right way vs. profits now through cost saving measures like cheap labor. It is definitely a myth that socially responsible companies are less profitable (in most studies, mutual funds that include only socially responsible companies actually do slightly better than regular mutual funds) but it is one that many still subscribe to.
Thanks for the response to my request to see your letters, Strader. As you know, the Target response wasn't enlightening at all--I have no idea what you wrote to them. But I accept that you don't want to share that. I just thought I'd ask.
@Katie: I think that a socially responsible Gap would make less money than the current Gap--because otherwise, the Gap would become socially responsible on their own, wouldn't they? Maybe they don't have a metric to measure shame and/or long-term profitability. But I think their best people say, despite their longing for justice (let's assume), "This would make us less profitable," and so they only take the small steps they can, or are forced to.
My other question: how do I know their standards aren't effective? Maybe their standards are effective. I don't know where to look. Show me, interweb.
I don't mind shopping at the Gap, except that most of their clothes don't look exactly the way I'd like them to. I can't put my finger on what it is about most of their clothes that I find irritating.
The difficult part may be changing the system so that profits do not always have to be maximized in the way they are. That is one thing. But another, simpler thing is to make social responsibility more profitable, and lack-of-social-responsibility less profitable, which is what is happening currently, and which is the motivation behind the Gap's progress report--it became more profitable for them to begin to care about "social responsibility" than not.
Guilelessly,
Bob
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