Labor Standards in International Supply Chains

Aligning Rights and Incentives

Daniel Berliner, Arizona State University, Anne Regan Greenleaf, University of Washington, Milli Lake, Arizona State University, Margaret Levi, Stanford University, Jennifer Noveck, University of Washington, US

Labor Standards in International Supply Chains examines developments in working conditions over the past thirty years. The authors analyze the stakeholders and mechanisms that create challenges and opportunities for improving labor rights around the world, in sectors including apparel, footwear and electronics. Extended examples from China, Honduras, Bangladesh and the United States, as well as new quantitative evidence, illustrate the complex dynamics within and among key groups, including brands, suppliers, governments, workers and consumers.

'This book constitutes a valuable contribution to a growing and increasingly important scholarly field and will prove to be useful for anyone interested in learning more about factors that contribute to the shaping of working conditions in global supply chains, whether they are academics, students, campaigners or practitioners.'
– Journal of Industrial Relations

‘Exhibiting a refreshing disregard for industry-approved narratives about labor rights, in which progress flows from the spigot of an espresso machine at a “corporate social responsibility” seminar, the authors focus with precision on the factors that actually determine labor rights outcomes: the economic interests of global brands, and their suppliers, and how these are mediated by governments’ regulatory choices and by the efforts of workers and allied groups to make brands pay a reputational price for the labor abuses they help create. Readers will better understand why early 20th century working conditions still exist in the 21st – and what might be done about it.’
– Scott Nova, Executive Director, Worker Rights Consortium