Improving Working Conditions in Garment Supply Chains: The Role of Unions in Cambodia
| Published date | 01 September 2016 |
| Date | 01 September 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12118 |
| Author | Chikako Oka |
British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/bjir.12118
54:3 September 2016 0007–1080 pp. 647–672
Improving Working Conditions
in Garment Supply Chains: The Role
of Unions in Cambodia
Chikako Oka
Abstract
Given the disappointing outcomes of private regulationof labour in global supply
chains, worker organization is increasingly seen as the key to better working
conditions. This article examines the extent to which unions impact dierent
dimensions of labour standard compliance in Cambodia’s garmentexport sector,
where unions have grown considerably. Based on unique factory-level data and
field-based interviews, this study shows that union presence improves factories’
compliance with wage, hours, and leave standards, although the impact is much
less significant for health and safety. Moreover, having multiple unions in the
workplace does not appear to improve labour conditions.
1. Introduction
Working conditions in the global garment industry remain dangerous and
unhealthy despite various eorts to regulate. Following the Rana Plaza
disaster that killed more than 1,100 people (mainly workers of garment
factories housed in the building) in Bangladesh in April 2013, trade unions
have been allowed to register more easily. Could unions have prevented such
disasters had they been allowed to operate more freely? More generally,
can unions improve all aspects of working conditions for workers toiling at
producing garments and other labour-intensive goods destined to consumers
in the developed world?
While studying the role and impact of unions in developing countries is
crucial to our understanding of what improves working conditions and what
unions do in general, very few systematic studies in developingcountries exist.
Since the seminal work by Freeman and Medo (1984), there has been a
tremendous amount of research on unions and their impact on a variety of
Chikako Oka is at School of Management,Royal Holloway Universityof London.
C
2015 John Wiley& Sons Ltd/London School of Economics. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road,Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
648 British Journal of Industrial Relations
outcomes including wages, benefits, inequality, job satisfaction, productivity
and macro-economic performance (see Bennett and Kaufman 2008 for a
comprehensive review). Nonetheless, the focus of union research in industrial
relations (IR) has been predominantly on developed economies, the bias
Freeman (2008: 612) recognizes: ‘going beyondthe OECD, there is also much
to be learned from the experiences of unionism in developing countries, which
.. . (we) have ignored’. This imbalance may distort our understanding of what
unions do more generally, given that the majority of the world population
resides in developing countries.
However, there is a voluminous interdisciplinary literature on labour
regulation in global supply chains that focuses almost exclusively on
developing countries. The emergingconsensus of the literature is the inability
of private regulationthrough codes of conduct and monitoring to consistently
deliver progress, notably on labour rights and living wage (Anner 2012;
Barrientos and Smith 2007; Egels-Zanden and Merk 2014; Locke 2013; Lund-
Thomsen and Lindgreen 2014). Given the disappointing outcomes of buyer-
driven regulation, worker organization is increasingly seen as the key to
improve labour conditions in global supply chains (Anner 2012; Seidman
2007). Although the role of organized labour and transnational union
networks in global supply chains has received growing attention (Cumbers
et al. 2008; Gregoratti and Miller 2011; Helfen and Fichter 2013), there has
been no quantitative assessment of unions’ impact, evaluating the extent to
which unions aect working conditions in global supply chains.
This article seeks to address the lacuna by bringing together dierent
streams of research and examining unions’ impact on dierent dimensions of
labour standard compliance.This study draws on quantitative and qualitative
evidence from Cambodia’s exporting garment sector. The quantitative
analysis, based on the comprehensive factory-level data collected by
the International Labour Organization (ILO), demonstrates that the presence
of unions in the factory helps reduce labour standard violations, although
their impact varies with issue areas. Union presence significantly improves
compliance with wage, hours and leave standards but less so with regard
to safety and health issues. Moreover, having multiple unions in the factory
does not help improve compliance. The qualitative analysis illustrates how
unions and threat of strikes helped change managerial behaviour and
why multiplicity of unions could have counterproductive eects. Overall,
the findings underscore the importance of unions in improving working
conditions in global supply chains.This article argues that in order to improve
labour conditions at the site of production, we need to better understand the
potential and limits of unions as well as the conditions under which unions
can eectively represent workers.
C
2015 John Wiley& Sons Ltd/London School of Economics.
To continue reading
Request your trial