By Guillaume Charbonneau, Executive Director of the Steelworkers Humanity Fund.
Accountability is a simple, yet powerful concept. When one does something wrong, there should be consequences, or at the very least an acknowledgement of the harm done. Due to successful awareness campaigns led by labour and human rights groups around the world, there is increased pressure for corporations to respond to basic standards of accountability that some companies refuse to acknowledge or apply to their overseas operations.
A long-time partner, Kalpona Akter, the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS), knows this very well. The Steelworkers Humanity Fund has supported BCWS for several years in its fight for safer workplaces and sustainable wages for the workers who make our clothes. But for the situation to change, Canadian companies must understand that they cannot continue to exploit workers in countries like Bangladesh with impunity.
In Canada, the SHF is a cofounder of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA). Today, the CNCA is one of the main driving forces for the adoption of legislation that would prevent companies from getting away with abuse, including garment workers exploited by Canadian companies. In 2022, it launched the “Human Rights and Accountability are Non-Negotiable” campaign, which showed how much Canada lags behind other nations. By having such a law in place, Canadian companies would be mandated to proactively address issues of human rights and poverty wages in their supply chain.
As a way to help build pressure, last November, USW, jointly with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) filed a complaint with the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) against retailer Mark’s and its parent company, the Canadian Tire Corporation. At the centre of this complaint is the accusation that the company is not ensuring that workers in its supplier factories in Bangladesh are paid living wages. The complaint is still being assessed.
The fight for corporate accountability is ongoing and taking place on many fronts. Whether it’s by strengthening grassroots organizations like BCWS in Bangladesh, holding Canadian companies to account, or organizing joint advocacy efforts in networks such as the CNCA, the movement to end the shameful and long-standing violation of workers’ human rights is here to stay.
To learn more about the CNCA campaign, visit the http://non-negotiable.ca
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