I am engaged in a range of projects which seek to use
research, analysis, and teaching to support public interest campaigns.
In particular, I am interested in supporting grassroots, community-based,
and democratic initiatives which empower common people to have a say
in development, environment, health, and labor issues which affect their
lives. I am currently most focused on workplace health and safety and
environmental justice issues. For instance, since 1997, I have been studying Nike's
production around the world, and its impacts on workers, communities,
and the environment. I have issued a number of reports on factory conditions
in Vietnam, including "Smoke From a Hired
Gun," which critiques Ernst & Young's monitoring of Nike
factories in Vietnam; "Beginning to
Just Do It," an analysis of improvements Nike has made in one
Vietnamese factory; and a critique of the Tuck
Business School report on wages paid to Nike workers. NEW!!! - I am working with
a coalition of groups in the US, Hong Kong, and China to conduct the first-of-its-kind
capacity building and training project on health and safety issues in
factories of US multinationals operating in China. The project will help
to strengthen health and safety committees inside three large footwear
factories in Guangdong Province in southern China, and build the capacity
of workers to directly evaluate and improve health, safety, and environmental
conditions in these factories. You can download the final
report of the project. This project is being funded by the MacArthur
Foundation and through a special grant made possible by the Beastie Boys.
I am also working on a capacity
building project for NGOs and unions in Indonesia. This project
is designed to support local citizen efforts to play a role in evaluating
the health, safety, and environmental conditions of factories producing
for multinational corporations. We recently completed a one-week
training in Jakarta for 30 young Indonesian leaders. This work is
also being supported by the MacArthur Foundation. More generally, I am interested in advancing independent
monitoring systems for manufacturing practices around the world. Towards
this end, Archon Fung and I have written a number of proposals on information
forcing strategies for the global apparel industry, and for the
university-logo garment industry in particular. I have also conducted public interest research on the
impacts of oil development in Burma, and on health impacts of electronics
manufacturing in Thailand. Check out these links to groups working on these issues: Campaign for Labor Rights: http://summersault.com/~agj/clr/ Clean Clothes Campaign: www.cleanclothes.org
Ethical Trading Initiative: www.ethicaltrade.org
Fair Labor Association: www.fairlabor.org Global Alliance for Workers and Communities: www.theglobalalliance.org Global Exchange: www.globalexchange.org
International Labour Organisation: www.ilo.org
International Labor Rights Fund: www.laborrights.org
National Labor Committee: www.nlcnet.org
New Ideas in Pollution Regulation: www.worldbank.org/nipr
SA8000: www.cepaa.org
Sweatshop Watch: www.sweatshopwatch.org
UNITE Stop Sweatshops Campaign: www.uniteunion.org
Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing
(WIEGO): www.wiego.org Workers Rights Consortium: www.workersrights.org
