SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, and the Fashion Industry
Written by: Isabelle Sain, Content Coordinator & Education Manager @ Threading Change
16 May 2022
[8-minute read]
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established seven years ago (2015) by the United Nations (UN) and were adopted by all UN Member States at the time to act as “a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.”
These SDGs were supposed to be the “urgent call” governments, industries, and citizens needed to commence the long and hard process of creating lasting change and global solidarity in the pursuit of a better tomorrow. Seven years down the line though, and many industries have barely begun implementing sustainable development…
Here at Threading Change, our specialty is fashion and the textile industry; that is what we can speak to, and so we encourage you to follow us along on this ride and learn about the UN SDGs and specifically how they relate to the fashion industry.
SDG 8: Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.
SDG 8 looks at the many inequities pertaining to labour issues and sustainable economic growth. Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were already key indications that the global economy was already slowing down. The pandemic has caused the largest global economic recession since the Great Depression and has had a massive impact on employment, individuals’ incomes, and decent, safe work. Currently, we are seeing global and domestic labour movements in response to the pandemic and unsafe working conditions. The pandemic has exposed the lack of protection workers have had globally and fueled movements in response.
Fashion and SDG 8
AS mentioned, SDG 8 addresses the social issues affecting the fashion industry. Garment workers are exploited, underpaid, abused, and used as commodities. This creates the intricate linkage between SDG 8 and the fashion industry.
The industry is built on a web of inequality and exploitation with retailers and corporations profiting from the endless growth and race to the bottom mentality. Retailers and companies have held on tight to the power and money within the industry by seeking out low wages, poor labour standards, and a lack of environmental regulations. They sought out precarious workers already facing systemic vulnerability; exploitation is the very foundation of the current dominant fashion industry with forced overtime, wage reductions, and piece rates making up the status quo.
Fashion being one of the most influential cultural actors in the world, it influences the local and global economies greatly. It also employs millions of garment workers globally, with the majority being women and children. Less than 2% of these people who make the clothes on our bodies and in our closets earn a living wage (Source: The True Cost). Approximately 98% of workers in the fashion industry are in a systemic poverty cycle, with their most basic needs not being met. (Source: Fashion Revolution, 2017). The economy as it currently operates will not support a sustainable future where everyone can live with respect and dignity.
Remember Who Made Them is a campaign to spotlight workers’ situations and demands, through social media influencers and key media outlets, to raise greater awareness and action. They explain how we, as consumers and citizens, can foster a new way of looking at our economies and use the term a new solidarity economy in which we can build an alternative to our capitalist world. A solidarity economy always puts the wellbeing of people and the planet before corporate profits.
How can you help?
This past month, Threading Change participated in Fashion Revolution week and collaborated with a number of organisations who are working towards a solidarity economy. Every year in the week surrounding the 24th of April, organisations come together to amplify the voices of workers fighting for rights and a living wage. This is because Rana Plaza, a garment factory in Bangladesh, employing around 5,000 people, collapsed after warnings of the lack of regulations and cracking ceilings in 2013, taking over 1,100 people with it.
This year's theme for Fashion Revolution Week was exploring “Money, Fashion, and Power” within the industry. Wealth and power is abundant throughout the industry and unregulated growth and profit are obtained at all costs. Big brands and retailers produce too much too fast, and manipulate us into a toxic cycle of overconsumption. Meanwhile, the majority of people that make our clothes are not paid enough to meet their basic needs, and already feel the impacts of the climate crisis – which the fashion industry fuels. We hosted a panel with Fashion Revolution Canada, Fair Wear Foundation, and Clean Clothes Campaign who centre the health and well being of garment workers across the supply chain during Fashion Revolution Week 2022 to delve into this topic further.
As global citizens, we all have some ways we can make the impact and hold the industry accountable. SDG 8 addresses how decent work and fair living wages are human rights and a necessity but also how we can ensure a sustainable economy that every person can benefit from. It also addresses how, as a citizen, we have the right to demand fair living standards and wages, especially addressing the wealth disparity between the people making clothing and the corporations and executives of the brands designing them.
There are many organisations that are addressing the labour movement and the labour crisis within the fashion industry. Organisations like Clean Clothes Campaign work in solidarity with workers and amplify the people, activists, and workers across the globe who are working towards concrete steps to ensuring garment workers have sustainable, living wages and decent work. They empower workers within global supply chains so that governments protect employment rights and human rights, companies respect these rights, and workers have the ability to solve violations of these rights.
You can get involved with organisations working to change the fashion industry, like ours and others. The #payyourworkers campaign will have international days of action involving workers and activists abroad, which you can get involved with on social media.
There are also petitions you can sign, like this one demanding brands like Adidas to pay their workers a living wage and protect employment rights and human rights: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/adidas-pay-your-workers.
If you missed our previous educational works on SDGs 1-7, check out our Instagram! Try searching the hashtag #ThreadingChangexSDGs to see all of our informative posts in one spot.
About the author:
Isabelle is an artist whose work is an ongoing sensory experience that explores the relationships between body and space. Her work is grounded in establishing connections and events that define shared experiences to understand human interaction within the physical, political, social, and spiritual environment. Isabelle obtained her BFA in Textiles and Fashion at NSCAD University. Isabelle’s work has been exhibited in Toronto, Halifax, and Copenhagen. She has conducted a number of research projects investigating the future of fashion with KEA University, and has collaborated with several brands including Samsøe & Samsøe, and the Green Cannabis Co. In her art practice and experiences, she has created textile based design processes and solutions that establish connections to reinterpret textile production into a more environmentally and socially conscious industry. She is grounded by the preserving and passing of tradition while focusing her research on designs and systems, intersectional environmentalism, and climate justice.
Sources:
“FASHION TRANSPARENCY INDEX 2021.” Fashion Revolution, 16 Dec. 2021, www.fashionrevolution.org/about/transparency.
fashionunited.com. “Global Fashion Industry Statistics.” FashionUnited, www.fashionunited.com/global-fashion-industry-statistics. Accessed 26 Apr. 2022.
La Manna, Venetia, et al. Remember Who Made Them. rememberwhomadethem.com/about. Accessed 26 Apr. 2022.
Rana Plaza Never Again. ranaplazaneveragain.org/?mc_cid=4ab0d02739&mc_eid=5441cfca3a. Accessed 26 Apr. 2022.
“State of The Industry: Lowest Wages to Living Wages.” Lowest Wage Challenge, www.lowestwagechallenge.com/post/state-of-the-industry. Accessed 26 Apr. 2022.
