Can Corporate Codes of Conduct Promote Labor Standards?
Evidence from the Thai Footwear and Apparel Industries

One place where corporate codes of conduct have had a positive impact is in the area of occupation health and safety. The transnational corporations are particularly serious about fire safety. With every visit human rights coordinators must check fire exit and extinguishers.

Shoe production workers are exposed to many dangerous chemicals and physically hazardous environmental conditions. [1] Workers dip their hands in tubs of solvents without protective gloves. Workers in glue sections are especially vulnerable, as there is no effective protection from the toxic fumes. Many Reebok management personnel think that workers in the glue line have become addicted to the glue fumes. Many of these workers feel angry and emotional when they are not inhaling glue fumes.

Much of the protective equipment that can be used is also not appropriate and the workers do not want to use it. Although not all workers handle chemicals, are exposed to high heat, or are located in the high noise areas, the size and layout of the production facilities entail that most workers are affected from these chemicals or environments. Both the Bangkok Rubber Group and Wongpaitoon Footwear Company have been trying out the appropriate protection equipment and exchange information among themselves.

Workers stitching uppers in a Siam Unisole factory. Manufacturers provide cloth-masks to workers to satisfy the codes of conduct. However, as much of the air-born pollutants in the factories are chemical and solvent-based, these masks are of little use.

After long protest by labor activists, Nike and Reebok agreed that their producers would use water-based solvents to eliminate the carcinogenic chemical toluene. Nike and Reebok have heavily advertised this fact. However, not all of the dangerous chemicals can be eliminated. Some of the most dangerous chemicals for processing, binding, and cleaning rubber are agents which pose a serious threat to unprotected workers.

The personal protective equipment that has been supplied to workers is in many cases not suitable for the intense heat in the factories. When supplied with plastic gloves, workers' hands will be soaked with sweat after only half an hour. Therefore, workers typically refuse to use the equipment provided. Most workers can not perform their work wearing such equipment. Moreover, some equipment is inadequate to the threats to health and safety for which they are provided. For example, the cloth-masks supplied are useless against chemical fumes.

Many workers request transfers or resign because their work gives them headaches and makes them feel like vomiting. Even though codes of conduct have been in force for some time, health and safety violations are prevalent throughout the industry in Thailand. Occupational health and safety has only recently been discussed and improved. Many manufacturers still seem to think that it is acceptable for workers in stitching lines to have their hands cut by sewing needles, for workers in the pressing line to be struck by heavy machines, and workers in assembly lines to have solvent spit into their eyes. Every day, workers complain of rashes, headaches, stomachaches, and nausea. Medical check-ups attract queues of hundreds of workers. Serious accidents are also common. Most management turns a blind eye as they do with many other such occupational health and safety issues.

Workers in the Bangkok Rubber Group factory were applying Toluene, a carcinogen, with bare hands.

With Nike's focus on the environment, Bangkok Rubber Sena 1 factory, its manufacturer, thought it necessary to install waterfalls in the factories, at great expense, after Nike suggested the factory appearance needed improvement. Innovation Nakornlaug plowed significant funds into a beautiful orchid garden at their factory to please Reebok and Adidas. While the Wongpaitoon Footwear Company claims that they have spent more money in improving the factories' working environment than any other manufacturers, the Rungsit Footwear factory is better designed. Situated in an open space in the middle of the rice fields, the factory does not require extensive air ventilation.

The Wongpaitoon disadvantage is that it is located in an urban area and therefore the inside temperature is higher and the proper ventilation is difficult and expensive to provide. The Wongpaitoon Footwear Company factory's temperature is significantly higher than the outside temperature. In summer months, when the outside temperature can be up to 40 degrees Celsius, the working temperature inside the facility is difficult to bare. In the afternoon, workers used to apply baby powder to freshen up and reduce perspiration. Wongpaitoon has prohibited workers from applying baby powder, as the company claims that it soils the products. For shoe production, having an open working environment is generally better than a closed one.

Rungsit Footwear, a part of the Bangkok Rubber Group, being one of the coolest factories, is well regarded among workers of the industry. Many workers from the Bangkok Rubber Group group have gone to work for Rungsit Footwear. In an effort to reduce the numbers of workers migrating to Rungsit, the Bangkok Rubber Group declared that workers who resigned from their manufacturing operations would not be re-employed for a period of three months.

Footnotes:

1. Chemicals used in the industry include Hisil, ZnO, Tio2, Mbt, TMTM, Wax, PEG, Stearic, Promol PD, Teepol, Silicone, MEK, Glue 2200, 5100, 6250, primer 007, 107, 230, toluene, shellsole, MC, 112 which authorised supply by Dong Young, a Korean company.

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