There has been a lot of coverage in the media over the past five years, maybe even more, surrounding issues of factory standards, substandard wages for manufacturing workers of nearly any product that's made in a third world country. You hear of kids who are employed in soccer ball factories. In Indonesia and other parts of Asia, you hear of footwear factories with really low wages and horrible working conditions. My particular exposure to this market after being in the athletic footwear industry for over a decade has elevated my concern about these issues. Fair treatment for third world workers has certainly been heightened in my mind.
As it applies to home decor, the area that I can most support fair trade is in making sure the artisans I work with are getting paid a fair wage. How do you do that? A key point is when you're contacting an artisan about a product your interested in and they provide you with a price quote, that you treat them with respect and try to honor the initial price quote and do not try to put the screws to them to get the highest margin for yourself out of it. You provide the artisan with what they think they need to make a living, keep their business going, and take care of their family too.
Another aspect of fair trade is advancing funds for product. Even as a small business, Global Village has been able to provide a payment of 50% in advance of production. This allows an artisan who doesn't have the means, without having to go out to the black market to get a loan, to procure the raw materials necessary to produce the products for us in an efficient manner. Obviously, the risk on our part is that we're just getting established, so we have to advance funds to ourselves to pass on these funds to the artisan.
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1 comment:
Well said.
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