Robert J. S. Ross, research professor of Sociology and the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise, was a featured speaker at “Sustainable Models for Bangladesh Apparel Industry: Bangladesh Development Conference 2016,” Sept. 24, at Harvard Law School, at Harvard University, Cambridge.
Professor Robert J.S. Ross
The daylong conference, organized jointly by International Sustainable Development Institute (ISDI) in association with Harvard University faculty and Bangladeshi researchers, focused on “exploring the ways to build a ‘Sustainable Business Model for the Apparel Industry’ that is competitive and benefits its workers and stakeholders.”
Prof. Ross appeared on the panel “Supply chain compliance and the need for fair price strategy and shared responsibility,” where he addressed the need for more vigorous law enforcement on a variety of labor standard including building remediation. “These are specially pressing if TPP is passed as it has the potential to make competition between Vietnam and Bangladesh more intense,” he wrote.
“The danger of a race to the bottom looms,” Ross explained. “In the negative, if the Bangladesh state continues to neglect workers’ interests two unhappy possibilities arise. One, without recourse to even handed justice, nor protection from potent unions, frustration can turn to violence. Further, given the resistance of employers to remediate factories, and brands’ reluctance to let their prices rise, more dramatic catastrophes threaten. The latter will make the former more probable.”
Conference participants included NGO representatives and practitioners, high level policy makers and government officials from Bangladesh, Europe, and the USA; Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), BKMEA, BTMA, international clothing brands and retailers, workers’ rights groups, international labor organizations, United Nations agencies, and international financial institutions.
Since the 1980s, Prof. Ross has worked on the political economy of urban development and the analysis of global capitalism. He is the author of “Slaves to Fashion,” about poverty and abuse in the new sweatshops.
