Gap Inc. Social Responsibility

As part of our commitment to social responsibility, we support the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights principles, including the right of all workers to associate freely and bargain collectively. Because workers around the world face diverse challenges depending on their circumstances and location, we use a wide range of approaches to help protect their rights.

One way we demonstrate support for freedom of association and collective bargaining is by partnering with workers’ rights groups, including trade unions. For example, we work with the Global Union Federation for the garment sector and the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF) to bring about positive communication between factory workers, labor organizations and factory management. We believe that collaborative dialogue among factory management, labor groups and workers can be helpful in addressing issues when challenges arise. It also leads to improvements in other aspects of factory conditions. In addition, we work closely with other workers’ rights groups to protect freedom of association rights. 

While our approach may seem simple, it can be challenging to begin an open dialogue among groups with diverse viewpoints. Sometimes, it’s difficult just to get people together in the same room.

Sri Lanka

This was the case in Sri Lanka, where we held a two-day workshop in September 2008 that focused on productive ways to reduce workplace issues among factory management and trade unions. Prior to this workshop, entitled Building Competitiveness in a Globalized Economy, conflicts between factory managers and labor unions hindered progress on improving working conditions and building a healthy business. The resulting productive dialogue and problem solving among such a large number of factory managers and trade union representatives was a first for the industry.

In the Sri Lanka workshop, we implemented a specific agenda that led to successful outcomes. Initially, the ITGLWF representatives and the Gap Inc. social responsibility team members met with local union groups and factory management in independent forums. On the second day of the workshop, a joint session was held in which smaller groups solved problems together and discussed the issues raised in the initial, independent meetings. Based on this groundwork, a balanced and productive dialogue was possible, enabling factory managers and union leaders to develop joint solutions and a better understanding of each other’s challenges. This work led to positive, proactive communication that helped to resolve current challenges and provided a platform for future conflicts that might arise.  We have successfully used this model in other workshops with the ITGLWF. 

Neil Kearney, general secretary of ITGLWF, comments: “Through its active promotion of social dialogue between factory managements and trade unions, Gap Inc. is sending a powerful message to suppliers that industrial cooperation at the workplace level is a key element to competitiveness and the foundation of mature systems of industrial relations necessary for long-term success.”   

Cambodia

In 2007, we held sessions in Cambodia that brought together manufacturers, representatives from global and local trade unions, the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the U.S. government. During this meeting, the constructive communication and shared problem-solving helped the groups gain ground on improving factory conditions, including the right to associate freely.

Vietnam

In 2008, we held four workshops in Vietnam that included the ILO, the Industrial Relations Advisory Service Centers and the local resource centers established under ILO’s Industrial Relations Project. These sessions, held in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, involved 200 representatives from Gap Inc.’s supplier base in the country. We continue to work alongside the ILO with select factories in Vietnam to promote an ongoing dialogue between the trade union workers and factory management.

India

In southern India,we’ve worked to bring together unions, their affiliates, and factory management to proactively address factory issues and foster better working relationships. Our efforts resulted in an agreement of understanding between one factory and union representative to prevent such issues from affecting their business goals.

Central America

We took a similar approach to working with factory managers and union leaders in Central America, where union organizers had suffered targeted violence. Over the years, the region’s lack of progress in both working conditions and freedom of association was affecting its economic health, as companies looked elsewhere to manufacture clothes.

In our work to address these issues, we became a founding partner of the Continuous Improvement in the Central American Workplace project (CIMCAW), an innovative program dedicated to improving working conditions. Similar to the case in Sri Lanka, CIMCAW’s idea was both simple and bold: In order to make lasting changes, collaboration was essential. But what sounded easy in principle was much more difficult in practice; distrust ran high between factory managers and trade union leaders.

Through CIMCAW, we worked to launch an open, ongoing discussion between factory managers and labor unions. This work led to breakthroughs that, for many years, had not seemed possible — including joint training sessions for factory managers and workers.

From 2004 to 2008, CIMCAW had a positive impact on tens of thousands of workers in Central America, according to the final report on its work. The third-party assessment found that companies such as Gap Inc. built momentum for a unified effort because they “sent a powerful message to factories, industry associations, unions and governments that labor standards were an important element influencing their sourcing decisions.”

CIMCAW’s success was founded on partnerships including global brands and such groups as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the ITGLWF, and Social Accountability International. One of CIMCAW’s greatest accomplishments was the formation of committees in Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic that included representatives from local industry associations, unions and the government. Getting these groups to work together was a major breakthrough that took months, sometimes years, to achieve.

“The goals of social responsibility are ambitious, and the issues humanity faces require bold action,” says Darryl Knudsen, Gap Inc.’s senior manager of Strategic Partnerships. “Sometimes the challenges of implementation can limit one’s courage to think big. CIMCAW was about thinking huge. When we work with others, we really can do things that we could never do alone.”

As our experience with trade unions and other groups demonstrates every day, we cannot work alone to meet our goals to improve factory working conditions and protect worker rights. Collaboration among many groups is the key to addressing these issues, and we continue to support open, productive dialogue to solve problems. Partnering with diverse groups and organizations is critical to upholding our commitment to social responsibility, and it is essential to growing a healthy business.

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