US government can help businesses raise standards

The US government could use its massive purchasing power to demand improved working conditions around the world, a new report has concluded – but it doesn’t use this power effectively. The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) lays out some clear ideas to improve government purchasing and the capacity to protect and respect human rights of workers in its own supply chain.

The US government could use its massive purchasing power to demand improved working conditions around the world, a new report has concluded – but it doesn’t use this power effectively.

According to a posting on the blog of the US national union federation AFL-CIO, “our government does very little to ensure our tax dollars are spent responsibly, whether it’s through buying uniforms, electronics or food from businesses that support decent conditions in the thousands of workplaces in the United States and around the world.”

A new report by the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR), however, lays out some clear ideas to improve government purchasing and the capacity to protect and respect human rights of workers in its own supply chain. It shows how to build respect for labour rights into the government purchasing process and give incentives to contractors to take the high road.

Some proposals borrow solutions that have been implemented by local and state governments and universities to clean up supply chains. There are many innovative and effective solutions to these problems, the report concludes, such as the union-driven Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, which shows how major purchasers can use their power to improve conditions in supply chains.