I chose the brand Uniqlo for this weeks’ assignment because it is my favorite clothing brand and I thought it was a good opportunity to learn more about Uniqlo’s’ ethical behavior as a company and what goals they have for the future regarding sustainability and policies.
I started by checking on the official website what news they had published recently, and I found the recent “PEACE FOR ALL” charity campaign. The campaign shirts were launched this past June and up to this September they raised a little more than $1 million. These funds were donated to three non-profit organizations: UNHCR-UN Refugee agency, Save the Children, Plan International. I also read that they had formed an alliance with the UN Women in 2019, which I thought it was something good but apparently there is a hidden motive for it. I will be talking more about it later in this paper so do not forget this fact.
After that, a simple google search brought up reviews and articles about the company’s ethical behavior and sustainability. According to the article “Is Uniqlo Ethical and Sustainable?” written by Daisy Jordan this earlier this year, Uniqlo has a ‘repair and reuse’ program in which they use their own garments, reuse them, and avoid contributing with the large amount of cloth that go to waste every year. In addition, they also utilize the Blue Cycle program, which is a process that reduces the use of water by 99% when making jeans. And even though it is recent, they claimed that is just the beginning.
Uniqlo also claims that by 2030, 50% of its products will be recyclable and that all of its offices use renewable energy. But is important to know that while these campaigns and environmentally friendly policies are being implemented in the company, the majority of Uniqlo’s’ garments are not made of sustainable materials yet. And here is where I began to get more information about how the company is producing its articles at the moment.
When I found out that his percentage for the Fashion Transparency Index is not more than 40%, I started digging information as to why. The reason is that they do not disclose the methods for implementing those policies and do not list the suppliers for production. This could lead to hidden bad working condition issue. And turns out there is an ongoing case involving $5 million and unpaid workers.
Let me tell you how the story goes, and we will see how ethical Uniqlo actions were: The factories Jaba Garmindo located in Indonesia were the major suppliers for Uniqlo until 2015 when they shut down. These factories had been under investigation for poor labor conditions and work abuses, such as harassment and the firing of pregnant workers and this is important because the majority of workers were women. What Uniqlo did was stop buying from those factories to separate themselves from this investigation causing the factories to go to bankruptcy. After that, they failed to pay severance payment for almost 2,000 individuals denying responsibility for the unpaid wages.
Remember when I told you about the alliance with the UN Women, it seems to me that these two actions contradict themselves. On one side, supporting the rights of women and equality of gender and the other side, them not paying the severance to the workers who lost their jobs from one day to another. I would start by paying that debt to the workers who got the company to the place it is right now because I believe it is the ethical thing to do, being grateful and compensating for arduous work.
The website “Good on You” rates the work environment for Uniqlo at ‘not good enough’ and up to a certain point I agree. While it is true that Uniqlo might be lacking in the labor area, it has projects for the future and set policies that they claimed to be following, having begun already with some of them, like animal policies and not using fur and non-mulesed wool. Let us not forget that this brand has been gaining popularity on these recent years, so I believe that are still in the process of finding the best ways for developing and staying ethical.
Sources:
https://www.uniqlo.com/jp/en/contents/sustainability/planet/products/bluecyclejeans/
https://cleanclothes.org/news/2020/uniqlo-and-the-women-owed-55-million
https://www.fastretailing.com/eng/group/news/2209291100.html
Uniqlo – Sustainability Rating – Good On You
