Fair Trade Matters

October 20, 2021

We are both a US brand and an artisan manufacturing company based in Jaipur, India. From our inception, we have been committed to fair trade labor standards and have put into place protocols to ensure we were able to achieve them. When we achieved guaranteed member status with the World Fair Trade Organisation, the fair trade standards took on a deeper significance to us.  The process of becoming approved is long and involved.  It helped us grow as an organisation.  It helped us think more deeply about each aspect of fair trade and how we would uphold each standard in daily practise.  It helped us align our values with practical steps to ensure we can maintain those values in daily practice.  

Fair trade is more than paying living wages.  It is also a commitment to no child labor, no forced labor, on time payments, safe and clean working conditions, no discrimination, transparent and equitable working relationships and promoting those same values to the world we interact and do business with.  While this list should be obvious as simply a list of good business practices or a list of civil and decent humanitarian practices, we live in a world where it is important to spell out and articulate each and every standard and how we ensure that standard.  We live in a world where most of the labor jobs across the globe do not meet these standards.  They are often challenging to meet.  They take a daily vigilance to meet.  

We have developed policies around many specific points for each standard: gender policy, women’s development policy, no discrimination policy, proof of age, transparent worker contract agreements and help understanding those agreements for those we employ who are non literate, broken needle policy, fabric sourcing policy, energy and environmental policy to conserve energy and protect environmental standards, living wage calculations, to name a few.  

We use spreadsheets and tracking systems for all orders to ensure we don’t miss details and that each person on our team knows their responsibility and the standard.  We each hold ourselves to that standard so that we can work as a team.  We calculate costs and order delivery dates with a primary focus on ensuring on time payments to all employees.  We also provide a bonuses three times a year equaling one month salary.  We divide the bonus to help artisan workers with financial planning for their families and their children’s education.  We provide pension funds, and micro loans for health, home improvements, education.  If we were a large corporation, providing these things might be easy financially, but we are a small, artisan manufacturer so it requires careful planning to ensure we can always meet these targets.   It requires prioritising our employees in every decision we make.  And this is how it should be.  We are only as strong as the relationships we build.

Every company draws its strength from its team of employees.  Fair trade practices allow us to draw strength from transparent and equitable working relationships, from holding ourselves accountable to everyone we work with regardless of status. As consumers, and as business owners, we can choose to uphold more equitable labor standards. It is an effort and a process of continual improvement.   It is not black and white or always easy to implement. But it matters. It matters to all of us.

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