The dark side of globalization is obvious to all but the blind. The race to the bottom that devastates the middle class in the rich countries and makes near slave labor in the poor countries is well documented. Corporations with record profits move their operations to Mexico or Asia. They operate in countries with weak labor and environmental laws.

One way to remedy the situation is to construct international standards, establishing minimum standards of minimum wages, working conditions, rights to form unions and environmental protections. Since the current US administration is unlikely to carry through anything like this, non-governmental organizations can set standards for the American public and the rest of the world. The environmental, social justice and fair trade organizations can initiate a joint project, to ascertain fair labor standards, wage structure and environmental practices. Companies that seek approval will pay an annual fee that would cover periodic inspections to see that they are living up to their bargain.

The organizing group supervising the operation would authorize the use of an emblem to participating companies. The organizing group would enforce adherence by civil law and publicity.

This sort of action took place in the Great Depression when the National Recovery Administration instituted the Blue Eagle. A former brigadier general, Hugh S. Johnson, who had been the director of the Army’s Purchase and Supply Branch during World War I, became the agency’s new director. He had the power to make deals with business and industry to establish wage, hour and price codes. The goal was to end cutthroat competition, reduce work hours, raise wages and generate fairer labor standards.

Johnson and the National Recovery Administration vigorously set about establishing code agreements with major industries – textiles, coal, automobiles and others. Johnson quickly ran out of patience and asked Roosevelt to approve a voluntary blanket code the businesses and industries could use until individual codes were ready for Roosevelt’s signature. The code would waiver antitrust laws for companies that agreed to abolish child labor and pay a minimum wage of $12 to $15 per week. In the early 1930s, 50 or 60-hour weeks were all too common. The blanket code established a 35-hour workweek for blue-collar workers and a 44-hour week for white-collar workers.

Johnson wanted to popularize the program and fire up the public. The symbol of his efforts was what had come to be known as the Blue Eagle, a thunderbird image used by Navajo Indians. The businesses that signed on to the agreement could show off the blue bird image with the motto, “We Do Our Part.” People started seeing the blue bird everywhere on windows, windshields, magazines and billboards.

Cities all over the country had enthusiastic public gatherings. Boston mayor James Michael Curley administered an oath to a hundred thousand schoolchildren gathered on the Boston Common, “I promise as a good American citizen to do my part for the NRA. I will buy only where the Blue Eagle flies.” In Memphis, fifty thousand marched in the Christmas parade with 125,000 onlookers. In the last float, Santa, perched on a huge Blue Eagle, threw candy to the children.

By September 1933, more that two million businesses signed the blanket agreement and proudly displayed the Blue Eagle.

In 2007, the environmental and social justice groups can design their own icon and can rate products and services based on the treatment of employees and environmental standards. . Companies can be rated by many criteria. Having pensions and health care benefits would be a good starting point. I do not expect a human being to answer every telephone call I make. I do expect a reasonable wait and a knowledgeable person to help me. I do expect people will not be worked to death for the food that I eat and the products that I buy. Skeptics may rightfully wonder if people will pay more for a socially progressive product. I would be willing to pay more for this although I cannot say how much more. People are generally willing to pay more for a superior product. My wife buys a lot of groceries at Whole Foods. She could easily go somewhere else to find something cheaper.

Since the 1950s, life for the working and middle class has become more brutal in this country. Certainly there is an abundance of material goods and comfort not experienced back in those days. Statistics that report hours worked per week and inflation adjusted income show changes for the worse. The weakening of unions, with all their faults, has made life harder for the working class. Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickled and Dimed: On (Not) Making By in America is a portrayal of her experience as a waitress, a cleaning lady and a Wal-Mart employee. In the style of John Howard Griffin who lived as a black man in the South for 6 weeks, she found out first hand the pain, stress and humiliation of taking on life’s underpaid jobs.

Our sports shoes may be an easy place to start. No American company manufactures these shoes in the United States anymore. The companies contract foreign companies, mostly in Asia. The companies allege that they are helpless to determine or influence labor conditions and wages. The same companies know how to set and enforce design and product specification standards. They could easily dictate working conditions, wages and environmental standards, should they choose.

The environmental consortium envisioned here can authorize the new icon (the Blue Eagle’s replacement) for products made under specified conditions. If universities, churches, school districts, governmental units and families start to buy these products with the new Blue Eagle, things will change in a hurry, for the good, for a change.

Ed O’Rourke is an environmental accountant in Houston.

713-664-4343
eorourke@pdq.net