Working Conditions

I've been searching online to try to find out if Urban Outfitters is affiliated with negative or positive working conditions. Sadly, everything I've found is negative, starting with a very vague Code of Conduct and Ethics created by the company. There are also tons of bloggers who allude to the working conditions and mention "child labor" and "sweatshops". I shop at Urban Outfitters frequently, and never wanted to research this topic for fear of finding out the worst. I've been sticking with the "what you don't know can't hurt you" mentality, as awful as that sounds. But what makes Urban Outfitter's any worse than any other clothing company? Not much. I found an article from WireTap magazine that says, "According to a report by Behind the Label, about 80 percent of workers who make clothes for United States retailers work in conditions that violate labor laws set forth by OSHA. That's over two million people, mostly women and young people under 18." The statistics about child labor are sick, but most of the people in the United States can't afford to stop shopping where they shop because of moral issues. Most affordable clothing is manufactured in other countries with different laws and values. If we all boycotted every retailer who submits to unethical labor, we probably wouldn't have many options left for clothing. This is all simply my opinion. I do think it is a horrible thing and people should become more educated about the situation. In my management class we learned about something called "proximity of effect", which is the social, psychological, or physical distance of a decision maker to those effected by his or her decisions. I think this pertains to the issue at hand because we do not feel directly related to the laborers. Because we don't relate to them or their way of life, we are less likely to take a stand or stop buying clothes because of the way they are treated. Things definitely need to change, but retailers and customers need to be on the same page.


UO Code of Conduct
Securities and Exchange Comission and UO
WireTap Magazine