Strategies for Garment Worker Empowerment in the Global Economy

Katie Quan
UC Davis Journal of International Law & Policy

Quan, Katie (Fall 2003). Strategies for Garment Worker Empowerment in the Global Economy. U.C. Davis Journal of International Law & Policy. Vol. 10, No. 1.
This work, copyright 2004 by Katie Quan, was originally published in the UC Davis Journal of International Law and Policy, Volume 10, Issue 1/2003, copyright 2004 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

In 2002, Sweatshop Watch – the antisweatshop coalition known for garment worker organizing and policy advocacy – shifted its attention to global organizing, reflecting a new understanding of the integral relationship between domestic organizing and global organizing. This paper analyzes the strategic choices that Sweatshop Watch faced, discussing the nature of labor-management conflict in the apparel industry and showing that different economic conditions have called for different strategies to attain worker power.