Praying Your Labels: One Response to Globalization

by Daniel J. Webster

Chances are your new Easter bonnet, spring dress or suit havebeen made by people who speak little or no English in some distant country far away from our laws and labor unions.

News reports are full of stories about the global economy, export of jobs, unemployment, overseas sweatshops and more. So much information can overwhelm just about anyone.

How can any American who claims to be a responsible citizen of the world respond to this? What is a positive, moral response to this dilemma?

Some feel protesting at meetings of the World Trade Organization or G-8 summits will call attention to the challenge America faces as the largest consumer of goods and natural resources in the world. With barely five percent of the world's population, the United States of America consumes nearly 25% of the planet's natural resources.

News reports of an imbalance in world trade can serve to confuse anyone. That is, until you walk into Old Navy. Everything for sale in that store is made by people in countries most Americans will likely never visit.

News reports of an imbalance in world trade can serve to confuse anyone. That is, until you walk into Old Navy. Everything for sale in that store is made by people in countries most Americans will likely never visit.

Not long ago I was looking at some windbreaker jackets in a store near Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. They carried the brand of a famous U.S.A.-based outerwear company. There were three jackets all of the same style and color but of varying sizes. The labels in each said they were made in three different countries.

Our profit-oriented, free enterprise economic system is working well. Stockholders and investors will be well served by moving jobs offshore to increase profit margins. But the economy should serve all human beings. The economy shouldn't serve just the wealthy few. And people should not serve the economy.

One can argue that less expensive goods serve the consumer. But the price we pay will be staggering in lost jobs and the resulting underemployment of those who get laid off.

The news stories about overseas sweatshops are numerous. Women in Thailand commute long hours to work long hours for relatively little pay so Americans can enjoy bargains, fill their shopping carts, and feel good about themselves in the mirror.

Often we don't even thing about the working conditions in the factories where our clothing is now made. Offshore manufacturers are not subject to U.S. wage and hour laws or safety and health regulations in the workplace enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Every morning I pray for the worker in Mexico who assembled my underwear. I look at my clothing labels and pray for the sewing machine operator in the Dominican Republic who made my slacks or the garment worker in Sri Lanka who crafted my shirt.

Every morning I pray for the worker in Mexico who assembled my underwear. I look at my clothing labels and pray for the sewing machine operator in the Dominican Republic who made my slacks or the garment worker in Sri Lanka who crafted my shirt. These are all intimate articles either because they are closest or my body or they “make a statement.” My mother always told me, “Clothes make the man.” She even once gave me a copy of the book, Dress for Success .

Praying for these workers may be the only response to the global economy I will ever be able to do. I may try to not buy imported clothes and goods but that is nearly impossible now.

I might try shopping at secondhand stores, thus taking myself out of the Wal-Mart, Old Navy, Gap and other stores whose racks are jammed with imported clothing. I may try to find tailors or local clothes makers in this country, deciding to have fewer clothes, but spending as much or more on clothing.

I may also end up at a ballot box, wearing my “Made in China” sneakers, voting for the political candidates who promise to work for a just economy that benefits all people, consumers, employees and manufacturers, not only the stockholders.

The Rev. Daniel J. Webster is an Episcopal priest in Salt Lake City, Utah. A media veteran and peace activist in the church, he writes a regular column for “A Globe of Witnesses.” Dan may be reached by email at dwebster@episcopal-ut.org .