IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/intlab/v161y2022i1p59-82.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Power relations in global supply chains and the unequal distribution of costs during crises: Abandoning garment suppliers and workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Mark ANNER

Abstract

In early 2020, apparel brands and retailers cancelled US$40 billion worth of orders, with critical consequences for suppliers and workers. Their actions illustrate the power asymmetries in global supply chains and the unequal distribution of costs during crises. This article explores these dynamics through original survey data, supplier questionnaires, stakeholder interviews, a time‐line analysis and trade data analysis. Findings point to certain limits of buyer power, reflected in the effective collaboration between suppliers and worker rights advocates in the “#PayUp” campaign. Yet buyers retain the power to squeeze suppliers with adverse impacts on workers, thus leading to calls for binding agreements.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark ANNER, 2022. "Power relations in global supply chains and the unequal distribution of costs during crises: Abandoning garment suppliers and workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 161(1), pages 59-82, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:intlab:v:161:y:2022:i:1:p:59-82
    DOI: 10.1111/ilr.12337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ilr.12337
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ilr.12337?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Axel Marx, 2008. "Limits to non‐state market regulation: A qualitative comparative analysis of the international sport footwear industry and the Fair Labor Association," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(2), pages 253-273, June.
    2. Gereffi, Gary & Frederick, Stacey, 2010. "The global apparel value chain, trade and the crisis : challenges and opportunities for developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5281, The World Bank.
    3. Mark ANNER, 2019. "Predatory purchasing practices in global apparel supply chains and the employment relations squeeze in the Indian garment export industry," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 705-727, December.
    4. Barrientos, Stephanie & Dolan, Catherine & Tallontire, Anne, 2003. "A Gendered Value Chain Approach to Codes of Conduct in African Horticulture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1511-1526, September.
    5. Nathan,Dev & Tewari,Meenu & Sarkar,Sandip (ed.), 2016. "Labour in Global Value Chains in Asia," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107103740, November.
    6. Jimmy Donaghey & Juliane Reinecke, 2018. "When Industrial Democracy Meets Corporate Social Responsibility — A Comparison of the Bangladesh Accord and Alliance as Responses to the Rana Plaza Disaster," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(1), pages 14-42, March.
    7. Mark Anner, 2020. "Squeezing workers’ rights in global supply chains: purchasing practices in the Bangladesh garment export sector in comparative perspective," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 320-347, March.
    8. Mezzadri,Alessandra, 2017. "The Sweatshop Regime," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107116962, November.
    9. John S. Ahlquist & Layna Mosley, 2021. "Firm participation in voluntary regulatory initiatives: The Accord, Alliance, and US garment importers from Bangladesh," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 317-343, April.
    10. Barrientos,Stephanie, 2019. "Gender and Work in Global Value Chains," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108492317, November.
    11. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Lara BIANCHI & Cindy BERMAN, 2019. "Gender and governance of global value chains: Promoting the rights of women workers," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 729-752, December.
    12. Elke Schuessler & Stephen J. Frenkel & Chris F. Wright, 2019. "Governance of Labor Standards in Australian and German Garment Supply Chains: The Impact of Rana Plaza," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(3), pages 552-579, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Butollo, Florian & Staritz, Cornelia & Maile, Felix & Wuttke, Tobias, 2025. "The End of Globalized Production? Supply-Chain Resilience, Technological Sovereignty, and Enduring Global Interdependencies in the Post-Pandemic Era," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 51(4-5), pages 779-798.
    2. Karmaker, Chitra Lekha & Bari, A.B.M. Mainul & Anam, Md. Zahidul & Ahmed, Tazim & Ali, Syed Mithun & de Jesus Pacheco, Diego Augusto & Moktadir, Md. Abdul, 2023. "Industry 5.0 challenges for post-pandemic supply chain sustainability in an emerging economy," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    3. Wasantha Rajapakshe & D S M Karunaratna & W H G Ariyaratne & H A Lakshani Madushika & G S K Perera & P Shamila, 2023. "Aggressive strategies of the COVID-19 pandemic on the apparel industry of Sri Lanka using structural equation modeling," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(6), pages 1-19, June.
    4. Sarah Cook & Uma Rani, 2025. "Platform Work in Developing Economies: Can Digitalisation Drive Structural Transformation?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 68(2), pages 395-416, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark ANNER, 2021. "Three labour governance mechanisms for addressing decent work deficits in global value chains," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(4), pages 611-629, December.
    2. Jonathan Morris & Jean Jenkins & Jimmy Donaghey, 2021. "Uneven Development, Uneven Response: The Relentless Search for Meaningful Regulation of GVCs," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(1), pages 3-24, March.
    3. Bataka, Hodabalo, 2024. "Global value chains participation and gender inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Importance of women education," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    4. Sarah Cook & Uma Rani, 2025. "Platform Work in Developing Economies: Can Digitalisation Drive Structural Transformation?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 68(2), pages 395-416, June.
    5. Sheba TEJANI & Sakiko FUKUDA‐PARR, 2021. "Gender and COVID‐19: Workers in global value chains," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 160(4), pages 649-667, December.
    6. Marslev, Kristoffer & Staritz, Cornelia & Raj‐Reichert, Gale, 2022. "Rethinking Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains: Worker Power, State‒Labour Relations and Intersectionality," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 53(4), pages 827-859.
    7. Yossi Dahan & Hanna Lerner & Faina Milman-Sivan, 2023. "Shared Responsibility and Labor Rights in Global Supply Chains," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1025-1040, February.
    8. Jenny COLLINS & Julian S. YATES, 2023. "Leveraging transparency to shift capital‐labour relations in garment sector production: A critical analysis of the design and structure of the Bangladesh Accord," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 162(4), pages 641-664, December.
    9. Mark ANNER, 2019. "Predatory purchasing practices in global apparel supply chains and the employment relations squeeze in the Indian garment export industry," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 705-727, December.
    10. Johanna Gammelgaard & Stine Haakonsson & Sine Nørholm Just, 2021. "Linking Malawi’s agricultural sector to global value chains: The case for community governance," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(4), pages 523-540, December.
    11. Krauss, Judith E. & Artur, Luis & Brockington, Dan & Castro, Eduardo & Fernando, Jone & Fisher, Janet & Kingman, Andrew & Moises, Hosia Mavoto & Mlambo, Ana & Nuvunga, Milagre & Pritchard, Rose & Ribe, 2022. "‘To prevent this disease, we have to stay at home, but if we stay at home, we die of hunger’ – Livelihoods, vulnerability and coping with Covid-19 in rural Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    12. Schüßler, Elke & Lohmeyer, Nora & Ashwin, Sarah, 2022. "We can't compete on human rights: creating market-protected spaces to institutionalize the emerging logic of responsible management," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115506, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Manuel Santos Silva & Stephan Klasen, 2021. "Gender inequality as a barrier to economic growth: a review of the theoretical literature," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 581-614, September.
    14. Giuliana Vinci & Marco Ruggeri & Laura Gobbi & Marco Savastano, 2024. "Social Life Cycle Assessment of Cocoa Production: Evidence from Ivory Coast and Ghana," Resources, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, October.
    15. Kossi Edem Baita & Kwami Ossadzifo Wonyra, 2023. "Effet global du genre dans le développement des chaînes de valeur mondiales dans le contexte africain," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 35(4), pages 365-375, December.
    16. Evans Appiah Kissi & Christian Herzig, 2024. "The implications of governance factors for economic and social upgrading in Ghana’s cocoa value chain," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, December.
    17. Chikako Oka & Niklas Egels‐zandén & Rachel Alexander, 2020. "Buyer Engagement and Labour Conditions in Global Supply Chains: The Bangladesh Accord and Beyond," Post-Print hal-02952114, HAL.
    18. Elsje Fourie & Bilisuma Dito & Konjit Gudeta & Karen Schelleman-Offermans & Valentina Mazzucato & Kai Jonas, 2024. "The Bitter and the Sweet: Managerial Perceptions of the Well-Being of Ethiopian Female Apparel and Horticultural Workers," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 24(2), pages 185-201, April.
    19. Kelly Pike, 2020. "Voice in Supply Chains: Does the Better Work Program Lead to Improvements in Labor Standards Compliance?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(4), pages 913-938, August.
    20. Dev Nathan, 2021. "From Monopoly to Monopsony Capitalism," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(4), pages 843-866, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:intlab:v:161:y:2022:i:1:p:59-82. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ilounch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.