Strengthening Labor Standards in the Global Workplace

Every day globalization provides stark reminders that economic efficiency is often accompanied by unconscionable brutality. Indeed, the business investments in poor countries that make possible higher quality goods at ever lower cost invariably bring with them a long train of well-documented abuses: child labor, poisoned environments, long and punishing work days, starvation wages, discrimination, sexual predation, and the suppression of freedom of expression and association. These conditions – sometimes recalling outright slavery and provoking moral outrage whenever they come to light – underscore the need to improve, and effectively enforce, regulation of global labor markets. The crucial question is not