FLA History

“Today’s agreement on fighting sweatshop practices is an historic step toward reducing sweatshop labor around the world and will give American consumers confidence that the clothes they buy are made under decent and humane working conditions.”  
 
                                                                                                             President Bill Clinton 
                                                                                  November 3, 1998

With these words, President Clinton recognized the extraordinary commitment and efforts of a unique new coalition of apparel and footwear companies, human rights, labor rights, and consumer advocates that had been working for more than two years to draft a blueprint for the new, non-profit Fair Labor Association (FLA).  In short order, the coalition would add colleges and universities to its roster and formally commence its historic mission to end sweatshop labor and improve working conditions worldwide.

Few who had gathered at the White House in 1996 for a meeting convened by the President would have thought so much could be accomplished in such a short span of time.  At that meeting, the President challenged the companies that made up the Apparel Industry Partnership (AIP) to take steps to improve working conditions around the world and to provide the public with information it could use to make informed purchasing decisions.  The AIP took up the challenge and helped to create an organization that required affiliated companies to abide by a  code of conduct and monitoring requirements, established an accreditation program to determine whether company obligations were met, and instituted a public reporting mechanism to inform consumers about company participation and compliance.  

Out of those beginnings, the FLA was born.  Officially incorporated in May, 1999, the non-profit organization continues to be a collaboration of companies, NGOs, and  colleges and universities. It engages in careful review and monitoring to assess whether companies are in compliance with FLA standards and requirements.  In this process, special attention is given to whether affiliates have put policies and procedures in place to detect and correct instances of non-compliance.  The FLA reports the results of independent external monitoring and issues annual reports on participating companies and college and university licensees as part of its commitment to transparency. 

As the FLA has matured, it has continued to strengthen its structure, broaden its oversight, and increase its reach.  Today, there is equal representation of its three constituencies on FLA’s policy-making Board of Directors, increased accountability for affiliate companies and licensees, and oversight of areas that reach well beyond the apparel industry.  As it enters its second decade, the FLA is working as well to address its mission in more innovative and comprehensive ways, putting even greater emphasis on sustainable compliance – identifying the root causes of non-compliance and creating approaches that address those root causes – and on collaboration among companies and with local civil society organizations, to increase the likelihood that compliance efforts will be effective and sustained.