Linda F. Golodner

About the author: Linda F. Golodner is president of the National Consumers League, an organization that works to bring consumer power to bear on market and labor issues.

Consumer pressure can effectively reduce the use of sweatshop labor and child labor. Early in the twentieth century, consumer groups helped to bring about the implementation of labor standards in the United States that abolished child labor, required a minimum wage, and protected the right to collective bargaining. In the 1990s, several companies responded to consumer outrage against sweatshops by establishing corporate codes of conduct— rules that ban the abusive treatment of workers in manufacturing plants. Although these codes have been inconsistently enforced, they set the groundwork for the Apparel Industry Partnership, a coalition of concerned garment companies, unions, and...