Hotlines, Private Regulation, and Farm Migrant Labor Rights: Effective Grievance Mechanisms and the Role of Accessibility
Keywords:
Grievance Mechanisms, Private Regulation, Migration, Hotlines, Labor Governance, Supply Chains, Labor Rights
Abstract
In the growing world of private regulatory initiatives (PRI) around the globe, the vast majority feature complaint mechanisms, commonly in the form of a hotline. Existing research finds that most PRI hotlines are largely unused by workers, consistent with other findings that many PRIs’ entire monitoring and enforcement structures are ineffective. However, little research exists on the effectiveness of hotlines run by worker-centered PRIs, which studies suggest may be more effective than other types. In this paper, we ask, can worker-led PRIs create effective complaint hotlines? If so, under what conditions are they successful? To answer these questions, we conduct an analysis of call records made to a worker-led PRI operating in the Northeastern U.S. dairy sector, the Milk with Dignity (MD) Program. We consider how the Program’s hotline, which unlike other PRI hotlines is well-utilized, overcomes common barriers to ‘accessibility.’ Accessibility here refers to several challenges that studies have identified in other, seldom-used hotlines, related to hours of operation, language, and mechanisms for reporting complaints. Our research finds that the MD program recognized important technical challenges to hotline usage and addressed access-related roadblocks by (1) improving worker engagement and (2) building a better hotline infrastructure. These findings suggest that future research should further investigate whether worker-led programs effectively address other kinds of commonly-occurring challenges with PRI grievance mechanisms.
References
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Kaufman, J. and McDonnell, K. (2016) Community-Driven Operational Grievance Mechanisms. Business and Human Rights Journal, 1(1):127–32.
Keller, J. C. Gray M., and Lindsey Harrison, J. (2017) Milking Workers, Breaking Bodies: Health Inequality in the Dairy Industry. New Labor Forum, 26(1):36–44.
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Locke, R. M. (2013) The Promise and Limits of Private Power: Promoting Labor Standards in a Global Economy. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Locke, R. M., Rissing, B. A. and Pal, T. (2013) Complements or Substitutes? Private Codes, State Regulation and the Enforcement of Labour Standards in Global Supply Chains. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 51(3):519–52.
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Vermont Dairy Promotion Council (2015) Milk Matters: The Role of Dairy in Vermont.
Weil, D. (2014) The Fissured Workplace. Harvard University Press.
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Yang, D. (2020) Why Don’t They Complain? The Social Determinants of Chinese Migrant Workers’ Grievance Behaviors. ILR Review, 73(2):366–92.
Yu, X. (2008) Impacts of Corporate Code of Conduct on Labor Standards: A Case Study of Reebok’s Athletic Footwear Supplier Factory in China. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(3):513–29.
Amengual, M. and Chirot, L. (2016) Reinforcing the State: Transnational and State Labor Regulation in Indonesia.” ILR Review, 69(5):1056–80.
Amengual, M., and Fine, J. (2017) Co-Enforcing Labor Standards: The Unique Contributions of State and Worker Organizations in Argentina and the United States. Regulation & Governance, 11(2):129–42.
Angelini, A., and Curphey, S. (2022) The Overlooked Advantages of the Independent Monitoring and Complaint Investigation System in the Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Model in US Agriculture. Business and Human Rights Journal, 7(3):494–99.
Asbed, G. and Sellers, S. (2013) The Fair Food Program: Comprehensive, Verifiable and Sustainable Change for Farmworkers. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change, 16:39–48.
Asbed, G. and Hitov, S. (2017) Preventing Forced Labor in Corporate Supply Chains: The Fair Food Program and Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Combating Human Trafficking: Current Trends and Cutting Edge Issues: Articles & Essays. Wake Forest Law Review, 52:497–532.
Babineau, K., and Bair, J. (n.d.) Keeping Essential Workers Safe: Migrant Farmworkers and Covid-19 in the Dairy Industry. Social Science Research Council Items. Retrieved June 9, 2023 https://items.ssrc.org/covid-19-and-the-social-sciences/covid-19-fieldnotes/keeping-essential-workers-safe-migrant-farmworkers-and-covid-19-in-the-dairy-industry/.
Bair, J., Anner, M, and Blasi, J. (2020) The Political Economy of Private and Public Regulation in Post-Rana Plaza Bangladesh. ILR Review, 73(4):969–94.
Baker, D., Kades, J., Kolodinsky, J. and Belarmino, E. H. (2021) Dairy is Different: Latino Dairy Worker Stress in Vermont. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 23(5):965–75.
Bartley, T. (2018) Rules without Rights: Land, Labor, and Private Authority in the Global Economy. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bartley, T., and Kincaid, D. (2015) The Mobility of Industries and the Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Labor Codes of Conduct in Indonesian Factories. Pp. 393–429, in Corporate Social Responsibility in a Globalizing World, edited by K. Tsutsui and A. Lim. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Berliner, D. and Prakash, A. (2015) ‘Bluewashing’ the Firm? Voluntary Regulations, Program Design, and Member Compliance with the United Nations Global Compact. Policy Studies Journal, 43(1):115–38.
Brennan, D. (2014) Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States. Duke University Press.
Brown, K. R. (2013) Buying into Fair Trade: Culture, Morality, and Consumption. NYU Press.
Calderón-Cuadrado, R., Álvarez-Arce J. L., Rodríguez-Tejedo, I. and Salvatierra S. 2009. ‘Ethics Hotlines’ in Transnational Companies: A Comparative Study. Journal of Business Ethics, 88(1):199–210.
Church, A., Gallus, J. A., Desrosiers, E. I., and Waclawski, J. (2007) Speak-up All You Whistle-Blowers: An OD Perspective on the Impact of Employee Hotlines on Organizational Culture. Organization Development Journal, 25:159–67.
Coslovsky, S. V. and Locke, R. (2013) Parallel Paths to Enforcement: Private Compliance, Public Regulation, and Labor Standards in the Brazilian Sugar Sector. Politics & Society, 41(4):497–526.
Danielsen, D. (2019) Trade, Distribution and Development Under Supply Chain Capitalism. In World Trade and Investment Law Reimagined: A Progressive Agenda for an Inclusive Globalization, edited by A. Santos, C. Thomas, and D. Trubek. Anthem Press, 121-130
Daria, Js. (2022) Fairwashing and Union Busting: The Privatization of Labor Standards in Mexico’s Agro-Export Industry. Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, 38(3):379–405.
Distelhorst, G., Locke, R. M., Pal T., and Samel, H. (2015) Production Goes Global, Compliance Stays Local: Private Regulation in the Global Electronics Industry. Regulation & Governance, 9(3):224–42.
Dupuis, E. M. (2002) Nature’s Perfect Food: How Milk Became America’s Drink. NYU Press.
Fine, J. and Bartley, T. (2018) Raising the Floor: New Directions in Public and Private Enforcement of Labor Standards in the United States. Journal of Industrial Relations, 61(2): 252–276.
Fine, J. and Gordon, J. (2010) Strengthening Labor Standards Enforcement through Partnerships with Workers’ Organizations. Politics & Society, 38(4):552–85.
Fine, J. and Piore, M. (2021) Introduction to a Special Issue on the New Labor Federalism. ILR Review, 74(5):1085–1102.
Food Chain Workers’ Alliance (2012) The Hands that Feed Us: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along the Food Chain.
Gereffi, G. (2019) Global Value Chains and Development: Redefining the Contours of 21st Century Capitalism. Cambridge University Press.
Goldbaum, C. (2019) Trump Crackdown Unnerves Immigrants, and the Farmers Who Rely on Them. The New York Times, March 18.
Gray, M. (2013) Labor and the Locavore: The Making of a Comprehensive Food Ethic. Univ of California Press.
Hahamovitch, C. (1997) The Fruits of Their Labor: Atlantic Coast Farmworkers and the Making of Migrant Poverty, 1870-1945. University of North Carolina Press.
Haines, F. and Macdonald, K. (2020) Nonjudicial Business Regulation and Community Access to Remedy. Regulation & Governance, 14(4):840–60.
Hertz, E. and Lieber, M. (2017) “Corporate Social Responsibility, Worker Hotlines and the Shifting Grounds of Rights Consciousness in Contemporary China.” In Popular Politics and the Quest for Justice in Contemporary China, edited by Hans Steinmüller and Susanne Brandtstädter, 52–73. Routledge.
ILO Regional Office for Asia & the Pacific (2013) Tripartite Action to Protect Migrants within and from the GMS from Labour Exploitation, Institute of Asian Studies, and Asian Research Center for Migration. In Regulating Recruitment of Migrant Workers: An Assessment of Complaint Mechanisms in Thailand. Bangkok: ILO.
Jaffee, D. (2012) Weak Coffee: Certification and Co-Optation in the Fair Trade Movement. Social Problems, 59(1):94–116.
Kaufman, J. and McDonnell, K. (2016) Community-Driven Operational Grievance Mechanisms. Business and Human Rights Journal, 1(1):127–32.
Keller, J. C. Gray M., and Lindsey Harrison, J. (2017) Milking Workers, Breaking Bodies: Health Inequality in the Dairy Industry. New Labor Forum, 26(1):36–44.
Koenig‐Archibugi, M. (2017) Does Transnational Private Governance Reduce or Displace Labor Abuses? Addressing Sorting Dynamics across Global Supply Chains. Regulation & Governance, 11(4):343–52.
LeBaron, G. (2020) Combatting Modern Slavery: Why Labour Governance is Failing and What We Can Do about It. 1st edition. Cambridge, UK; Medford, MA: Polity.
Lesniewski, J. and Gleeson, S. (2022) Mobilizing Worker Rights: The Challenges of Claims-Driven Processes for Re-Regulating the Labor Market. Labor Studies Journal, 47(3) 241–261 0160449X211072565.
Lim, A. and Tsutsui K. (2012) Globalization and Commitment in Corporate Social Responsibility: Cross-National Analyses of Institutional and Political-Economy Effects. American Sociological Review, 77(1):69–98.
Locke, R. M. (2013) The Promise and Limits of Private Power: Promoting Labor Standards in a Global Economy. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Locke, R. M., Rissing, B. A. and Pal, T. (2013) Complements or Substitutes? Private Codes, State Regulation and the Enforcement of Labour Standards in Global Supply Chains. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 51(3):519–52.
Mares, T. M. (2019) Life on the Other Border: Farmworkers and Food Justice in Vermont. Univ of California Press.
Mayer, F., and Gereffi, G. (2010) Regulation and Economic Globalization: Prospects and Limits of Private Governance. Business and Politics, 12(3):1–25.
Mieres, F. and Mcgrath, S. (2021) Ripe to Be Heard: Worker Voice in the Fair Food Program. International Labour Review, 160(4):631–47.
Migrant Justice and Milk with Dignity Standards Council (2022) 2018-2022: Five Years of Milk with Dignity.
Milkman, R. (2020) Immigrant Labor and the New Precariat. John Wiley & Sons.
MSI Integrity (2020) Not Fit-for-Purpose: The Grand Experiment of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives in Corporate Accountability, Human Rights and Global Governance. MSI Integrity.
Pizzetti, M., Gatti, L. and Seele, P. (2021) Firms Talk, Suppliers Walk: Analyzing the Locus of Greenwashing in the Blame Game and Introducing ‘Vicarious Greenwashing.’ Journal of Business Ethics, 170(1):21–38.
Rodriguez-Garavito, C. (2005) Global Governance and Labor Rights: Codes of Conduct and Anti- Sweatshop Struggles in Global Apparel Factories in Mexico and Guatemala. Politics & Society, 33(2):203–33.
Sellers, S. (2021) Assessing Feasibility for Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Programs. In Power, Participation, and Private Regulatory Initiatives: Human Rights Under Supply Chain Capitalism, edited by D. M. Brinks, J. Dehm, K. Engle, and K. Taylor. University of Pennsylvania Press. 139-153.
Sellers, S., and Asbed G. (2011) The History and Evolution of Forced Labor in Florida Agriculture. Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 5(1):29–49.
Sexsmith, K. (2017) ‘But We Can’t Call 911’: Undocumented Immigrant Farmworkers and Access to Social Protection in New York. Oxford Development Studies, 45(1):96–111.
Smith-Nonini, S. (2009) H2A Guest Workers and the State in North Carolina: From Transnational Production to Transnational Organizing.” In Global Connections & Local Receptions: New Latino Immigration to the Southeastern United States, edited by F. Ansley and J. Shefner. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Soule, S. A. (2009) Contention and Corporate Social Responsibility. Cambridge University Press.
Spickard, P. (2007) Almost All Aliens: Immigration, Race, and Colonialism in American History and Identity. Routledge.
Thompson, D. (2021) Building and Transforming Collective Agency and Collective Identity to Address Latinx Farmworkers’ Needs and Challenges in Rural Vermont.” Agriculture and Human Values, 38(1):129–43.
Vermont Dairy Promotion Council (2015) Milk Matters: The Role of Dairy in Vermont.
Weil, D. (2014) The Fissured Workplace. Harvard University Press.
Weise, J. M. (2015) Corazón de Dixie: Mexicanos in the U.S. South since 1910. 1st ed. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Yang, D. (2020) Why Don’t They Complain? The Social Determinants of Chinese Migrant Workers’ Grievance Behaviors. ILR Review, 73(2):366–92.
Yu, X. (2008) Impacts of Corporate Code of Conduct on Labor Standards: A Case Study of Reebok’s Athletic Footwear Supplier Factory in China. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(3):513–29.
Published
2024-04-01
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