Ethical Fashion: How Singular Narratives of Worker-Management Relations Fail Us

If we’re serious about making the fashion industry more just, we must stop relying on a one-size-fits all explanation for why manager-worker relations can become contentious.

Photo by Aok Samnak

As a former garment factory manager, it’s my conviction that stories about management-worker relations desperately need some diversifying. Often, this relationship is talked about in terms of a singular narrative: exploited workers and exploitative management. But this narrative doesn’t help us to understand a multi-dimensional and highly contextual relationship. Most likely, it isn’t in the best interest of workers either.

If we’re serious about making the fashion industry more just, we must stop relying on a one-size-fits all explanation for why manager-worker relations can become contentious.

Relying on a singular narrative might help us make sense of a messy and disorderly world, but it also makes it nearly impossible to notice the alternative, more complex, and less binary narratives that not only co-exist, but also leave more room for possibility.

The Limits of a Singular Narrative

When I began as a factory manager, the righteous worker versus bad factory manager narrative was critical to the way I approached my job. It was the reason I focused on trying to earn my staff’s trust: I had open office hours, I sought staff input before making decisions, I tried to be thoughtful about how my decisions were communicated, I allowed time for questions.

Whether I was or wasn’t an effective manager is certainly up for debate; I don’t offer these anecdotes to assuage my conscience or persuade you one way or the other. I offer them because they are critical to demonstrating how implicitly, my approach to the job, to building a relationship with my team, revolved around positioning myself in opposition to the stereotype of malicious factory manager.

In other words: I assumed that the only reason for rebellious production staff was oppressive factory management trying to take advantage of workers. If there was no evil factory manager, there would be no…