Maggie's Organics in Ypsilanti to become first company to win fair labor certification

Maggie’s Organics, the Ypsilanti-based organic cotton clothing company, will become the first apparel company worldwide to be certified for fair labor practices, from field to retail shelf, under a new auditing process.

While other commodities such as coffee and chocolate have had their fair labor practices verified and certified, it is much more complicated for an apparel company, said BenÃ¡ Burda, Maggie’s founder and president.Â

That's because many hands touch each product, from growers and harvesters to ginners and spinners to cutters and sewers.

But the Fair Labor Practices and Community Benefits certification standard, developed by theÂ Scientific Certification Systems, one of three organizations that certify for fair labor, has approved certification for one of the company’s lines, Maggie’s Solid Scarves. Burda said she hopes one day to have the company’s other three production chains certified for fair labor as well.Â

“It’s an expensive process,” she said. The process for the first line took about a year.
Beginning this fall, the company will begin marketing the certification and hanging fair labor tags on the scarf line.

“Maggie’s has done fair labor standards since the beginning,” she said, “but we didn’t have the independent credibility.”

Maggie’s Organics, founded in 1992, produces lines of simple, organic socks and tights, shirts, scarves, camisoles, baby clothes and a new line of stuffed animals made from imperfect socks. Maggie’s is sold at more than 200 health food and specialty stores from coast to coast and Canada.

The fair trade certification means all workers who have been involved in the production chain have been treated fairly and with safe working conditions. Certification covers equitable hiring, access to health and education services, local and regional impact, economic stability and more.

Until now, Maggie’s has done its own annual audit of fair labor practices at points along the production line, but the certification means an independent, third-party stands behind it.

Â “There were no barriers on who they could inspect,” Burda said. “They had access to every worker at every step.”

The SCS spent 10 days in Central America, first in Nicaragua where the cotton is grown, ginned and spun, and then in Costa Rica where it is knitted, finished, cut and sewn, she said.

Also, a representative from the watchdog group the International Labor Rights Forum observed the process.

Burda hopes this is the beginning of the apparel industry’s effort to move away from the sweatshop image and move toward certified fair labor practices. “It’s in its infancy,” she said.

Tags: Maggie's Organics