Fair Trade Sourcing
Why We Claim Fair Trade Sourcing
If you google “fair trade jewelry,” our blog, www.fairjewelry.org, will come up number one. But after that, a number of websites sell “fair trade jewelry.”
The network of Fair Trade organizations (IFAT) and the Fair Trade Federation (FTF) lists jewelry as a product category. In doing so, they endorse efforts of small producers who abide by fair trade principals to market themselves as “fair trade jewelry.”
Yet they do not exactly define what the making of fair trade jewelry might entail in the actual workshop. While general fair trade principals are relatively easy to define, the actual standards pose a more difficult challenge.
If you ask companies that sell fair trade jewelry where their silver come from, how their production facilities is ventilated, what chemicals are used in solders and fluxes and how waste products are disposed of, it is unlikely that they will be able to tell you.
This is the production room where some of the beads are made.
Marc Choyt, co-owner of Reflective Images, is spearheading defining fair trade manufacturing as part of an cross sector, internationals initiative. In addition, Reflective Images is perhaps the first company in the jewelry sector that is producing jewelry internationally and nationally with recycled precious metal
Our beads are made in Bali, Indonesia, some with a traditional lost wax technique, while others are entirely handmade by artisans who have mastered a silver fabrication tradition that stretches back thousands of years.
We cannot claim third party fair trade certification, but we do have inspected this where these beads are made on
several occasions, most recently in March, 2008. The factory is located in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia follows these policies:
The workers enjoy their provided lunch.
Wages
• Entry level people earn slightly higher than minimum wage until they are trained, unless they come with a skill level and then they commence work at a commensurate rate.
• Average salaried workers earn about 75% above minimum wage.
• Average piece workers earn 37% above minimum wage.
Benefits
• Free optional housing for single workers. At present, about fifty non-local employees who live outside of Denpassar (Bali’s capitol), live in factory housing.. Presently, the
Some of the beads are hand fabricated and some are made from cast components produced in this room.
company cannot afford to house married couples or families.
• Payment of the local village residency tax, 10% of the minimum wage, which is in most instances a responsibility of the employee.
• A medical fund.
• A free lunch. This program is provided for factory workers, which as of the fall, 2007, was about 100 plates of food a day. Filtered water for all is also provided.
Below is a brief statement by the factories’ owner.
“For our employee’s the major benefit is naturally a financial one, but we also take care to provide a safe and clean working environment, accommodation for those who do not have it, training and skill upgrading programes, and a company financed and employee operated medical scheme. Our Human Resources Department is in constant contact with the appropriate local bodies to ensure that we are always meet or are above all Government criteria and labor laws in all regards. We can confidently state that our factory workers are among the best rewarded in the region and it is a source of pride for us that workers compete for positions in our factory and those who are employed by us are held in high regard by their peers.
Here’s where the beads are inspected for quality.
We do almost all of our production in house. When we work in house we know how our product is made and we know the conditions that the work is carried out in. We do not use out-workers except under very exceptional circumstances as we do not have full control and knowledge over the working processes and conditions. In the occasional instances where we do use out-work we thoroughly check the vendor’s premises and working conditions beforehand.
We also take care in the purchasing of our raw materials. We do not use any prohibited or endangered products and attempt to buy our raw materials from reputable and legitimate suppliers. We do specialize in the production of shell and shell products, but our supplies are coming from Pearl Farms where the shell is a by product (Both Indonesian and Tahitian Mother of Pearl) or from commercial fishermen fishing a sustainable resource, (Such As New Zealand Paua Shell which is fished in the wild under a strict Government supervised Quota System). We do not use any materials which are prohibited under the CITIES agreement for trade in endangered species, which includes all forms of corals, except for fossilized coral.”
