Verité - About Us- Support Verité

Please Support Verité

Today Verité is on the front line of a global struggle for human dignity in the workplace. Verité improves working conditions for workers by leading innovative factory monitoring, worker training, and policy programs. There are still millions of people worldwide who work under inhumane conditions. We hope you will consider investing in our work to ensure that workers worldwide are safe, fairly compensated, and treated with dignity.

Please Contribute Online Today

Ways To Support Our Work

Charitable Donation

Verité works with local NGO partners around the world to bring human dignity to the workplace. We hope you will consider investing in our efforts to ensure that workers worldwide are safe, fairly compensated, and given opportunities to advance financially. Your financial support is very important to us.

Donations to Verité provide financial support for our partner NGOs and regional offices, building capacity in the countries where labor protections are weakest and the need for Verité’s work strongest. Some of our current program initiatives include:

· Pioneering the involvement of Chinese workers in assessments of their factories;

· Researching and publicizing the business case for gender equality in factories globally;

· Educating investors and manufacturing brands about best practices in supply chain labor conditions so that they can effectively interact with major multinationals

· Bringing best practices in labor protections to the Information Technology and Agriculture sectors, in India, Latin America, Southeast Asia and China.

· Empowering and advancing women workers through NGO and factory trainings in countries like Mexico, Bangladesh, and China

To make a secure, tax deductible contribution online by credit card, please click here. Or mail your contribution to:

Verité

44 Belchertown Road

Amherst, MA 01002

USA

Verité is a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

All donations to Verité are tax deductible.

Stay in Touch With Verité

1. Sign Up For E-Monitor, Verité’s On-Line Newsletter
To receive quarterly updates via our on-line e-Monitor newsletter, send an email to verite@verite.org and include your name and email address. Verité will not share your personal information with anyone.

2. Become A Verité Intern Or Volunteer! We’ve had interns and volunteers assist projects on a variety of issues, including labor standards certification, information gathering by socially responsible investors and labor conditions in countries around the world. Those interested in volunteering or interning with us should please send an email to verite@verite.org or call Debra Hertz at 413.253.9227.

Engage The Companies You Purchase From

Companies want to know if their customers care about the labor and environmental impacts of production. By contacting them and letting them know you are paying attention, you support their efforts towards positive change in their factories.

Here are some questions you can ask, and things you can do, to support Verité’s work and improve the social responsibility of corporations and conditions for workers around the world.

1. Where did your clothes come from? What about your shoes, food, computers, cosmetics and jewelry? Look at the label; goods sold in the United States are required to disclose the country of origin. If they are manufactured outside the US, it is likely that the workers who made them suffered violations of their rights. Verité has done extensive work linking country of origin with the likelihood of labor violations. Find out what the manufacturing brand does to ensure that workers are well-treated. Visit the brand’s website, or write or call the brand to ask the following questions:

a. Does the brand have a corporate Code of Conduct that sets standards for its workplaces around the world?

b. Does the brand gather information about labor conditions in the factories where its products are made?

c. Does the brand seek to improve conditions when it learns about labor and environmental violations in vendor factories?

d. Does it share this information publicly? Does it issue Corporate Responsibility Reports or Sustainability Reports? In the company report, does it disclose the problems it has found, and give information about how it is responding to those problems?

e. Is the brand part of a multi-stakeholder initiative multi-stakeholder initiative that requires it to certify its social, environmental or labor performance? Though each initiative has a varying set of requirements and differences in process, membership or participation in one of these indicates that the brands you purchase from aim to adhere to some externally-determined standard. Some examples include:

Ö Forest Stewardship Council

Ö Electronics Industry Code of Conduct

Ö Council for Responsible Jewelry Practices

Ö Fair Labor Association

Ö SA8000

Ö Ethical Trading Initiative

2. Does your company or non-profit put its logo on promotional items? How do you know your corporate ‘swag’ isn’t made under poor working conditions? Normally someone in your company’s marketing department sources these give-aways from a local agent or promotional marketing company. Your marketing person has to talk to that agent and ask if the actual manufacturer has a Code Of Conduct and/or monitors labor conditions in their supply chain. Chances are very good that they don’t, but by asking you can help raise awareness.

3. If you are a student or have an association with a school or university, does your high school or university put its logo on sportswear or t-shirts? Get involved with other students to make sure that the university is part of a licensing agreement like the Collegiate Licensing Company’s Special Agreement Regarding Codes of Conduct.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact us at verite@verite.org or 413.253.9227.