Last week several media outlets applauded H&M for committing to raise its purchasing prices to meet the increased legal minimum wage for the garment sector in Bangladesh. H&M is reportedly the first global brand to tell its Bangladeshi suppliers it will do so. While this may be true, the praise heaped upon H&M is unwarranted, and the fact the industry and media applaud it is indicative of a thoroughly broken system.
Turkish garment factory Neo Trend Textile closed officially on 1 July 2021 due to a loss of orders in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The flawed new minimum wage for ready-made garment workers in Bangladesh has led to a global outcry. 12,500 taka per month will keep the countries’ 4 to 4.5 million garment workers trapped in poverty. Instead of revising the disgraceful decision, Faruque Hassan, president of the business owners’ association BGMEA, felt compelled to publish a “clarification” note. However, the only thing the note clarifies is the dimension of disrespect of the employers’ president for the labour law and the lack of empathy for the dire situation of the workforce.
To H&M, Bestseller, Next, Primark, C&A, Uniqlo, M&S, Puma, VF Corp., PVH, Walmart and Zara, and all international brands producing clothes in Bangladesh:
Garment worker protests, a brutal police crackdown, worker deaths, arrests, and worker repression, and finally an official minimum wage announcement that is far below living wage levels.
The new minimum wage for garment workers in Cambodia is set at 204 USD per month, despite trade unions’ demand for a much bigger increase. The new minimum wage is a huge disappointment for the 700,000 workers in the Cambodian garment and footwear sector, who are increasingly struggling to make ends meet.
Nike’s Annual General Meeting will be held on September 12. The brand will likely dazzle its shareholders with the results achieved since its June announcement of a 10 per cent annual revenue increase up to US$51.2bn.
After the Rana Plaza collapse, the Accord has that a binding agreement between brands and trade unions has the capacity to tackle a longstanding problem, improve the lives of workers, while being cost-effective for brands. The time has now come for the next binding agreement to address another longstanding problem: wage and severance theft.
Sri Lanka’s yearlong economic and political crisis, which led to the president being toppled last year, is unsurprisingly hitting the country’s lowest-paid workers hardest.
The FIFA World Cup has been built on a decade of human rights violations: whichever way you look, it’s workers from the global South who are exploited.
Major fashion brands stay silent as devastating wage theft continues in their supply chains.
The 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse shocked and captivated the world. But outside of Bangladesh, fewer remember the trail of mass-casualty factory disasters that preceded it. Eleven years ago today, 29 garment workers lost their lives when a fire broke out in the That's It Sportswear garment factory, where they made clothes for major American brands. On this day, our thoughts are with all families affected by this fire and our aim is to ensure that incidents like this can never happen again.
Exactly nine years ago, a devastating factory fire in Bangladesh killed at least 113 workers and injured many more. Almost a decade later, major brands and retailers whose clothes were made in this factory, such as Walmart, Disney, and Dickies, continue to put their workers at risk. We spend this day commemorating the workers who died in this preventable fire. In addition, we are continuing to remind garment brands and retailers that they must finally draw lessons from this horrific catastrophe and urgently take critical steps to prevent future fires and deadly safety incidents so that no more families have to suffer such an awful loss.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but its effects have been felt particularly acutely by workers in the garment sector. As the pandemic took hold across the globe and many countries entered national lockdowns, demand for shop-bought clothes decreased significantly, leading many major clothing brands to cancel orders, delay payments, and impose discounts on suppliers.
They going hungry with no food and no wage, Employers and Brands are turning their back!
The eighth anniversary of the tragic Rana Plaza factory collapse was a stark reminder of what can happen if workers’ rights are a matter of voluntary corporate commitments.
Women could see large cracks in the walls. They knew that returning to their sewing machines meant risking their lives, but factory owners were threatening to withhold their meagre salary that barely puts food on the table.
Apparel brands need to stop hiding behind a social protection initiative funded by public money and start paying workers’ wages.
How the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is denying reality, while patting itself on the back.
As researchers and advocates working to improve labor rights in the garment industry, we are used to heartbreaking stories. But what we are seeing during the pandemic is a new level of despair among workers, as widespread loss of jobs and income robs them of the ability to feed their families.
December 10th marks the celebration of Human Rights Day around the globe –a moment to recognise the impact of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on livelihoods and to affirm the importance of human rights everywhere. In the fashion industry, and during a moment when the global pandemic has upended business-as-usual, it’s more important than ever to fight for the rights of the people working in garment supply chains and demand an end to forced labour.
The collapse of Arcadia in the lead-up to Christmas, and with it the demise of Sir Philip Green’s controversial reign over the UK high street, has a Dickensian feel to it.
