Commentary Archive
Como el WRC informó anteriormente, la fábrica de ropa Industrial Hana en Guatemala cerró sus operaciones en octubre de 2023, sin pagarles a aproximadamente 250 trabajadoras US$1.5 millones correspondientes a indemnizaciones y otras prestaciones que se les deben según la ley guatemalteca. La investigación del WRC encontró que, en los meses anteriores al cierre de…
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Hugo Boss continues to refuse to ensure that workers who made its branded clothes receive their legally owed severance at Heart and Mind, a garment factory that was located in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand and permanently closed on December 3, 2017. Hugo Boss is one of the largest German clothing brands, achieving record sales of EUR 4.2 billion…
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Wing Star Shoes in Cambodia, which supplies the Japanese brands, ASICS and MUJI, had its worker, Chea Chan, who is a leader of a recently formed independent union at its factory, jailed for more than 180 days, prosecuted on obviously false and retaliatory criminal charges, and sentenced to a year’s imprisonment—all while ASICS and MUJI…
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The WRC was shocked and outraged by the assassination of Guatemalan garment worker leader, Anastacio Tzib Caal, on June 15. Mr. Tzib Caal was employed at the garment factory, Texpia II, which is owned by the multinational apparel manufacturer, SAE-A Trading, and produces for major brands such as Walmart, Target, Carhartt, and Academy Sports. Tzib…
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In recent years, the Cambodian government has intensified its crackdown on workers’ right to freedom of association by colluding with factory employers to repress workers’ efforts to form independent unions. This collusion has implicated international apparel and footwear brands in serious human rights violations when their supplier factories have caused worker leaders to be jailed…
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This past holiday season, former workers of Horizon Manufacturing, a garment factory in Haiti that made work uniforms for export to the United States, received more than $300,000 to correct nonpayment of severance they had been owed by the facility owner, since the factory closed in April 2022. Top workwear companies, Edwards Garment and Aramark…
Read More Industrial Hana, a garment factory in Guatemala, permanently closed operations in October 2023. The factory shuttered operations on October 5, violating Guatemalan labor law by failing to pay severance to its 229 employees. Workers at the factory reported that, prior to its closure, the factory produced garments, under subcontracting relationships with other local manufacturers, for…
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Trax Apparel—a sportswear factory in Cambodia, disclosed as a supplier to Triform Custom Apparel, adidas’s licensee for collegiate apparel—has reinstated and provided legally owed back pay to workers whom the factory unlawfully dismissed in 2020, following a WRC investigation and subsequent engagement with adidas for corrective action. This case underscores the critical role of collegiate…
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Brands are facing final calls to use their leverage to influence the wage outcome: brands should reject the wage proposal and publicly commit to increase prices to support a wage of US$215 per month during the official 14-day period for submission of objections, which ends November 26.
Garment workers are encountering systematic punishment and retaliation, including violence, arrests, terminations, and killings…
$1.5 Million Wage Theft from Guatemalan Workers Who Made Lucky Brand Owned by Authentic and Shein
As the WRC reported previously, Industrial Hana, a garment factory in Guatemala, permanently closed operations in October 2023, without paying its approximately 250 employees $1.5 million in unpaid severance and other terminal benefits owed to them in accordance with Guatemalan law. The WRC’s investigation found that, in the months leading up to the factory’s closure,…
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