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On Anniversary of Bangladesh’s Deadliest Garment Factory Fire, Worker Rights Consortium Urges Walmart and Other Laggard Retailers to Join Acclaimed Safety Program
Two months after the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry went into effect in September 2021, 150 apparel brands and retailers had already signed this new binding agreement which expands the model pioneered by the Bangladesh Accord for protecting worker safety. The signatories include H&M, Zara, American Eagle Outfitters,…
Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan Unions Call for Health and Safety Protections for Garment Workers
The Covid 19 pandemic has posed new health and safety risks for garment workers in factories around the world. In addition to the dangers workers already faced from excessive temperatures, unsafe machinery, and factory fires, workers now must also now contend with the spread of a potentially deadly respiratory virus in factories where, too often,…
NGO Signatories to Bangladesh Accord Welcome New Binding Worker Safety Agreement
Labor rights groups say “every brand that values workers’ lives” will sign the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry Today, apparel brands and labor unions announced agreement on a new International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, thereby preserving, extending, and expanding the model…
Bangladesh Accord expiration poses liability risk to apparel brands
An analysis of existing and upcoming human rights due diligence legislation in relation to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, published today, shows that apparel brands will expose themselves to considerable liability risks if they fail to negotiate and sign a follow up agreement to this ground-breaking safety program, which will expire…
Garment Workers Face Mounting Forced Labor Risks
1000+ Interviews Reveal Destructive Brand Practices Contributed to Unpaid Earnings, Threats and Abuse, Skyrocketing Debt, and a Dangerous Lack of PPE New research by the University of Sheffield and the Worker Rights Consortium finds that declining income and working conditions for workers in garment supply chains amid the Covid-19 pandemic has increased workers’ vulnerability to…
$1.3 Million Wage Theft from Salvadoran Workers Who Made Disney/ABC-licensed Grey’s Anatomy Scrubs for Barco Uniforms
One year after the factory closed, workers are still owed an estimated $1.3 million The Industrias Florenzi factory in San Salvador, El Salvador, dismissed its 210 workers in the first half of 2020, finally ceasing operations in July. One year later, however, workers still have not been paid the $1.3 million in terminal compensation which…
Brands and Unions Have Three More Months to Agree on an International Binding Agreement for Garment Worker Safety
by Clean Clothes Campaign, Global Labor Justice – International Labor Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network, and Worker Rights Consortium Global unions and negotiating signatory companies have announced that they agreed upon a three month extension of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh to allow for more time to conclude negotiations on a…
Brands Should Consult Unions before Resuming Sourcing in Myanmar
Within the past two weeks, several apparel brands that put a pause on sourcing from Myanmar in response to February’s military coup in the country resumed their sourcing, drawn by cheap prices for apparel and a labor movement constrained by arbitrary arrests and violent suppression from the police and military. Despite the military’s unwillingness to…
Buyers Pulled Orders When Migrant Burmese Garment Workers Spoke Out in Defense of Their Rights, Now They Are Making Workers Whole
Despite the inclusion of nondiscrimination protections based on nationality in Thai labor law, Mae Sot is known as a black hole of labor abuse for the many Burmese migrant workers who produce apparel there. Burmese workers in Mae Sot face a range of workplace violations that often go unreported and uncorrected due to their status…
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Daw Myo Myo Aye, leader of the STUM Union, is released from prison, but the threat to trade unionists and workers in Myanmar remains high
After six months of detainment in Myanmar’s notorious, Covid-ridden Insein prison,[1] Daw Myo Myo Aye, leader of the Solidarity Trade Union of Myanmar, was released and reunited with her family along with 5,000 other political prisoners on October 21, 2021. Among those released alongside Myo Myo were three workers from Xing Jia Footwear, whose only…