Holding corporations accountable. Protecting worker rights.

News from the WRC's Work around the Globe

Numerous Violations at Collegiate Supplier in Ethiopia Remedied

The WRC exposed labor rights violations at a factory making clothes for Cutter and Buck, Nautica, and Decathlon and, with buyer cooperation, successfully pressed factory management to pay back wages to workers who were penalized for not making high product targets, among other remediations.

Wrongly Imprisoned Worker Acquitted; ASICS, MUJI Fail to Press Supplier to Compensate Worker

In retaliation against workers for organizing a union, the factory had their leader jailed on baseless charges. Despite being acquitted of all charges, ASICS and MUJI fail to press their supplier to fully remedy the violation of human and labor rights.

Levi’s Calls Illegal Firing of 400 Workers a “Zero Tolerance” Violation ... Then Tolerates It

How we work

Enforceable standards

In global manufacturing, regulation usually means self-regulation, with brands inspecting their own suppliers under voluntary standards. The WRC promotes and enforces binding labor standards, the only kind that ever work in the real world.

Worker-Centered investigations

We interview workers away from their factories, without management’s knowledge, so workers can speak openly, with no fear of reprisal. This enables the WRC to uncover labor abuses that brands and their auditing organizations routinely ignore.

Full restitution for rights violations

The WRC compels brands and their suppliers around the world to remedy the abuses we’ve exposed: we’ve achieved tens of millions of dollars in back pay, reinstatement for thousands of unjustly fired workers, and transformative safety improvements.

Systemic change in supply chains

Achieving decent conditions in supply chains requires systemic reform: supplanting voluntary industry promises with enforceable agreements worldwide and obliging brands to end the price pressure on suppliers that impels abuses. We drive strategies to advance this agenda.

Workers with signs in Khmer at Wing Star Shoes

Cambodian Worker Leader Imprisoned on Factory’s False Charges Acquitted—ASICS, MUJI Fail to Require Supplier to Compensate Worker It Wrongly Accused

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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Four Years Later, Workers at Nike Supplier Are Still Owed over $900,000

Hong Seng Knitting continues to refuse to provide back pay to more than 99 percent of the affected workers and continues to refuse to pay meaningful compensation to the Burmese migrant worker who was forced to flee the country after management reported him to the police…

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Photo of worker Tzib Caal

WRC Statement in Response to Murder of Anastacio Tzib Caal

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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WRC Secures Five Months’ Wages in Unpaid Severance for Workers of Former Workwear Factory in Haiti

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…

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