Holding corporations accountable. Protecting worker rights.
News: Company Making Costco Pajamas Flagged for Forced Labor
A story by the Associated Press, building on investigative research by the WRC, exposed Costco’s use of a supplier that exploits forced labor in Xinjiang, China. Goods from the supplier, Hetian Taida Apparel Co., were banned from the US under the federal law prohibiting the import of products made with forced labor. Costco’s supplier, Hetian Taida, is a collaborator in the Chinese government’s massive campaign of repression against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. See the WRC’s report on Hetian Taida here.
WRC Applauds Major Employer’s Decision to Pay $4.5 Million in Compensation to Workers
Responding to a WRC investigation, PT Kahoindah Citragarment, which produces clothing in Indonesia for leading apparel brands, has committed to provide millions of dollars in back pay to more than 2,000 former workers.
Commentary: Landmark Agreements to Combat Gender-based Violence and Harassment in Lesotho
After a WRC investigation uncovering extensive sexual harassment and coercion at Nien Hsing Textile in Lesotho, unions and women's rights advocates have achieved unprecedented enforceable agreements with Levi Strauss, The Children's Place, Kontoor, and Nien Hsing to eliminate these abuses and protect 10,000 workers.
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Leading apparel brands, trade unions, and women’s rights organizations sign binding agreements to combat gender-based violence and harassment at key supplier’s factories in Lesotho
Maseru, Lesotho; Washington, D.C. (August 15, 2019): Civil society groups, an international apparel manufacturer, and three global brands have agreed to launch a comprehensive pilot program intended to prevent gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in garment factories in Lesotho employing more than 10,000 workers. Five Lesotho-based trade unions and women’s rights organizations, as well as…
The False Promise of Corporate Living Wage Commitments
In the face of mounting pressure from workers, unions, and civil society organizations who have documented widespread labor exploitation in global supply chains, apparel brands have adopted ambitious public commitments to provide living wages to the workers sewing their clothes. But according to a new study by researchers at the University of Sheffield, the world’s…
Amidst Wave of Deadly Fires, Bangladesh Government Threatens to Expel the Only Credible Building Safety Programme in the Country and Further Suppress Workers’ Rights
On the sixth anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse, labour rights groups are calling on the government of Bangladesh to cease attempts to expel the Accord on Fire and Building Safety from Bangladesh and to urgently increase safety efforts for the buildings currently under the government’s oversight, which include tens of thousands of factories…
“Organized theft on a massive scale”: the reality of severance theft in Indonesia
Abruptly and without warning, the Indonesian garment company Jaba Garmindo shut down operations at its two factories in April of 2015, leaving over 4,000 workers without their legally mandated severance. The sudden departure reflects a consistent trend within garment factories around the globe; in response to intense market pressure to cut production costs, many factories…