Commentary Archive
The WRC helped workers organizing unions at Guatemalan factories owned by Korean multinational SAE-A secure remedies for violence, death threats, and illegal firings.
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In a major breakthrough in the efforts of the Garment and Textile Workers’ Union in Karnataka, India, the WRC, and a growing list of labor rights advocates, to address the refusal of suppliers in Karnataka to pay the legal minimum wage—a violation that has affected 400,000 workers, who are collectively owed nearly $60 million…
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“This is a joyful day that we thought would never come. My father fell ill during the past year, and I felt so sad because I wasn’t able to help with any of his expenses. But now I will be able to help buy him medicine. We appreciate all of the efforts by the organizations…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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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The Rana Plaza apparel factory collapse killed more workers than any other manufacturing disaster in human history. The 1,134 known deaths in that building on April 24, 2013, a culmination of more than a decade of mass fatality incidents in Bangladesh’s sprawling garment industry—all in factories producing for leading global brands. The most important thing…
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Target Supplier JNB Global Fires Workers and Steals Severance
Overview: The WRC recently documented violations of worker rights at the Guatemalan garment factory JNB Global, also known as Sams and Rudia. Following our investigation, we shared findings and recommendations for remedial action with the factory and with its buyer, Target Corporation. The violations of worker rights at JNB Global occurred when the factory required…
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