News
When ‘business as usual’ costs lives: workers in Pakistan call for a binding safety agreement
By Christie Miedema and Liana Foxvog – In Karachi, Pakistan, 11 September 2012 is ingrained into people’s minds as the day on which over 250 people did not return home to their families after a long day of work. A fire in the Ali Enterprises garment factory had spread rapidly, fed by the bales of finished product…
Lesotho garment workers struck landmark deals to tackle gender-based violence. Here’s how it happened.
By Rola Abimourched, Libakiso Matlho, Thusoana Ntlama & Robin Runge – Gender-based violence and harassment, including sexual harassment in the world of work, are among the most pervasive human rights violations and most effective tools at preventing gender equality. Female garment workers—who are the majority of the global garment workforce—are systematically targeted and experience the…
Landmark Agreements to Combat Gender-based Violence and Harassment in Lesotho’s Garment Industry
Last Thursday marked the announcement of a set of landmark agreements among leading apparel brands, a coalition of labor unions and women’s rights advocates, and a major apparel supplier to combat gender-based violence and harassment in Lesotho’s garment sector. These enforceable agreements—with Levi Strauss & Co., The Children’s Place, and Kontoor Brands—link the each of…
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…
“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…
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…
WRC in the Media
Clothes from China Made with Forced Labor? (FR)
La Presse
Company making Costco pajamas flagged for forced labor
Associated Press
Levis and Wrangler vow to protect women making jeans from sexual abuse
Reuters
Bosses force female workers making jeans for Levis and Wrangler into sex, report claims
The Guardian
Media Inquiries
Please direct media inquiries to Ira Arlook at Fenton Communications:
Office Phone: (202) 822-5200
Cell Phone: (202) 258-5437
Email: ira@fenton.com
Largest Sum Ever: WRC recovers US$4.5 Million in unpaid severance
In the fall of 2019, two thousand Indonesian workers received what the WRC believes to be the largest amount workers have won in a single case of illegally denied severance. On July 2, 2018, the management of PT Kahoindah Citragarment (Kahoindah), an Indonesian garment factory owned by the Korean firm Hojeon LLC, had announced that…