News

Leading Apparel Brands Tolerated Delivery Delays Resulting from Türkiye Earthquake; but Most Have Done Little Else to Support Survivors

New research shows that many apparel giants failed to take appropriate steps to protect suppliers and workers, leaving 48% of factories unable to pay employees in full after quake  A white paper by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) examines how 16 global brands handled their human rights obligations after the devastating earthquake in Türkiye: Pressed…

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Gap Inc. Signs Pakistan Safety Accord in US Breakthrough for Binding Brand-Labor Agreements

Workers in Gap Inc.’s 14 Factories in Pakistan Will Now Benefit from the Accord’s Unparalleled Fire and Building Safety Protections The Worker Rights Consortium applauds Gap Inc. (Athleta, Banana Republic, Gap, Old Navy) for signing the Pakistan Accord on Health & Safety in the Textile & Garment Industry and encourages other US brands to join…

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One Year Back Pay, Rehiring for Haitian Workers Fired over Wage Protest

After nearly a year of investigation and engagement by the WRC, Centri Group, a garment factory in Haiti that supplies the Canadian apparel company, Gildan Activewear, has committed to remedy violations of its workers’ fundamental right to freedom of association. As previously reported, a WRC investigation had found that, in 2022, Centri Group violated its…

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WRC Statement in Response to Murder of Shahidul Islam

The WRC stands with the international labor rights community in mourning and condemning the devastating murder of longstanding union leader, Shahidul Islam of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF). Our thoughts are with his wife and sons, and the union movement in Bangladesh that he tirelessly dedicated 25 years of his life to…

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‘শহীদুল ইসলাম হত্যার প্রতিক্রিয়ায় WRC’র বিবৃতি’

আন্তর্জাতিক শ্রমিক অধিকার সম্প্রদায়ের সাথে একাত্ম হয়ে ‘শ্রমিক অধিকার সংঘ’ (Worker Rights Consortium, WRC) বাংলাদেশ গার্মেন্টস ইন্ডাস্ট্রিস ওয়ার্কার্স ফেডারেশনের (BGIWF)  নেতা, শ্রমিক আন্দোলনের দীর্ঘদিনের বন্ধু শহীদুল ইসলামের নৃশংস হত্যায় শোক ও নিন্দা জ্ঞাপন করছে। তাঁর স্ত্রী ও ছেলেমেয়ে এবং বাংলাদেশের ট্রেড ইউনিয়ন আন্দোলনের বন্ধুদের মতো আমরাও এই মর্মান্তিক ঘটনায় শোকাহত ও সমব্যাথী; তাঁদের প্রতিও আমরা…

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New Report Details Impact of Lesotho Anti-GBVH Program

A new report details the impact of the Lesotho Anti-GBVH Program over the past two years. This Program was created by a set of landmark agreements between apparel companies, a major manufacturer, unions, and women’s groups to address gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in Lesotho garment factories. The WRC has played a central role throughout…

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Centri Group S.A building.

Haitian Workers at Factory Supplying Gildan Activewear Fired for Striking over Poverty Wages

An investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) has found that a supplier factory to Gildan Activewear located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, engaged in a mass firing of its workers in retaliation for their going on strike over unpaid overtime. The WRC found that the dismissal of 64 Haitian workers at Gildan’s supplier, Centri Group, was…

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The Lesson of Rana Plaza: Corporate Self-Regulation Is a Formula for Disaster

The Rana Plaza factory collapse killed 1,138 workers, more than any other manufacturing disaster in human history. These deaths, and the injuries to 2,500 others on April 24, 2013, were the culmination of more than a decade of mass fatality incidents in Bangladesh’s garment industry—most of them in factories producing for leading fashion brands and…

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Experts Commend Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Implementation, Call for More Muscle

Coalition members cite Entity List and third-country imports as key for tougher enforcement At a Congressional hearing today, experts called for urgent action to improve the effectiveness of a key import law to fight forced labor in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China (Uyghur Region). The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) bans all…

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Workers with back pay

WRC Engagement with Target Secures Compensation for Seven Unlawfully Fired Employees, Restores Stolen Severance Rights for 400 Workers at Supplier JNB Global in Guatemala

JNB Global, a garment factory in Guatemala that supplies Target Stores, has provided legally owed severance and back pay to workers whom the factory unlawfully fired in February 2021, and it has restored severance and seniority rights for the factory’s entire workforce of 400 employees, following a WRC investigation and subsequent engagement with Target for…

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