Workers Suffer While Fashion Brands’ Profits Return
No Sweat has joined with 200 rights organisations to demand brands fix their broken industry by putting the money on the table to ensure workers can feed their families and respecting labour rights.
The #PayYourWorkers #RespectLabourRights campaign brings together more than 200 unions and civil society groups from over 40 countries to demand that brands provide immediate relief to garment workers and make enforceable commitments to reform their broken industry. With the website, the coalition is launching a petition, urging brands and retailers like Amazon, Nike, and Next to live up to their responsibility to contribute funds to sustain workers’ income throughout the pandemic, respect the right to organise and bargain collectively, and make sure workers are never again left penniless if their factory goes bankrupt by signing onto a negotiated severance guarantee fund.
Sophorn Yang, President of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions said: “Workers in Cambodia lost millions of dollars in wages during the pandemic because of brands’ actions. It’s time for brands to recognise the crucial position they hold in garment and footwear supply chains and take responsibility for the wages of workers who make them billions of dollars in profits year after year.”
PayYourWorkers.org – the campaign website – is available in 8 languages. The 200 endorsing organisations include grassroots worker unions like Garment Labour Union in India, major trade union federations, including UNI Global union, and international organizations and networks such as Oxfam and Clean Clothes Campaign. In a global week of action, trade unions and activists are holding planned socially distanced in-person actions at store fronts and in front of factories in countries around the world this week, along with a digital and social media actions.
Anton Marcus, joint secretary of the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union in Sri Lanka calls for broad support for the campaign: “Sri Lankan apparel sector employers haven’t paid their employees’ full wages and bonuses and have withdrawn transport and food support during the first wave in March to May 2020. According to our calculation, garment employees are owed at least USD 24 million only for that period. About 200,000 employees lost their jobs without receiving the compensation they are entitled to. In the meantime, apparel export numbers have hardly gone down. Brands and suppliers must take responsibility and pay back the apparel sector employees what they are owed.”
The website and petition are available at payyourworkers.org.
The full list of endorsers can be found at payyourworkers.org/coalition.