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Progress made since Rana Plaza collapse at risk
The safety programme that has been instrumental in restoring international trust in the Bangladeshi garment industry after the deadly Rana Plaza collapse of 2013 risks being expelled from the country without a credible alternative in place. Negotiations between signatories of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the government of Bangladesh have grounded to a halt, as Bangladeshi authorities have thus far refused to accept any other outcome than a swift and unconditional handover of the Accord’s tasks to national inspection entities.
Labour groups call for full remedy in Indonesian labour dispute involving adidas and Mizuno
After six years of campaigning, the former union of a notorious adidas and Mizuno supplier in Indonesia felt compelled to agree to a financial settlement after workers were illegally dismissed in 2012 following a strike to demand their legal wages. Mizuno and adidas were major buyers from the factory unit of PT Panarub Industry. Clean Clothes Campaign calls the amount paid by the Panarub Group a pittance and supports the workers’ demand to the sportswear brands to ensure full remedy.
Demonstrations at Bangladeshi embassies demand respect for garment workers’ rights
This week labour activists and trade unionists around the world are expressing their solidarity with garment workers in Bangladesh through demonstrations in front of Bangladeshi embassies and consulates in cities around the world. Through this week of global solidarity action, activists, unionists and consumers are calling for living wages, safe factories, and a halt to repression against garment workers in Bangladesh. Global concern for garment workers’ rights is mounting after the violent responses to recent wage-related protests, in addition to the protracted court proceedings around the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which threaten essential progress in the field of factory safety.
Repression of worker protests in Bangladesh shows the government’s lack of respect for essential freedoms
Thousands of workers in Bangladesh have taken the streets in protest since the recent implementation of the wage revision in the garment sector. When police in Dhaka started firing rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd, one worker was killed and many others were injured.
Bangladesh Government attempts to paralyze Accord and strip its independence
The Bangladesh government is using proceedings before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh to prevent the Accord on Fire and Building Safety from operating, thereby putting workers’ safety at risk.
Why we are staying away from H&M’s living wage summit in Cambodia
Clean Clothes Campaign International office declined an invitation to the “Fair living wage summit” that H&M is organizing on 11 December in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We want to make sure that our absence is not misrepresented at the summit or in other situations and are therefore sharing some background that led to that decision.
Hearing in KiK case before Regional Court in Germany
“My son has paid with his life for the profits of KiK. Finally, a German court is looking into the case.” For claimant Saeeda Khatoon, the first hearing in the proceedings against German clothing retailer KiK in front of the Dortmund Regional Court is an important step – regardless of its outcome. Her son died in the fire that broke out in the Ali Enterprises factory – a KiK supplier – on 11 September 2012 in Karachi (Pakistan). “For 258 people the factory became a death trap. Nobody will be able to make up for this loss. But those responsible should at least be held liable. KiK was the factory’s main customer and therefore bears some of the responsibility for the inadequate fire safety measures.”
Response to today's High Court hearing on the Bangladesh Accord
The Bangladesh High Court today conducted a hearing following the appeal filed by the Bangladesh Accord against the restraining order on its Bangladesh operations. The restraining order was due to take effect on 30 November. The High Court scheduled a new hearing on 6 December and lifted the restraining order until that date. The hearing took place amidst mounting international pressure and calls for the international community for the permanent removal of the order. Given the grave consequences expulsion of the Bangladesh Accord would bring for workers and the overall garment industry, it is imperative that this threat be permanently ended next week.
Japanese retail giant Uniqlo shows contempt towards garment workers just prior to AGM
On 14 November 2018, Uniqlo walked away from a mediation process in Jakarta without making a substantial offer to former union representatives of the Jaba Garmindo factory, which went bankrupt in 2015 as a result of Uniqlo´s predatory purchasing practices. Following the unexpected factory closure, two thousand workers, mostly women, found themselves in huge debts and without prospects of employment
A wave of actions against poverty wages hits H&M’s largest markets and production locations
The ongoing #TurnAroundHM global week of action has shown the growing resentment over H&M’s broken living wage commitment. Workers, activists and consumers in some of H&M’s largest markets and in a number of production countries are holding H&M accountable for the broken commitment that 850,000 workers would start getting paid a living wage by this year.
Week of Justice asks attention for accountability after deadly Pakistani garment factory fire
In an international week of events focusing on the deadly Ali Enterprises factory fire of 2012 a group of labour and human rights organizations tries to answer the question: if workers die stitching our clothes, who should be held responsible?
Global week of action against poverty wages at H&M
From Delhi to London, from Washington, DC to Zagreb, with many cities in between, workers and activists are drawing attention to H&M’s broken commitment that 850,000 garment workers would be paid a living wage by this year. Expressions of solidarity with garment workers and denouncements of poor and precarious working conditions have also been coming from other parts of the H&M's global supply chain.
Six years after deadly garment factory fire, Bangladesh risks new wave of factory incidents
Today marks the sixth anniversary of the deadly Tazreen factory fire, which killed at least 112 workers who were producing clothes for a range of international brands, including Walmart, C&A, El Corte Ingles and KiK. As survivors and families of killed workers commemorate this fateful day, Bangladesh is moving fast towards a situation in which factories could quickly return to the death traps that they were in 2012. The announced forced closure of the Bangladesh Accord’s domestic office operations later this month threatens to undermine the positive developments of the last five years and to plunge the country back into a situation in which workers will have to fear for their lives when entering their workplace.
European Parliament slams Bangladesh Government on human rights and calls for the continuation of the Accord
Today the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on the Bangladesh Government to urgently act to address deteriorating human rights conditions.
#WeDemandTk16000: International solidarity with the workers in Bangladesh
The struggle for a minimum wage in Bangladesh that would enable a decent life continues. Following a series of public rallies, press conferences and round tables, a number of workers are on a hunger strike today. This action, organized by the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF), an IndustriALL global union affiliate, should serve as a stark reminder that the announced minimum wage of 8,000 taka will leave many workers and their families hungry and unable to cover other basic living cost.
As UNIQLO pops the champaign in Europe, deprived garment workers knock its door in Japan
Today two garment workers, part of a group of 2000 workers from Indonesia, tour Japan calling on UNIQLO after the retailer turned down a request to meet earlier this week. The tour is part of the global Pay Up UNIQLO campaign taking place in Europe, the US, Indonesia and East Asia, uniting campaigners and workers in support of the worker’s fight for 5.5M USD in compensation after loosing their job when the Jaba Garmindo factory in Indonesia went bankrupt in 2015, two months after UNIQLO pulled its orders from the factory.
Five years since Rana Plaza, workers injured at the job in Bangladesh still face insecurity and dire poverty
The deadly Rana Plaza collapse of 2013, killing at least 1,134 workers making clothes for Western markets, was the largest, but not the last factory incident in Bangladesh. Five years ago today, only six months after the horrific Rana Plaza tragedy, seven workers died and over fifty were injured in a fire in the Aswad Composite Textile Mill. While a world-wide campaign began to ensure compensation for the families of the Rana Plaza workers, the families affected by the Aswad fire were left with nothing, and have yet to receive a single penny in compensation. Devastatingly, the Aswad fire victims’ families are not alone - since the Rana Plaza collapse, over 540 workers have been killed and injured in factory incidents in Bangladesh. On the fifth anniversary of the Aswad factory fire, Clean Clothes Campaign calls upon the Bangladesh government and others involved in the industry to finally create a national employment injury insurance scheme that would cover all workers in Bangladesh.
Workers reveal poverty wages and labour law violations in H&M's supply chain
Research findings published this week around the world reveal that many workers making H&M’s clothes live below the poverty line -- despite H&M’s promise of a living wage by 2018, and despite the brand’s recent deceptive claims of progress. Interviewed workers in India and Turkey earn about a third and in Cambodia less than one-half of the estimated living wage. In Bulgaria interviewed workers’ salary at H&M’s “gold supplier” is not even 10 per cent of what would be required for workers and their families to have decent lives.
Outrageous new minimum wage announced in Bangladesh
In a climate of fear and intimidation and after months of delays, Bangladeshi authorities have announced the new monthly minimum wage of 8,000 taka (USD 95) for the 4.5 million workers in the garment sector in Bangladesh. This amount shows complete disregard for legitimate workers' unions and for the need to set wages through social dialogue.
Complaint filed against Italian auditor for ignoring fatal flaws in garment factory
More than 250 people died and dozens were injured in a fire at the Ali Enterprises textile factory in Karachi, Pakistan, on 11 September 2012. Only three weeks before, Italian auditor RINA Services S.p.A. certified the factory for abiding to international labour standards. Marking the six year anniversary of the disaster an international coalition of eight human rights, labour and consumer organizations file a complaint to the OECD National Contact Point (NCP) at the Ministry for Economic Development in Rome against RINA, the company that could have prevented hundreds of deaths by doing its work properly.