garment workers news and archive

Pop-up Sweatshop urges the Fashion Industry to be more Transparent

Amsterdam - It almost seems unfathomable that a global industry which generated 1.5 trillion euros in revenues last year does not pay a living wage to all its workers. Yet this is the reality for a large majority of the 60 million people employed in the fashion industry supply chain. In countries like Bangladesh, India, and Cambodia, millions of...

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Cell phones to the rescue: garment workers finally speak up

When newly recruited garment workers receive their first pay, the first thing they buy for themselves - after contributing to family expenses - is a cell phone. It keeps them connected to friends and family and can even mean better job opportunities. Thus today, mobile phone penetration has reached more than 90 percent in developing countries....

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Uniqlo's Factory Worker Empowerment Project yields first results

Washing our hands with soap, cleaning fruits and vegetables before consumption and making sure water is clean and fit to drink are habits that have become second nature to us. We even teach our children these basics from a young age onward to make sure they remain healthy and happy. But what if this knowledge is missing due to a lack of basic...

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Fashion

The Mad Rush brings the ‘sweatshop’ to the high street

A new concept, store is set to open its doors today on the popular shopping street de Kalverstraat, in Amsterdam known as the Mad Rush. A cute window display featuring cacti alongside of trendy and fashionable items from high street retailers underneath a discount sign ensures that the Mad Rush is certainly appealing to consumers. However, what...

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Garment workers protest for pensions in Bangalore

Mumbai - Since Monday, about 15,000 garment workers - many of them women - from five garment units have been protesting on the outskirts of Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore), the capital of India's southern state of Karnataka. The workers staged the massive, at times violent demonstration to protest against changes in the Provident Fund...

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Fashion

Why American Apparel employees want former CEO Dov Charney back

Jan Willem Hubner first began his career at American Apparel working in a store in Amsterdam. He then went on to work close to ten years at the label's head office as visual merchandising director & store standards. However his tenure at American Apparel fell short of his ten year work anniversary when he was fired, without reason, this April,...

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Fashion

Bangladesh court delays premiere of 'Rana Plaza' film

London - April 24, 2013 - a date imprinted onto the industry's memory as the day the worst disaster in the history of garment manufacturing occurred on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Rana Plaza factory collapse, which took the lives of 1,135 people and injured thousands more, inspired a film based on the story of a seamstress who was...

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South African garment workers to receive pay hike from September

According to an agreement between garment makers and the Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU), South African garment workers will receive a pay hike from September 1, the industry's due date for annual wage increases. This means that in metro areas like Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth, the wages of...

Culture

Bangladesh: garment workers shine in singing competition

Not their skill with needle and thread was called for but their vocal skills: Bangladeshi garment workers once more took on the challenge of finding the greatest voice among them. The heavily televised and popular event, titled “Gorbo” (meaning pride), was organized for the second time by the BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters...

Fashion

Garment workers worldwide not earning living wages

Prevailing wages of garment workers in many countries worldwide have not only declined in recent years, they currently also average only a third of a living wage. This is what the report “Global wage trends for apparel workers, 2001-2011” found, published a few days ago by the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent labour rights...

Fashion

Young, poor, hopeful – workers in sourcing countries

A fire at garment factory Ali Enterprises in Karachi, Pakistan on September 11 2012 killed 315 workers and injured more than 250; the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Greater Dhaka, Bangladesh, which housed five garment factories, cost the lives of 1,127 workers and injured more than 2,500. Structural flaws and a violation of building and...