Are your favorite fashions using force? | Business and Economic Affairs

Fashion companies and retailers around the world rely on the rapid production of low-cost products through external and complex operations, global chains have allowed for forced labor, workers’ rights activists warn, saying the major fashion trends profitable by the brand appear to be questionable. change.

The clothing sector employs more than 60 million people worldwide, according to International Bank Group. And even though 97% of the fashion and retail space has corporate systems and procedures (CSRs), these principles are not helpful in preventing pressure or monitoring employee outcomes, according to the KnowTheChain awareness group.

Know TheChain’s Benchmark Report 2021 Apparel and Footwear (PDF) recently placed 37 in the fashion industry worldwide at a rate of 0 to 100 in an effort to combat oppressive populations, while 100 represents the best practices.

The team noted the claims of forced labor in the 54% of companies surveyed.

“What surprised us was that the median percentage of the session was 41 per cent, which fails to address the risks,” Felicitas Weber, managing director at KnowTheChain, told Al Jazeera.

The report also found that the world’s largest ethnic group is one of the worst offenders in the world, with 31 percent.

The French shipping company Kering (owned by Alexander McQueen and Gucci) recorded 41 per cent, while LVMH (author of Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton) recorded 19 per cent. Tapestry (co-author of Coach and Kate’s writings) Spade), tested for the first time this year, recorded 16 per cent.

Kering, LVMH and Tapestry did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

The Italian fashion house Prada ranks between 5 and 100 percent on KnowTheChain, and its popularity has grown steadily over time.

But speaking to Al Jazeera, Prada Group said it was trying to raise its standards and improve the KnowTheChain approach.

Prada says KnowTheChain no longer assumes that most of Prada’s factories are located in Italy, which allows for monitoring and dealing with any malicious or illegal violations.

While what TheTheTheChain is doing is amazing, it is not surprising to freedom fighters.

Clothing workers stretch their bodies to rest at Fakhruddin Textile Mills Limited in Gazipur, Bangladesh [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

“Occupational harassment is set in an era of electronic violence promoted by clothing giants,” Penelope Kyritsis, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a labor rights watchdog, told Al Jazeera.

Seeking less time and lower prices from retailers and creating competition between retail, fashion and retail industries makes it harder for factory owners to comply with labor laws and standards, he explained.

“This trend has been exacerbated by the coronavirus epidemic, with automotive clothing trying to alleviate economic hardship by abruptly banning orders from their factories, which has led to mass dismissals, pushing workers to the brink of poverty,” Kyritsis said.

In Bangladesh, for example, China’s second-largest clothing retailer, more than a million people – mostly women – have been fired or temporarily suspended as fashion banned plans to reduce last year’s epidemic, according to research (PDF) hosted by the Center for Employee Rights at Penn State University.

Who can move at risk

While it is not clear how many workers and refugees are employed on clothing, they are the ones who work in all areas, KnowTheChain told Al Jazeera.

For example, the textile industry in Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan depends heavily on workers from neighboring countries, according to Campaign White Clothes.

Jordanian textile companies are said to employ about 70,000 people, 53,000 of whom are from their homeland, a Global Vendors available in 2019. And the clothing department in Sao Paulo in Brazil is known to enroll about 300,000 Bolivian people, according to the NGOs mentioned in the report Organization & Resource Center Resource Center.

Garment factory workers look at a car as they arrive to receive the coronavirus vaccine at a corporate park in Phnom Penh, Cambodia [File: Cindy Liu/Reuters]

Immigrants are often at risk of being harassed and abused, because they are often exploited in a conspiracy, have no documents or are not adequately protected by law.

“Sometimes people who move to another country have to pay one year ‘s salary as a living wage [it’s] seizures, ”said Weber’s TheTheChain. “We’ve seen a lot of companies reimburse these funds, but we want companies to do more than just take a baby every year.”

Of the 28 retail and fashion companies that define the policies of migrant workers in the KnowTheChain report, only two companies have provided examples of changes in how to address employee grievances. These complaints may include compensation, mishandling of property, intimidation, sexual harassment or intimidation.

While the ability to organize and oppose oppressive behavior is important, thousands of clothing workers have reportedly been fired for being members of the union and co-organizing the epidemic, according to KnowTheChain.

‘Know and show’ the chains of marketing

More importantly, companies in the industry need to “know and display” their chains – and that means mapping and stamping the names of all their shareholders, says Weber.

Intensive use is thriving in countries where labor laws are oppressive and weak, but many fashion brands in Europe and the United States continue to try to avoid responsibility for what happens until the end of their products, Chloe Cranston, business and human rights manager at Anti-Slavery International , told Al Jazeera.

Mr Cranston cited an example of goods manufactured under duress by a few Uighur Muslim members in the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

Workers appear in a production line at a textile factory in Korla, Xinjiang in China’s Autonomous region of Uighur [File: cnsphoto via Reuters]

A recent Amnesty International report Notes the insanity and persecution of Muslims Uighur Muslims living in China, plus through the first accounts. Some of the notes explicitly state compulsory labor and the Uighurs’ requirement to be and to work in a factory “.

“Almost all industries are affected by forced labor in Uighur, through thread or cotton,” Cranston said.

On Tuesday, the United States released a business reform plan warning companies doing business in Xinjiang that they are at high risk of violating U.S. law on the basis of “excessive evidence” of forced labor in the region, as well as other human rights violations and “fraudulent supervision”.

Officials of former US President Donald Trump have banned all cotton products in Western China in Xinjiang province for allegedly being made under duress by Uighur Muslims. The US, Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom are also present approval Chinese people because of persecution.

“We’ve seen the progress of this over the last year, but the sad reality remains that fashion still has a long way to go to make sure it’s not related to the crimes that the Uighurs people suffered,” Cranston said.

Fashion companies and retailers have corporate power, affirmation, and responsibility to ensure that the way they work with suppliers, unions and employers allow services for high and low – from those who harvest like cotton to those who sew them becoming a fabric in the industry.

“It should not be a burden for consumers to try to ensure a free purchase,” Cranston said.