It was pure chance that Guardian reporter, Archie Bland, happened upon a minefield of human rights abuses amidst Leicester’s garment factories earlier this year. Excessive work hours, an absence of social distancing measures and “floors with rats all over the place” were only a few of the horrors the journalist’s employee interviewees spoke of.
However, the atrocities within Leicester’s clothing network are merely a fraction of an international issue which has been aggravated by the pandemic. Before Coronavirus’s usurpation, overconsumption and overproduction in the fashion industry have long been detrimental to underpaid workers internationally.
The ease of fast fashion and online shopping is buttressed by exploitation and treacherous work environments, conditions that appear only to occupy public attention following significant tragedies such as the collapse of the Bangladeshi Rana Plaza building in 2013.
It’s a world where sexual, verbal and physical abuses are a reality; where many children make “easy targets” for cheap labour through their voicelessness and need of money.
Annually turning over $3 Trillion, the garment industry demonstrates a gross disparity between retail income and the poverty pay of clothing labourers, with some earning $21 per month.
“During the Coronavirus outbreak’s first three months, an estimated 3.2 to 5.8 Billion USD was owed to garment workers globally according to a report published by the Clean Clothes Campaign.”
But even these wages appeared fruitful in the wake of Covid-19’s disruption. During the Coronavirus outbreak’s first three months, an estimated 3.2 to 5.8 Billion USD was owed to garment workers globally according to a report published by the Clean Clothes Campaign. Employees were laid off left, right and centre succeeding the suspended production of raw materials from China to other garment producing countries. Declining customer demand, mass order cancellations and factory closures saw unemployment in the garment sector soar. The majority of workers were sent home with little notice and no wages.
In Myanmar, a huge clothing supplier for the EU, US, Japan and South Korea, garment factories had already seen “depressingly low levels of unionisation, low wages and unlawful deductions, long working hours with excessive overtime, unpaid overtime, child labour, no employment contracts and a lack of grievance mechanisms” long before the pandemic. Now though, the situation has worsened for workers there as an approximated 350,000 are at risk of losing their job due to the virus.
Garment workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia have not been able to visit their families during the recent Pchum Ben festival because of pay cuts and losing jobs. 290,000 workers have been affected, largely women who after having lost their professions in recent months, join “predawn gatherings” where factory brokers look for people to cover off-the-books shifts.
Equally affected are clothing labourers in Los Angeles’s underground apparel system who will continue to be paid five to twelve cents per piece after wage-reform bill SB 1399 failed to clear the Assembly. Workers here have no option other than to toil for less as the rapid spread of Covid-19 in LA’s garment factories has led to their closure.
“Reported on by NGO The Circle’s website, Suraiya states, “we do not have any income now but we have to pay our house rent, we have to feed our children.””
This toxic combination of Coronavirus and a transgressive apparel industry is not just evident in figures though. It can be observed more bleakly through personal accounts. For instance, Suraiya, a 26 year old mother of two, who has been let go by the garment factory she worked at in Dhaka city, Bangladesh and whose husband cannot run his tea stall due to the pandemic. Reported on by NGO The Circle’s website, Suraiya states, “we do not have any income now but we have to pay our house rent, we have to feed our children.”
It is a common theme. Whilst we, the consumers, consider which shade of denim jacket to buy, garment workers remain trapped in a revolving door of abuse and neglect compounded by the virus.
Speaking to two students, I asked where they shopped and if they were aware of where their clothes originated. Despite both saying that they largely bought from second hand and charity stores, they admitted that they “don’t check where clothes are supplied from” if purchasing from high street shops.
So, if there is such unawareness amongst consumers and want for high street brands still prevails, how can the colossal injustice of worker suffering be addressed?
Perhaps the most crucial turning point will come from increasing the transparency of supply chains which are usually complex and conceal unauthorised subcontracting. Social media and alternative platforms can be exercised usefully in this regard to pressurise retailers’ opaqueness concerning their suppliers. A current example is the #PayUp trend on Twitter, rebuking brands for not paying workers for cancelled orders throughout the pandemic.
Moreover, as consumers we have a responsibility to know more about where our clothes come from. Educate yourself by reading and following campaigns and organisations such as Labour Behind the Label, the Clean Clothes Campaign, IndustriALL Global Union, Fair Wear and Fashion Revolution.
Understand what they do, how you can make a difference and improve the lives of garment factory workers.
Izzie Pridmore
Featured image courtesy of Kroisenbrunner via WikiCommons. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
