Photo: Union members sort and document
factory inventory at Style Avenue after the closure (FEASIES).
After considerable pressure from Salvadoran unions (FEASIES, SGC, SINDICOM), labour rights organizations, and US universities, former workers from the Style Avenue factory in El Salvador will receive full severance and back wages.
Outerstuff was the main buyer from the Style Avenue factory before it closed in 2023, having had clothing produced under license for Disney, universities, the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). In March 2024, Outerstuff committed to providing US$1.8 million to ensure that the former factory workers receive 100% of what they are owed through two disbursements in April 2024 and January 2025.
According to a December 2023 factory investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), the average Style Avenue worker is owed one and a half years wages. The full payment of the wages and severance owed will provide workers with significant economic relief, as many have gone into debt since the factory closure in order to pay for basic needs including electricity, water, clothes and housing.
Severance and wage theft are common throughout brands’ international supply chains, but brands are increasingly being held accountable for ensuring that the workers who make their clothes are paid what they are owed and labour rights violations in supplier and wholly-owned factories are remedied.
For more information: