This workshop uses six scenarios based on real problems that workers and the organizations defending their rights face in factories. The goal is to develop participants’ capacity to decide when and how to engage with clothing brands. To read the scenarios presented to participants, click here:
The workshop Brands and Labour Rights: When and How to Engage with Brands was designed by Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) as a tool for use by women’s and trade union organizations in Central America and Mexico in their work to pressure apparel brands to take action to achieve greater respect for labour rights in their supplier factories in the region.
Photo: Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos/Solidarity Center
The Maquila Solidarity Network joins labour, human rights, women’s organizations in Guatemala and internationally in strongly condemning the murder of Guatemalan labour leader Brenda Marleni Estrada Tambito, and calls on the Guatemalan government to launch an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation into her assassination, bring those responsible to justice, and take appropriate measures to ensure the safety of members of her family.
April 24, 2016 was the third anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse, in which over 1,100 workers were killed and approximately 2,500 injured in the worst industrial disaster in the history of the garment industry.
Three years later, what has changed for the injured workers and the families of those who died, and for the young women and men who continue to work in the industry?
On April 10, 56 workers who for over five months had been camped outside the Lexmark factory in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico after being unjustly fired, ended their protest after reaching a settlement with their former employer.
Despite strong opposition from national unions and international labour rights organizations, on April 4 the Cambodian parliament approved a controversial new trade union law that greatly restricts workers’ right to freedom of association and collective bargaining and the right to strike.
As Swedish fashion giant H&M prepares to announce a predicted increase in their profits for 2015, labour rights groups are calling on the company to do more to protect garment workers in Bangladesh, after a review of H&M’s strategic suppliers shows that severe delays in carrying out urgent and vital building repairs continue to leave tens of thousands of workers at risk of death and injury.
MSN joins with a growing number of organizations and institutions throughout the Americas and around the world in condemning the assassination of internationally recognized Honduran human and indigenous rights defender and environmental activist, Berta Cáceres. We express our deeply felt condolences to the members of her family and community and we affirm our support for their continuing struggle.
Thirty-five organizations based in the US, Canada, Europe and Mexico have signed an Open Letter urging US-based print cartridge manufacturer, Lexmark, to reinstate workers fired for protesting unjust working conditions and attempting to organize an independent union at a Lexmark owned and operated factory in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
A fire at another Bangladesh factory producing clothes for H&M, JC Penney and other brands has reinforced serious concerns raised by MSN and other witness signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety about long delays in required safety renovations at factories producing for US and European brands.
A worker rebellion in electronics maquila factories in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico is putting to the test the Mexican government’s promise to introduce reforms to better ensure workers’ right to be represented by a union of their free choice.
The Mexico Committee of the Americas Group has published a guidance tool for apparel brands on policies and actions to ensure respect for freedom of association in their Mexican supplier factories.
H&M is dramatically behind schedule in making fire and building safety repairs in it supplier factories in Bangladesh, says an October 1, 2015 report co-authored by the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), and MSN.
This document, prepared by MSN for the Mexico Committee of the Americas group, was designed primarily as a tool for companies sourcing apparel products from Mexico to better understand the labour standards obligations of their Mexican suppliers and the rights of workers in their supplier factories. It should also serve as a useful reference document for trade union and labour rights organizations advocating on behalf of Mexican workers.
On September 22, eight international apparel brands released a joint letter to the Mexican government expressing their support for the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) request that Mexico make further reforms to its Federal Labour Law to ensure respect for workers’ right to freedom of association and to bargain collectively.
Signatories to the joint letter include: adidas Group, American Eagle Outfitters, New Balance, Nike, Patagonia, Puma, PVH, and The Walt Disney Company.
The right of workers to freely associate and the right to bargain collectively on the terms and conditions of their employment are fundamental human rights enshrined in International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and United Nations (UN) declaractions. These fundamental principles are reflected in the codes of conduct of most leading apparel brands.
More than two years after the Rana Plaza disaster, the Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund has reached its target of $30 million in compensation funds for injured workers and families of those killed.
