On May 31, 2018, the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly ratified the Special Law for the Regulation and Installation of Nurseries for Workers’ Children. During an August 2018 roundtable, management representatives from Salvadoran maquila factories requested more detailed analysis on the implications of the new law for employers. In response, the Coalition for Decent Work for Women (CEDM) and the Americas Group (AG) contracted Ena Nuñez, an independent legal consultant and expert on labour issues, to prepare this document.

On April 8, the Canadian government announced the appointment of the long-awaited Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), but failed to live up to its commitment to grant the position the necessary independence and power to investigate abuses and redress harm caused by Canadian mining, oil and gas, and garment companies operating abroad. Several human rights, union, labour, international development and faith organizations have voiced their dismay over the announcement.

On March 16, Sandra Ramos, leader of the Maria Elena Cuadra Movement of Working and Unemployed Women (MEC), was arbitrarily detained along with more than 100 other participants in a peaceful demonstration demanding the release of all political prisoners in Nicaragua, as a condition for a resumption of negotiations for a resolution to the conflict in the country. After eight hours in custody, she and the other detainees were released.

Three years after worker rights violations were first reported by labour rights advocates to Gap and other brand buyers, their Morelos-based supplier closed the factory rather than reinstate workers fired who had been attempting to form an independent union. The last remaining workers were dismissed in December 2018. 

Author: Industriall, UNI, CCC, ILRF, MSN, WRC

The Bangladesh government is using proceedings before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh to prevent the Accord on Fire and Building Safety from operating, thereby putting workers’ safety at risk.

On November 30, a restraining order placed on the Transition Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh is set to come into effect pending the outcome of an appeal submitted by the Accord last week. If the Bangladeshi High Court does not grant the appeal, the groundbreaking multi-stakeholder factory inspection body will have to leave Bangladesh.

Inditex (owner of Zara) has become the first major apparel brand to respond positively to a joint request from the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), International Labor Rights Forum, and Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) to publicly support Bangladeshi garment workers’ demands for a significant increase in the country’s minimum wage.

Today marks the five-year anniversary of the tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza building that took the lives of 1,134 garment workers and seriously injured over 2,500. It is now widely known that workers who reported for work that morning did not want to enter the building because they knew it was unsafe were told by managers that they had to go to work in order to meet order deadlines of the international brands.

Global Unions IndustriALL and UNI have reached an historic US$2.3 million settlement in an arbitration case against an international brand for failing to meet its health and safety obligations under the legally binding Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety.

The brand, whose name was not disclosed under the terms of the settlement, will pay $2 million to fix safety hazards in over 200 Bangladeshi supplier factories and contribute $300,000 to a Supply Chain Worker Support Fund managed by the two Global Unions.

Tell Nygard, M&S, Bonmarché to provide just compensation to abandoned Cambodian workers who made their clothes. Join the Clean Clothes Campaign’s Global Days of Action to end Wage Theft.

Over the past year, MSN has been working with coalitions of women’s and trade union organizations in El Salvador and Honduras on the right of working parents in the maquila sector to access quality affordable childcare for.

As part of that effort, MSN has been facilitating dialogue on the issue between the local organizations and international brands that are part of the multi-stakeholder Americas Group and whose products are made in one or both countries.