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Workers’ rights in globalised industry – how can we protect them?
Over the summer the Morning Star reported on a new study showing that major fashion brands were complicit in union-busting by Third World suppliers in the garment industry. Editor Ben Chacko spoke to IndustriALL general secretary VALTER SANCHES to find out what trade unions can do to tackle abuses stretching across international supply chains

THE Covid-19 crisis and the lockdowns imposed as a result hit the garment industry hard, causing order cancellations and job losses in producer countries.

What can trade unions do to press brands to shield suppliers from the risk of a sudden loss of income that they pass onto their workers?
 
“This problem emerged early in the pandemic. In April many brands endorsed a call to action, a tripartite initiative led by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with a commitment by brands to pay for finished goods and goods in production.

“Brands that haven’t endorsed the call should be pressed to do so,” Sanches says.

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