Latest editorial
GARMENT factories supplying some of the biggest names in fashion are using Covid-19 as an excuse to smash trade unions, a new report has revealed.
The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre found that more than 4,870 unionised garment workers had been dismissed by nine factories supplying nine major fashion brands including H&M, Primark and Levi Strauss & Co.
While major brands have blamed mass layoffs on falling sales due to coronavirus-related lockdowns, the centre found that “layoffs disproportionately target unionised workers and labour activists, suggesting that apparel factories are using the pandemic as a cover to attack workers’ freedom of association.”
The biggest strike in global history is a template for our future. The silence tells you all you need to know, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE
Organised workers at the notoriously anti-union global giant are scoring victory after victory, and now international bodies are pitching in to finally force this figurehead of corporate capitalism to give in to unionisation, writes EMILIO AVELAR
Labour’s watered-down legislation won’t protect us from unfair dismissal or ban some zero-hours contracts until 2027 — leaving millions of young people vulnerable to the populist right’s appeal, warns TUC young workers chair FRASER MCGUIRE
The Bill addresses some exploitation but leaves trade unions heavily regulated, most workers without collective bargaining coverage, and fails to tackle the balance of power that enables constant mutation of bad practice, write KEITH EWING and LORD JOHN HENDY KC