7 ways to help garment workers

Since the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh in 2013, the western world is now aware of the conditions in which our clothes are produced every day. Even years later, many journalists report that little has changed in the factories there. The Corona pandemic has only made conditions much worse and inequalities much greater. This made textile workers in Bangladesh and Cambodia more vulnerable than ever to poverty and hunger. Well-known fashion companies that had to close their shops due to the Corona measures simply cancelled their orders and no longer honoured contracts. This left the textile workers financially on their own from one day to the next, without any income. At the same time, the textile workers who were able to continue working were exposed to catastrophic hygiene conditions, without any protection against  Covid infection. 

How can we actually help the textile workers? 

The Guardian recently published 7 tips to help us finally improve the living and working conditions of textile workers, because now, 8 years after the collapse of Rana Plaza and in times of a pandemic, this is more important than ever. 

1. Put Pressure on the brands to #PayUp 

Organisations like the Clean Clothes Campaign, Labour behind the Label and Remake have been campaigning since the beginning of the Corona pandemic for fashion companies to pay for the goods they order. The Worker Rights Consortium has set up a tracker that shows us which companies have already paid for their orders and which have not. To put pressure on the companies that still refuse to pay for their orders, we can sign Remake's #PayUp-petition. Every time someone signs the petition, the companies that haven't paid yet get an email notification. 

2. Donate to Funds

80% of textile workers are women. These women are usually the sole provider and source of income for the whole family. If you donate about 23€ to The Circle's Women and Girls Solidarity Fund, a complete food package can be bought for the women and families. The Circle supports the women not only with food parcels, but also with face masks and soap to protect them from corona infection. 

3. Know your role 

Every purchase you make can have a positive or negative impact on the working conditions of garment workers. You can think of your receipt as a ballot paper that lets you decide who you support and who you don't support. To know how big the impact of our consumer behaviour is, we need to use the time we used to spend shopping at fast fashion brands to educate ourselves about the working conditions in the textile industry. You can start right now with our blogpost about the true cost of our fashion habits. 

"Only by slowing down will we send a very strong signal that we are not going on like we have for the last 20 years. Let's show them that the consumer doesn't want it." - Livia Firth, Eco-Age 

4. Hold brands accountable

In order to create a sustainable and long-term change in the entire textile industry, a structural change is necessary. Measures demanded in the past have, for the most part, still not been taken up and integrated today. The textile giants must take responsibility for this. 

5. Look even when it happens far away 

Abuse that happen right on our doorstep are usually recognised much more quickly, but we cannot close our eyes to the conditions that prevail on the other side of the globe. 

6. Use the correct terms

After the conditions in the textile factories in Leicester were exposed last year, the British Home Secretary Priti Patel called the circumstances "slavery". If we start to actually call the exploitation of textile workers slavery, we can better describe the scale of the deplorable situation. It will also make it clear to governments that they bear responsibility for the working conditions, too. 

7. Call for fairer laws

Of course, we as individuals cannot directly influence international law, but we can be a part of structural reforms with small steps. We can work for better laws for textile workers all over the world. 

Of course, this will not improve the situation of textile workers overnight, but if everyone contributes small steps, change is possible! True to the motto: "A little progress every day adds up to big results" - Satya Nani 

Source: 

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2020/jul/09/seven-ways-to-help-garment-workers