by Tula Connell | Apr 23, 2019 | Asia, Bangladesh, Global Supply Chains, Safety & Health, Workers & Human Rights
Six years ago, the preventable Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 garment workers in the world’s worst garment industry disaster. Corporate greed, inadequate labor and building code enforcement, and worker exploitation all contributed to the April 24,...
by Tula Connell | Apr 17, 2019 | Asia, Bangladesh, Freedom to Form Unions, Global Supply Chains, Safety & Health, Workers & Human Rights
On a recent Friday, the only day off for Bangladesh garment workers—if they get a day off—I went to visit workers at their homes to better understand how the people who stitch our clothes live their lives. Walking through the puzzling narrow alleys, I entered a tin...
by Carolyn Butler | Mar 8, 2019 | Europe & Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, Safety & Health
An independent,12-month monitoring program by a coalition of worker rights advocates in Kyrgyzstan found that the lives and safety of working people are at significantly higher risk than official data indicates—requiring urgent changes to the country’s occupational...
by Tula Connell | Mar 1, 2019 | Americas, Colombia, Global Supply Chains, Safety & Health, Workers & Human Rights
Some 750 palm workers at Colombia’s largest plantation yesterday signed a landmark agreement with their employer, Indupalma, culminating a years-long effort in which many workers risked their lives to achieve decent wages and safe working conditions. The workers...
by Tula Connell | Feb 14, 2019 | Asia, Bangladesh, Freedom to Form Unions, Safety & Health, Workers & Human Rights
Tens of thousands of Bangladesh garment workers waged weeks-long strikes in December and January to protest low wages and unequal pay increases—and now workers say factory employers are using the walkouts to further repress their efforts to form unions and...
by Tula Connell | Dec 13, 2018 | Asia, Bangladesh, Freedom to Form Unions, Safety & Health, Workers & Human Rights
More than five years after the Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashion disasters killed more than a thousand garment workers and injured many more, workers in ready-made garment factories in Bangladesh still struggle to make ends meet. And even now, garment workers often are...