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Amazon must pay ALL its workers

Amazon must pay ALL its workers

by | Nov 22, 2021 | Blog, Take Action

Black Friday week 2021 is here. Amazon, one of the huge pandemic profit winners, is set to make billions this week. All the while workers in its supply chain are facing wage theft, union busting and job insecurity as the most vulnerable shoulder the cost of the pandemic.

Can you act?

Send a tweet to Amazon now to demand that they pay workers at Hulu Garment in Cambodia the $3.6 million that they are owed, and that they take action to stop wage theft and union busting in their supply chain, and ensure that the most vulernable never again are left to pay for the cost of supply chain disruption.

TWEET AMAZON

What happened?

Amazon supplier Hulu Garment in Cambodia scammed their entire workforce out of $3.6 million in legally owed severance, and we think Amazon should pay it back. 1020 workers were suspended in March 2020 and then called in to sign a document with their thumb print to get their final wage packet. However, workers were tricked by management – hidden under each paperclipped payslip was text saying that they agreed to voluntary resignation. This allowed Hulu to avoid paying $3.6 miliion in severance pay to workers who were left jobless, robbed and denied their rights. Stories like this occur across Amazon’s supply chain, showing what happens when supply chains are disrupted and the most vulnerable are made to pay the price. 

Amazon can afford to pay

Brands raked in $9 billion in profits on Black Friday last year and Amazon took 24% of that revenue. Amazon is the most powerful corporation in the world. Its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, is the richest man on the planet. Amazon’s wealth has increased so much during the pandemic, that it could afford to pay each of their 1.3 million direct employees a $690,000 COVID bonus and still be as rich as they were at the start of 2020.  

Amazon’s power and wealth depends entirely on the labour of hundreds of thousands of workers around the world. Workers, not Bezos, make Amazon’s world run. In return, Amazon workers everywhere face abuse and exploitation. This must end. Together with Amazon workers all over the world we will call for Amazon to #RespectLabourRights & #PayYourWorkers! Brands have underpaid workers for decades leaving them no financial security. Unlike brands worth billions, the women making Amazon’s clothes are the least able to pay the price for the pandemic. It would cost just 10 cents per t-shirt to ensure workers are paid. We know they can afford it!

Amazon – Pay Your Workers

On Black Friday and Cyber Monday we are joining the #MakeAmazonPay coalition who will launch a global strike of Amazon workers on Black Friday to call on Amazon to #PayYourWorkers! Amazon must pay the $3.6 million in legally owed severance to the 1020 Hulu garment workers, which they have been waiting for since they lost their jobs in April 2020. 

Tell M&S, Next, Matalan and Primark to protect progress on factory safety

Tell M&S, Next, Matalan and Primark to protect progress on factory safety

by | Aug 4, 2021 | Blog, Take Action

This action is now closed.  Thank you to everyone who tweeted M&S, Next, Matalan and Primark, telling them to protect progress.  On the 25th August 2021, apparel brands and workers unions  announced the new International Accord for Health and Safety in the  Textile and Garment Industry.  We can now confirm that over 500 tweets were sent as part of this action, and all four brands targeted have now committed to the new agreement.

Your pressure helped to receive this outcome- thank you for your solidarity!

The Bangladesh Accord has made over 1600 factories safer for two million workers. But this progress is in risk. We need your help to tell brands to commit to factory safety. 

 

The Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013, is the worst industrial disaster the garment industry has ever seen. Workers were forced to enter a factory that they knew was unsafe, as managers threatened to withhold their wages. At least 1,134 people died and thousands more were injured.

The tragedy of Rana Plaza was entirely preventable, and brands have the power to ensure that tragedies like this are prevented in the future.

After the collapse, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh was created. Over 200 brands signed a contract to commit to improving workplace safety in Bangladesh. Under this contract brands could be sued in court by unions if they break their promises. This programme has made over 1600 factories safer for two million workers.

Tell brands to protect progress

 

Eight years on, brands no longer want to be held legally accountable for keeping their workers safe. The Clean Clothes Campaign has released a new tracker showing which brands are willing to sign a new binding agreement ensuring workers can feel safe in their factories, and which brands have the power to make a difference but have failed to do so

We don’t believe that brands will keep their promises if they can’t be brought to court individually, as their audits and empty promises failed to prevent Rana Plaza before. Let’s send them a message now to tell that a safety programme is only meaningful if it is binding. 

Got a minute? Tweet the brands by clicking on this button below!

Tweet ALL the Brands

Got another minute? Tweet all the brands individually by clicking on the buttons below!

Tweet Next
Tweet Matalan
Tweet M&S
Tweet Primark
Tell Next to respect garment workers’ rights

Tell Next to respect garment workers’ rights

by | Feb 25, 2021 | Blog, Take Action

Campaign Closed

This campaign is now closed. Over 1000 of you emailed Lord Wolfson, Next’s chief executive, asking him to formally recognise and engage with the trade union. 

After months of fighting for Next to formally recognise the FTZ & GSEU Trade Union within the Next Manufacturing Ltd (NML) factory, workers from the NML factory in Sri Lanka have finally secured victory! You can read the full update here.

What happened?

In January 2021, following a successful action to win back unpaid bonuses, workers at a factory owned by Next formed a new branch of the FTZ&GSEU trade union. Workers reported intimidation, threats and discrimination, but stood firm and until nearly half the workers were members.

Despite multiple requests from us and War on Want, Next did not recognise and engage with the workers’ trade union.

Next’s failure to recognise and engage with the trade union was a flagrant display of disrespect for their workers’ rights. Next fell below its own published principles for workers’ rights and they should be accountable for this.

Workers can improve conditions through collective action!

In December 2020, before the trade union branch was set up, the workers walked out over unpaid bonuses – money workers rely on as their poverty wages are not enough to survive on. As a result of this collective action, Next agreed to pay up.

Worker’s must be able to form unions in order to negotiate with their employers. It is essential in the fight for better working conditions for garment workers that Next formally recognises and engages with the workers’ union, respecting and not undermining their right to collective bargaining through a trade union they have freely chosen to join.

Boohoo: Pay back your workers and go transparent

Boohoo: Pay back your workers and go transparent

by | Nov 25, 2020 | Blog, Living wage, Take Action

This campaign is now closed. We launched the campaign on Black Friday 2020-  a national day of shopping frenzy when cheap mark ups see hundreds of thousands of shoppers drawn to buy. Over 1400 of you signed a petition, calling on Boohoo to pay their workers back for their unpaid wages, and get them to publish where their factories are.

Boohoo have published a list of their UK suppliers, but not yet signed up to the Transparency Pledge. They have promised full list in September so we will let you know if this happens, and if the list meets transparency requirements. We are continuing to lobby them behind the scenes to sign the Pledge.

You can still read more about the campaign, and our demands for Boohoo below.

Boohoo’s £3.50/hr workers are owed millions in back pay

Boohoo workers are having their wages stolen from them. Workers in Leicester are owed million of pounds in back pay after years of £3.50/hr work, which has established itself as a norm in the Leicester industry. This illegal exploitation has led to mass profits for Boohoo who have used the cheap manufacturing to build their business into a multi-million-pound profit engine.

Boohoo’s profits have soared in the pandemic, despite media exposes on poor factory conditions. Profits in the first half of 2020 rose by 51%, as Boohoo made £68.1m in profits in the six months to 31 August. Meanwhile, many other high street brands saw huge losses. The question we are made to ask when faced with these figures is was this margin made on the back of illegal work and who is being made to pay? 

Boohoo must #GoTransparent

For years Boohoo have refused to say where their clothes are made yet anecdotally, we know that Boohoo source upwards of 70% of the product coming out of Leicester factories. Repeated studies have shown that clothes made in Leicester are made by workers on illegally low wages, working hugely long hours, paid through false pay slips and double records. During the pandemic, undercover investigations found furlough fraud, workers forced to come into factories even when ill, cramped and unsafe conditions, as well as £3.50/hr pay. All the while, Boohoo’s one inhouse auditor responsible for checking factory conditions was put on furlough… Boohoo must be honest about where its clothes are made and publish a supplier list without delay. This is the first step to change.

What do we want Boohoo to do?

If Boohoo is actually committed to addressing issues in its supply chain as they say, it needs to make sure that it is honest about the impact it has had on workers who have been making its clothes. Workers must be paid back in full for the wage gap between what they have been paid and the minimum wage, and boohoo must immediately publish a list of its factories to put on record the places where its clothes have been made and are being made now. 

We are calling on Boohoo to Boohoo to:
1. Commit to ensure workers who have made their clothes receive at least the minimum wage for the work they have done.
2. Halt any practices of cutting and running from suppliers unless all worker concerns and backpay issues have been first remediated
3. Give union access at all their suppliers going forwards to improve worker representation and monitoring of conditions
4. Publish their supplier list and sign the transparency pledge now, without delay.
5. Sign the wage assurance statement to show a commitment to paying your workers and improving social security going forward.

 

Further reading

PRIMARK: Have you paid your workers?

by | Nov 9, 2020 | Blog, Take Action

Has Primark paid its workers?

This petition is now closed.

End date: May 27, 2021

Signatures collected: 3431

3,431 signatures

This campaign is now closed. We launched the campaign because Primark was quick to cancel all of their orders already placed with factories when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. The cancelled orders had a devastating effect, leaving suppliers with a shortfall in cash and resulting in workers going without their wages. After intense pressure from campaigners, Primark eventually agreed to pay for their orders- but the impact of withholding payments for orders still had a devastating impact on workers wages.

Nearly 3500 of you signed this  petition. We continue to lobby Primark behind the scenes to sign on to an enforceable binding agreement on wages and severance, and will update you on any progress. You can still read more about the campaign below.

 

All words, no action?

In April, after extensive campaigning from Labour Behind the Label and our partners on order cancellations, Primark announced that it had created a fund to help pay the wages of workers linked to orders that were due for shipment in the month after they were cancelled in 7 countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

However, Primark has not shared how they ensured that the money reached workers, what measures were taken in other countries in which Primark produces,  how the brand calculated how much it had to pay and if all workers have been paid in full. The brand also stipulated that the wage compensation would be adjusted to account for government support packages, a caveat that has caused confusion among suppliers and industry bodies. Despite the lack of transparency, Primark claims that the program has been implemented successfully.

What do we want Primark to do?

Primark has a duty to protect all the workers in its supply chain, and to make sure that they are paid their wages. Primark also has a duty to provide the facts to support their claims of successful wage payment. Primark has had strong post-lockdown trading, it must now assure us that their profits have not been made off the back of unpaid labour.

We are calling on Primark to publish on their website, their commitment to ensure that all workers in their supply chain are paid their legally mandated or regular wages and benefits, whichever is higher. This includes wage arrears (back pay) and, where applicable, negotiated severance pay.  

If Primark truly believes that their wage fund has been implemented successfully, they should have no problem guaranteeing that all their workers will be paid throughout the pandemic and beyond.