As an Ambassador of re/MAKE, a community of fashion lovers, women rights advocates, and environmentalists on a mission to change the industry’s harmful practices on people and our planet, I wanted to urge you to sign the #PAYUP petition. The #PayUp campaign formed in March 2020 out of the fashion industry’s catastrophic decision to refuse payment for completed clothing orders heading into the COVID-19 pandemic.
OUR CLOTHES SHOULDN’T COST HUMAN LIVES
Just over one year ago, the Covid 19 pandemic hit the world, setting off a series of seismic reactions within the global fashion industry supply chain. Brick and mortar stores selling apparel were forced to shut down to maintain social distancing; consumer purchases plummeted. Apparel brands and retailers responded by suspending or cancelling orders to their suppliers around the world.
To cut costs even more, dozens of global brands refused to pay for an estimated $40 billion worth of finished goods that garment workers had spent countless hours sewing, according to research by the Worker Rights Consortium and PennState Center for Global Workers’ Rights Director Mark Anner; they refused to pay for orders already shipped, completed, or in production. In addition, many brands demanded discounts from or delayed payments to their suppliers, and a handful of brands using “force majeure” contract clauses to refuse payment to garment factories has led to makers being sent home with no severance, savings, or access to healthcare during a global pandemic.
Factory owners scrambled to stay in business by firing, suspending workers, or reducing their pay; millions of garment workers were laid off globally without pay as a direct result of the cancellations, sending them into the gravest economic crisis of our lifetimes and exposing them to widespread hunger and fear of human trafficking and gender-based violence.
ONE YEAR LATER
One year later, the situation for garment workers has not improved. While brands are able to rake in multi-billion dollar profits each year, the garment makers who stitch their clothing exist on only a fraction of that profit, often living hand to mouth. For many of the women sewing for Gap, Primark, C&A, and other brands, a stop in payments will lead to food and housing insecurity within weeks.
“We’ve seen a 21% decline in garment worker wages across the globe while the top 20 best performing brands have seen an 11% increase in their market cap. None of the most profitable brands put in any money for garment workers’ severance or relief except on a “case-by-case basis,”
Ayesha Barenblat, CEO of Remake
For two decades, garment workers have been working with NGO allies like Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), United Students Against Sweatshops, and the Worker Rights Consortium to hold apparel brands accountable and support garment workers’ rights. When brands responded to the pandemic with massive retroactive cancellations of orders, U.S. consumer activist non-profit Remake spearheaded the demand that brands #PayUp the billions they owe, joined forces with CCC and other advocate groups, and a global movement was born.
Strengthened by the power of social media, the #PayUp campaign went viral over the summer of 2020, with citizens all around the world using the #PayUp hashtag and over 270,000 people signing the original #PayUp petition.
As of December of 2020, the #PayUp campaign, using relentless protesting and petitioning, and citizen and worker solidarity, has helped to recoup at least $15 billion (according to WRC/Mark Anner estimates) owed to garment factories worldwide from over a dozen major fashion companies, including Zara, Gap Inc. and Next. Without the help of #PayUp, it’s estimated that millions more workers would have lost their jobs without pay or any sort of social safety net. The campaign’s success is because of people like you who signed a petition, fired off a #PayUp tweet, or protested outside stores in solidarity with garment workers.
If you’ve been following the #PayUp petition, you’ll be glad to hear that brands are starting to feel the pressure. H&M, Kiabi, Zara, and others are promising to pay suppliers for in-production apparel orders that were paused or cancelled as a result of Covid-19, but there is still much more to be done.
there is still more to be done
Many brands, despite returning to profitability by the autumn of 2020, still refuse to #PayUp, and factories continue to underpay workers on a massive scale. In the months after the pandemic began, brands began to drastically cut the prices paid to factories, triggering a corresponding increase in hunger and food insecurity and an increase in union-busting and gender-based violence among garment workers.
The future of fashion must include social protection and safety nets for garment workers. Wages for garment workers must be high enough to establish savings, and all workers must have access to health care and educational services. To get there, the PayUp Fashion coalition formed to devise a platform for change, encapsulated in seven actions. Among the demands, they call for binding rather than voluntary agreements to oversee the fashion industry; legal and policy reform to reign in corporate power, share profits with workers, and hold brands accountable; living wages along the supply chain.
Post COVID-19, returning to business as usual is not an option. Our planet cannot sustain fashion’s hyper-growth and disposable consumption model at the cost of workers and our planet. It’s time for a new paradigm. The only future for the fashion industry is a sustainable, inclusive, and economically empowered one. These are not new or disputed goals. But they can no longer wait.
The most immediate way you can help is to sign the Petition on the home page at PayUpFashion.com, urge your friends and colleagues to sign, and share your support on social media.
This petition triggers an email to fashion executives and CEOs informing them of #PayUp Fashion’s 7 demands and the urgent need for reform.
Please continue to tag brands using the #PayUp hashtag on social media that need to #PayUp by referencing the Brand Tracker.
Keep an eye on the PayUp Fashion website for updates and new ways to get involved in the coming weeks and months.
Sign the Petition to hold brands accountable and build a fair future for garment workers.
Sign the PayUp Fashion Petition HERE. Let’s get as many signatures as possible as these signatures go directly to fashion CEOS and executives!
You can also help by donating to the Garment Worker Emergency fund. Let’s raise as much money as possible for garment workers worldwide – 100% of proceeds will be used to provide emergency food and medical relief to those in need!
Who is behind PayUp Fashion?
PayUp Fashion are a global coalition of garment workers, labour organizers, researchers and citizen activists, who believe that centering workers and our planet is the future of fashion. They work alongside other garment worker advocacy groups to meet shared goals. PayUp Fashion and website is led by Remake and Ayesha Barenblat, the founder of Remake; author and #PayUp organizer Elizabeth L. Cine, and garment workers organizers Ashila Niroshi, founder of Stand Up Lanka; Nazma Akter, founder of AWAJ Foundation.
PayUp Fashion was founded to galvanize citizen and worker action to make change; it is a non-hierarchical organization and anyone is invited to participate by signing the petition or supporting the campaign on social media.
what are the 7 Actions for garment workers?
Ending exploitation and starvation wages in fashion demands bold action, visionary new laws, strong brand accountability, and centering workers voices. PayUp Fashion has developed these 7 Actions with the input of garment workers and experts in labour, law, and grassroots organizing.
Action 1: #PayUp
Fashion brands and retailers must honor contracts with factories and #PayUp for all orders completed and in production or millions of garment makers will go hungry.
Action 2: Keep Workers Safe
Action 3: Go Transparent
Without transparency, raising standards and sustainability in fashion will remain illusive and human and labor rights abuses will persist under the cloak of darkness and secrecy. While some brands have moved towards publishing their supplier list, this is just a first step towards true transparency. Brands and retailers will not immediately commit to providing annual data on where their clothes are made, but will also reveal how much workers are paid and treated in an easily accessible and public format. #showme
Action 4: Give Workers Center Stage
There will be no more brand-led and brand-funded conversations about worker rights. Brands and retailers, along with all major coalitions, organizations, and conferences shaping the future of fashion must ensure at least 50% representation of women worker voices. #workersfirst
Action 5: Sign Enforceable Contracts
Unenforceable agreements and codes of conduct protect retailer and brand executives and shareholder interests while pushing risk onto already vulnerable workers. We need enforceable, legally-binding contracts that put #workersfirst and address the power imbalance in fashion that pushes financial risk onto suppliers and thus human rights and labor rights abuses onto workers.
Action 6: End Starvation Wages
Garment workers make rock-bottom wages and are on the brink of starvation and homelessness, while brands shore up millions for shareholders and executives. Studies confirm that brands cause poverty wages by paying low prices to factories. Companies must publicly commit to paying prices that lift workers out of poverty. #onedollarmore
Action 7: Help Pass Laws
A quarter-century of voluntary efforts to reform the fashion industry have been ineffective. Brands and retailers must support rather than thwart the work of citizens and government to reform corporate power, labor laws, and trade deals.
For more information about the impact these actions will have and the rationale for each commitment, visit the website at: The Problem | PayUpFashion or READ MORE below.
