In the midst of all the craziness surrounding COVID19, you have probably received emails and scrolled past Instagram updates from all of your favorite brands outlining the steps they are taking to take care of their employees. For many companies this includes working from home or paid catastrophe leave. But when they refer to their “employees” whom do they mean? Likely those working in corporate as well as their retail associates. But what about the garment workers in their supply chain?
They aren’t so lucky.
Since most big fashion brands outsource their manufacturing to other factories, they do not consider those who collect raw materials, weave fabric, or cut and sew the pieces together as their employees. Which seems pretty silly when you consider these brands would have nothing to sell without those workers.
Many brands are ceasing new production since demand for non-necessities like new clothing has gone down as society enters survival-mode. This puts garment workers out of work with no safety net. The low wages they receive from the factories offer them no ability to save for times like this and the factories they work at as well as the nations they are working in offer little to no support in such cases. And since they are considered non-employees by the brand whose tags they are stitching on, they can’t rely on them either.
All of this is pretty crummy news. But it brings up an important issue, one that will extend long past the end of corona chaos. The events brought about by the virus show us that when fast fashion brands suffer, those in their supply chain suffer too. This is why boycotts alone can never be the complete answer to fixing the fashion industry. I talk a lot on this blog about choosing used, which I will still always advocate for. But there are other, important ways to fight this problem.
If there is a brand you love, send them an email or comment (publicly) on their social media posts. Ask them to tell you about the working conditions in their supply chain. Tell them you love their designs, but can only continue to support them if they are treating their workers and the planet fairly. This kind of advocacy is an idea I was introduced to by Fashion Revolution, a non-profit which advocates for greater transparency and ethical accountability in the fashion industry. They coined the hashtag #whomademyclothes which is used to callout brands and ask them how they honor their garment workers.
If brands feel the pressure from their loyal customers to shape up their act, they will be more likely to take steps towards greater ethics and sustainability. If we all ask #whomademyclothes this weekend, and we tell our friends to do the same, we can make an impact.
To learn more about how COVID19 is affecting garment workers, check out this article from Quartz and this one from Clean Clothes
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