We need the Direct Relief for Garment Workers fund
Despite #PayUp recouping over $22 billion owed to garment factories worldwide from over a dozen major fashion companies, the amount of garment makers who face hunger and food insecurity are continuing to increase at an alarming rate worldwide. In most garment-producing countries, the government cannot provide enough unemployment insurance or relief to workers. They are starving as a result. The solution? Funds. But, although the answer appears simple, many brands are refusing to pay up. Brands like URBN Group, TJX, Walmart, and Victoria’s Secret have still made no commitment to #PayUp for orders placed before the pandemic forcing suppliers to lay off workers without a safety net. Others who have committed to #PayUp AND have turned a profit during the pandemic - such as Adidas, H&M, Under Armour, Uniqlo, Amazon, Lululemon, Primark, Asos, Gap, Zara, Nike, and Levi’s - have not stepped up to ensure that the workers who make their clothes are cared for. Now, Remake are demanding them to #ShareYourProfits.
Because time is of the essence when it comes to ensuring food and safety for garment workers, Remake has created the Direct Relief for Garment Workers fund, with 100% of proceeds going towards emergency food and medical relief through three organizations that provide direct relief - in Sri Lanka (Stand Up Movement Lanka), Bangladesh (AWAJ Foundation), and Los Angeles (Garment Worker Center). More organizations will be added in the next few weeks. “Garment workers were robbed of at least $3 billion dollars in wages and severance during the pandemic,” says author Elizabeth L Cline, who is working on the project with Remake Founder Ayesha Barenblatt. “Millions of garment workers globally have lost their jobs. More than two-thirds of garment workers in nine nations, including the United States, are now facing hunger or someone in their family has gone hungry since the start of the pandemic.” PayUp Fashion and Remake are focusing on direct relief for garment workers “because large brands and the international community have completely failed these women who make our clothes and who make fashion profitable during the biggest economic and humanitarian crisis of our lifetimes,.”
“While there were huge, splashy promises made at the beginning of the pandemic by the International Labor Organization and the fashion industry to gather funds for direct relief for workers, those efforts have unraveled and mostly gone nowhere,” she continues. “It’s estimated that the amount of direct relief needed for garment workers globally is somewhere in the billions of dollars, and yet the ILO Call to Action (the industry’s lead effort to get money to workers) has only scratched together about $150 million for workers in just four countries. What’s more, we know from corresponding with brands that most major brands have pitched in little to none of their own money for direct relief for garment workers.”
Last year, PayUp Fashion raised over $40k for garment workers through various crowdfunding campaigns so we’re hoping we can do that again - but on a larger scale! Through this fundraising effort, they’re calling on citizens to do what brands are refusing to do: Support garment workers. Those who can’t contribute to this fundraising campaign can still support the cause by signing the PayUp Fashion petition. Each time the petition is signed, over 250 executives from 40 brands receive an email stating that their brand has been petitioned. At the same time, Remake are providing brands with a PayUp Fashion-approved list of direct relief orgs serving garment workers and asking them to get funds to garment workers as soon as possible. “The ethical fashion community stands by fashion’s essential workers even when brands and the international community will not,” says Cline.
How do we make sure that garment workers are never left so vulnerable again? “PayUp Fashion is convening the many exciting systemic reform ideas emerging in 2021, including changes to contracts that support garment worker rights, new national laws that strengthen corporate governance and accountability for their supply chains, environmental and human rights regulation, and binding commitments between brands, unions and factories,” says Cline. “This might sound a bit overwhelming and there’s not much public-facing information about these efforts just yet, but there will be soon. PayUp Fashion promises to keep our community informed of systemic changes and campaigns to support them. Grassroots pressure is absolutely necessary to reform the industry, so be ready for a big year! Big changes are afoot and we’ll need the ethical fashion community’s power to make them happen.”
Donate to Direct Relief for Garment Workers here
