Latest news with #garmentworkers
Forbes
a day ago
- Health
- Forbes
Heat Stress Is Fashion's Hidden Human Rights Crisis
A garment factory in SE Asia As global temperatures climb, the fashion industry finds itself at the epicenter of an unacknowledged humanitarian crisis. Heat stress which is the condition where the body cannot maintain a safe temperature due to prolonged exposure to high heat and humidity, is now one of the most dangerous and underreported threats facing garment workers. It can lead to dehydration, heatstroke, organ damage, and even death. While climate reports focus on emissions and decarbonization targets, workers across India, Turkey, and China are quietly enduring another brutal summer. When The Fashion Factory Floor Becomes the Frontline of Climate Impact In 2023 India experienced a searing heat wave, during which parts of the country reached more than 49°C (120°F). Turkey recorded its hottest summer ever in 2024, with temperatures exceeding 40 °C (104°F). Yet the industry's demands did not pause and factory lines moved on, orders were fulfilled, and deadlines met. The dominant logic of global supply chains is often referred to as the 'race to the bottom' and it pushes brands to seek the lowest costs, cascading pressure down to suppliers and ultimately to the workers. That pressure manifests not just in low wages or excessive hours, but in an unrelenting demand for productivity, even as factories become furnaces. When workers are expected to perform under conditions that cause dehydration, fainting, and long-term illness, it is not just discomfort, but a form of abuse. 'Heat isn't just a climate issue,' notes activist Nandita. 'It's a growing public health crisis, driven by fashion brands' relentless pursuit of profit at any cost.' The fashion industry's sustainability rhetoric has climate pledges and carbon neutrality claims and often fails to account for human cost. Research from Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union reveals that operational efficiency and cost-cutting practices have made conditions worse, not better, for the people at the bottom of the chain. These are not unfortunate side effects; they are unfortunately baked into the model. 'Most of my members can't even afford to buy a small fan during a heatwave,' says Thivya of TTCU. 'We've had workers faint on the shop floor during 43–45°C heat. Still, brands refuse to involve unions or listen to workers when designing solutions.' Sustainability Must Extend Beyond Emissions to Include People On Fashion Frontlines Workers, especially women in the Global South, are bearing the brunt of both climate breakdown and economic exploitation, yet their voices remain excluded from strategy meetings and ESG panels. Unions are dismissed as 'non-experts,' and the systems of accountability which include third-party audits, rarely engage them directly. 'Dear fashion executives and policy makers,' urges Dr. Hakan Karaosman, 'let's leave your air-conditioned offices and go to the factories... We cannot tackle heat stress with top-down interventions.' If climate action continues to ignore labor conditions, it is not just incomplete as garment workers are not just casualties of warming, they are a part of the warning system. Heat stress is an urgent reminder that climate resilience in the fashion industry must include the people who make its products. As global temperatures rise, protecting worker wellbeing can no longer be viewed as separate from environmental goals. Addressing heat stress through inclusive strategies and worker-informed solutions is not just a matter of ethics, but of long-term sustainability. A truly responsible industry is one that values both the planet and the people behind the clothes.
Arab News
13-07-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Asian garment industry braces for higher US tariffs
Dhaka/Phnom Penh: Across Asia, unions and industry groups are raising alarms over the impact of higher tariffs by the United States on garment workers. High tariffs might force companies to shut down or move to neighboring countries that offer lower tariff rates, resulting in a loss of jobs, they say. 'The potential loss of jobs will cut the income and ability for workers to sustain their daily lives,' said Ath Thorn, vice president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers' Democratic Union, which represents 80,000 workers across 40 factories. Several countries in Asia have gotten notice of new tariff rates imposed by the United States to take effect August 1, after a 90-day pause on tariffs came to an end. Manufacturing hubs such as Bangladesh and Cambodia will face high tariffs of 35 percent and 36 percent respectively, while neighboring countries are still negotiating with the US government. US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs through official letters posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on July 8. The US is the largest garment export destination for Bangladesh. The country's exports to the US totaled $8.4 billion last year and of that, garments comprised $7.34 billion. Also in 2024, Cambodia exported nearly $10 billion worth of goods to the US, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of the nation's total exports, according to government customs statistics. More than half of US imports from Cambodia were garments, footwear and travel goods such as luggage and handbags, a sector that makes up nearly half of the country's export revenue and employs more than 900,000 workers. Unions and industry groups warn that these workers could be hit hard with job losses if the high tariffs force companies to move to countries under lower tariff rates or shut down altogether. While Cambodia is looking at a tariff rate reduction from 49 percent in April, anxiety permeates its garment industry, which employs hundreds of thousands of people and is one of the developing nation's key economic pillars. Meanwhile, the US and Vietnam have struck a trade agreement that set 20 percent tariffs on Vietnamese goods. With a neighbor next door with a significantly lower tariff, many companies may choose to leave Cambodia, said Yang Sophorn, president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions, which represents thousands of women who support their families as garment workers. The fear is echoed by experts in Bangladesh, which faces a 35 percent tariff. Selim Raihan, a professor of economics at the Dhaka University, said if tariff rates on Bangladesh's competitors like India, Indonesia and Vietnam prove to be lower, Bangladesh would face a serious competitive disadvantage. Such a disadvantage could make supply chain decision-making more difficult and erode the confidence of buyers and investors, Raihan said. 'As production costs rise and profit margins shrink due to the tariff, many garment factories may be forced to scale back operations or shut down entirely,' Raihan said. In Bangladesh, the 35 percent tariff announced by the US is more than twice the current 15 percent rate on Bangladeshi goods. 'With more than doubling tariff rates, can you imagine how the cost of the products will rise?' asked Mohiuddun Rubel, a former director of Bangladesh's garment manufacturers' association BGMEA and now additional managing director at textile maker Denim Expert Ltd. The question is what happens to the tariffs for main competitor countries like India and Pakistan, said Rubel. The US is negotiating a trade deal with India, while reciprocal tariff rates for Pakistan have not been announced yet. OUTSIZED EFFECT ON WOMEN Potential layoffs within the garment industry will have an outsized effect on women workers, which Sophorn said would cripple entire families. 'If these women lose their jobs because high tariffs force factories to shut, it will not only impact Cambodia's economy, but now children may not be able to go to school and aging parents may not be able to afford medicine,' Sophorn said. 'The situation for women garment workers is already bad, but it will get worse if these tariffs were to come into effect.' Many of the women she represents have taken bank loans to support their families and work in the garment industry to pay off their debts. 'If they lose their job, it means they will lose everything,' Sophorn said. Tariffs would directly affect a sizable chunk of the four million workers in Bangladesh's garment industry, most of whom are women from low income and rural backgrounds, Raihan said. Thorn suggested Cambodia continue negotiations to get the tariffs down or find other ways to export more products, generate more income and create more work. 'If not, we will face problems,' he said.
Arab News
08-07-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Cambodian garment workers fret Trump's new tariff threat
PHNOM PENH: As Cambodian garment workers took breaks from toiling in sweltering factories on Tuesday, they feared for their jobs after US President Donald Trump's threat to impose a 36 percent tariff.'I beg the US to reduce the tariff for the sake of workers in Cambodia,' 38-year-old Im Sothearin told AFP as she rested from her work in an underwear factory in the capital Phnom Penh.'If they charge a high tariff, it is only workers who are going to suffer,' said the mother-of-three who earns only $300 a month.'Factories might be closed or workers will have their wages lowered, or be forced to work faster.'Cambodia — a major manufacturer of low-cost clothing for Western brands — was among the nations hardest hit by Trump's 'Liberation Day' blitz of tariff threats in US president originally outlined a 49-percent rate if Cambodia failed to broker a deal with Washington. On Monday, he lowered it to 36 percent and extended the negotiation deadline to August the levy is lower than the original eye-watering figure, it has done little to allay anxieties.'If the tariff is that high, companies won't have money to pay,' 28-year-old pregnant worker Sreymom, who goes by only one name, told AFP as she bought fruit on her lunch break.'I am worried that we won't have jobs to do,' the 11-year veteran of the factory floor said. 'I want the tariff to be reduced more.'Cambodia's chief negotiator in talks with Washington called the reduction in the proposed rate — announced in a letter among more than a dozen Trump despatched to trade partners — a 'huge victory.''We are so successful in negotiations,' Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol told reporters in Phnom Penh. 'We still have a chance to negotiate further to reduce the tariff rate more.'But back in April commerce ministry spokesman Penn Sovicheat told AFP that harsh US tariffs on his country were 'not reasonable.'Cambodia said it had about $10 billion in exports to the United States last year, mainly garment nation has been paying a 10-percent standby rate as negotiators rush to make a factories in Cambodia are Chinese-owned. The White House previously accused the kingdom of allowing Chinese goods to stop over on the way to US markets, thereby skirting steeper rates imposed on Mom has had a two-decade career in the garment industry. But she frets it may be ended if Cambodia fails to soften the blow threatened by the United States.'I fear that the high tariff will affect factories and will result in fewer jobs for workers,' said the 47-year-old.'Then we will have low wages and will not be able to support our families.'
