In apparel, textile, and footwear—a sector where workers will fare especially poorly— there are 50 million workers, many of them women who are their families’ primary wage earner. Very few of these workers have ever been paid enough to accumulate any savings. In fact, chronically low wages have left many in debt. This paper by the Workers Rights Consortium focuses on the apparel sector, as it will be among the most severely affected by the Covid-19 crisis; however, to a substantial extent, the points made herein apply across sectors.
After Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza, Covid-19 once again exposes the human cost of fast fashion
“On 11 March 2021 it will be one year since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic. And while almost every sector in every country on the planet has …