A horrific fire ripped through a building in Dhaka yesterday, killing at least 16 people. The building housed garment industry related facilities and a chemical unit.

Our thoughts are with all affected by the tragedy, especially the families who lost loved ones.

We are investigating the brand relations of these factories and we keep on fighting to ensure that all workers in supply chains work in safe factories, also if they are hidden further down the supply chain.
https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/accidents-fires/news/chemical-explosion-dhakas-rupnagar-claims-16-lives-4009601

Do you care about workers' rights? Do you want to show the world? We got a new set of pretty stickers to let people know you stand with garment workers.

Donate now to get these stickers to spread the word. Do you have a laptop/water bottle/note book screaming to share a message with the world? Or does the lantern pole outside look way too empty to you? We have the solution, donate now to get our stickers on cleanclothes.org/stickers

UK company NEXT announced yesterday that it will pay out 99 million pounds in dividends to shareholders. In the meantime it is closing its wholly owned and only organised factory in Sri Lanka as being... checks notes.. too expensive!?!

Union leader Anton Marcus says: "It's time for the NEXT Board to decide: is profit at all cost worth the reputational damage of broken promises & destroyed lives?"

Take action now: https://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=5696

ASICS has been standing by idly while one of its suppliers in Cambodia jailed a worker leader on fake charges and refused to compensate him or let him back to his original job.
The one promise they made in their recent statement: that the worker leader would return to its old workplace, was broken immediately.
Read more: https://cleanclothes.org/news/2025/asics-slammed-for-backing-factory-that-jailed-unionist-and-denies-basic-rights

This week Swiss luxury group Richemont held its shareholder meeting in Geneva. Members of our network – Public Eye and Campagna Abiti Puliti – together with the SUDD Cobas trade union asked the management to resolve the case of the 6 Pakistani workers that have been dismissed in the Montblanc supply chain in Florence and protested in front of the Hotel Intercontinental in Geneva where the AGM took place.
Read more: https://cleanclothes.org/news/2025/exploited-factory-workers-from-tuscany-protest-at-richemont-agm-in-geneva

Retaliation against labour rights defenders is going wild and major companies like ASICS and Honeys in Japan are condoning it.
Two examples from Cambodia and Myanmar: https://sourcingjournal.com/topics/labor/cambodia-myanmar-wing-star-asics-myo-aye-stum-honeys-1234776864/

On 19 May 2025, just days after announcing £1 billion in profit, UK garment company NEXT sent its workers in Sri Lanka a WhatsApp message informing them of the closure of its only unionised factory in Sri Lanka. This is a direct attack on one of the most significant worker victories in Sri Lanka’s garment sector because it was the ONLY garment factory with a Collective Bargaining Agreement & it directly challenged recent wage wins. Your solidarity is needed!
Take action: https://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=5696

Today marks 13 years since the deadly Ali Enterprises fire in a Pakistani garment factory. 250+ workers died in a factory that was certified as safe by social auditors mere weeks before. Today, we remember the tragedy of their deaths & the plight of their families. https://cleanclothes.org/news/2025/solidarity-with-survivors-and-a-call-on-brands-13-years-ali-enterprises-fire

After scandalously closing their wholly owned & only unionised factory in Sri Lanka & forcing workers to resign, Next now is stopping payments of 16 workers who refused to resign & therefore are still employed. In case one thought things couldn't get more outrageous: https://cleanclothes.org/news/2025/next-escalates-union-activity-in-sri-lanka-following-closure-of-own-factory

Nike has been denying justice to workers for many years, and their AGMs are regular moments to remember and bring it up.

The workers of the Violet Apparel factory, who made clothes for Nike when their factory suddenly closed in 2020 without paying their severance, are still fighting for justice. Nike even refuses to acknowledge these workers, who have ample proof, made its product.

Read their recent appeal to Nike here, sent on the five year anniversary of their case: https://cleanclothes.org/news/2025/nike-ignores-unpaid-workers-appeal-on-five-year-anniversary-of-factory-closure

Yesterday, Nike told its investors at its shareholder meeting about its profits, but left out how these were made over the backs of unpaid workers.
Kyaw San Oo is one of these workers: when in 2020 Nike’s Thai supplier forced workers to sign forms claiming they were “volunteering” for unpaid leave, he resisted. Most workers were threatened until they gave in. Kyaw San Oo stood up for his fellow workers. The factory reported him to the police, forcing him to flee abroad.
https://cleanclothes.org/news/2025/appeal-from-kyaw-san-oo-to-nike-and-the-fair-labor-association

ASICS seems to think it is OK to jail a worker just for starting a union and that it can get away with not compensating that worker for violating his basic rights without compensating him. To add insult to injury, he was not reinstated at his old workplace but is forced to work in an outbuilding, away from other workers. This is not OK!!!
Read more: https://cleanclothes.org/news/2025/asics-slammed-for-backing-factory-that-jailed-unionist-and-denies-basic-rights

Here's your reminder that there are 2 more days left in our Reebok week of action:
📧 Today, please e-mail the CEO with your thoughts about Reebok's IFA sponsorship
📱Tomorrow, it's time we all call Reebok out on social media
Action materials here: https://antisweatshopagainstapartheid.wordpress.com/reebok-action/

ASICS seems to think it's fine to jail a worker for 6 months just for organising. Chea Chan, a union leader at Wing Star Cambodia, is "back at work" - he's made to work in an outbuilding away from other workers. ASICS didn't compensate him for his plight & let this violation of basic rights persist.

One year ago, students & other protesters managed to oust the ruling leader Sheikh Hasina. We remember the many people who were killed in the movement for change by the ruthless repression. In the past year, labour activists and trade unionists played leading roles in providing the government with recommendations to improve workers’ and women’s rights in Bangladesh. We call on the government to head these recommendations and take the chance at hand to build a better Bangladesh.

📢 WEEK of ACTION! 📢⁠
⁠Earlier this year, Reebok signed a two-year deal with the Israel Football Association (IFA), which includes teams based in the illegal settlements in Palestine. Reebok subsequently became a target of the BDS Movement.⁠
Join us in our Global Week of Action by doing the following:⁠
- Reach out to Reebok’s customer service team⁠
- Email the CEO of Reebok’s parent company Authentic Brands⁠
- Flood Reebok’s social media ⁠
⁠Action guidelines: https://antisweatshopagainstapartheid.wordpress.com/reebok-action/

Together with other human rights organisations, we call on the Burmese authorities to surface and release Solidarity Trade Union of Myanmar (STUM) leader and human rights defender Myo Myo Aye and other STUM union members, including Myo Aye’s daughter, Chue Thwel, who were arbitrarily arrested and detained under unknown charges and without due process.
https://cleanclothes.org/news/2025/call-for-the-release-of-burmese-union-leader-myo-myo-aye-stum-activists

How are we all allowing that those who already have the least are again made to pay for shit happening elsewhere? The tariff war is no different from the pandemic or any other crisis, eventually the price is paid by workers instead of those with money and power.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/31/theres-no-work-now-just-debt-cambodian-garment-workers-face-precarious-future-as-us-tariffs-loom

No, luxury clothes aren't made under better working conditions!

Our colleague Debora Lucchetti from Italy explains in the Guardian: “Luxury is based on a production system founded on cost reduction, profit maximisation and opaque supply chains based on subcontracting, which often employ immigrant workers who have no protection and contracts.”

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025/jul/24/made-in-italy-is-the-label-just-another-luxury-fashion-illusion

The same brands that sponsor this year's UEFA women's football kits & are very vocal about women empowerment, profit from the exploitation of women in their supply chain. The former workers of the Hulu Garment factory in Cambodia, who made clothes for adidas, were tricked. They weren't told that below the payslips they were signing a resignation letter was hidden. The lost their jobs & never received the severance they should have gotten on dismissal.
TAKE ACTION NOW: cleanclothes.org/hulu