Eco Warrior Princess covers the devastating decision made by global apparel brands to cancel orders and refuse payment to their garment factories for completed goods worth $40 billion at the start of the pandemic. Currently, at the time of writing, 19 brands on the list haven’t committed to paying their orders, including Arcadia (Topshop), JCPenney, Kohl’s, Mothercare, Sears, the Children’s Place, Urban Outfitters, and Walmart [You can see the full list on our Brand Tracker].
These cancelled clothing orders during coronavirus are considered one of the largest acts of corporate theft in history. The #PayUp campaign organized in March of 2020 to get the factories and workers paid back and to hold the brands accountable using public pressure, as the story explains, featuring the work of PayUp Fashion co-founder Remake, one of the non-profits that spearheaded the #PayUp campaign [Backstory of #PayUp].
As writer Polly Cunanan explains, “Acting on reports from suppliers and garment workers, Remake, together with the Worker Rights Consortium and Business & Human Rights Resource Center, keep a list of fashion companies who have unpaid orders from their suppliers. They monitor the response of these brands, the actions taken by government, and the workers’ demands in line with the impact of the pandemic on the fashion industry. Once the brands being petitioned to PayUp have promised to settle their payments for their orders in full and in a timely manner, then they are removed from the list.”
The story also features PayUp Fashion Partnering Organization AWAJ Foundation and PayUp Fashion co-author Nazma Akter, who says, “Many brands are most focused on profit and how to cut costs and therefore prioritize consumers and their products over women workers and how they are disproportionately affected by the injustices in their supply chain… While they provide charity efforts, they shirk their responsibilities to ensure basic rights for workers. Alongside the dire need for living wages, we want justice, freedom of association, an end to gender based violence and equal pay for equal work.”
“Many brands are most focused on profit and how to cut costs and therefore prioritize consumers and their products over women workers.”
Nazma Akter, PayUp Fashion co-author and director of AWAJ Foundation
You can read the full story here.
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