H&M'S Explosion Of Sweatshops To Improve Bad Conditions

H&M, a fast fashion giant in Sweden, has been promoting the recycling of old clothes at a certain time every year to promote environmental protection in apparel production and supply chain, but investigators who know their supply chain point out that

No commitment has been made 3 years ago to put forward measures to improve labourers' bad conditions of production.

A labor representative pointed out that in today's environmental protection and sustainable development is becoming more and more important today, H&M publicized green environmental public welfare on the surface. In fact, it controls the cost by illegally squeezing labor. If the brand wants to achieve sustainable development, it must first put the promise of the public and the workers into practice. Only with practical actions and achievements can consumers continue to believe the brand and believe in the promise.

H&M has 80% of its garments from Asia, and 69 garment factories in Bangladesh, Kampuchea and Mainland China.

The Asian wage Union, led by the trade union of major clothing producers in Asia, has recently released a new research report by interviewing 251 people who work in the H&M supply chain with the labor union and other organizations. The report reveals that the production conditions of H&M in factories in India and Kampuchea are poor and the rights and interests of workers are not guaranteed.

In November 2012, 121 people were killed in the blaze of the blaze in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In April of next year, a 8 storey building collapsed on the outskirts of the capital, causing many people to be buried. The death toll was more than 1000. The poor working environment and poor clothing industry workers could not maintain their daily life. The labor rights of fast fashion clothes were once again greatly concerned.

Last December, 6000 garment workers organized protests in Phnom Penh to infringe on labor rights and interests in the global supply chain with H&M.

With the support of the Democratic Union of Kampuchea clothing workers, Kampuchea workers hope to find fair wages and working conditions.

In India, workers in six factories that produce clothes for fast fashion also protest against H&M's violation of their rights.

In May 4th this year, these protests continued to spread to H&M stores in 11 cities around the world. Workers and allies from different locations of the global garment production network called on brands such as H&M not to dissolve unions and resist changes in labour laws. They should maintain minimum wage and promote flexible employment relations to ensure their right to minimum wage.

H&M operates 3900 stores in 61 markets around the world, including 900.

A total of 1900 factories have partnerships and have more than 116 thousand employees in the global production network.

Due to the global upgrading of sales in 2015, H&M plans to add 425 stores in 2016.

H&M has promised to work hard to ensure workers' basic living wage, provide safe workplace, and be responsible for the violation of labor in their supply chain.

In 2013, Helena Helmersson, director of global sustainable development at H&M, issued a statement that measures would be taken to protect the rights and interests of workers.

But over the past 3 years, the commitment of producers to H&M remains questionable.

Athit Kong, vice-chairman of the Kampuchea clothing workers union of democratic trade unions, explained: "H&M's public relations show is not reliable for workers struggling to support their families every day, and a so-called sustainable production mode that is completely put forward and controlled by H&M company, but not based on respect for labor groups and trade unions, is a result that will never change materially for H&M production workers.

On the contrary, it is just a public relations act to cover up systemic abuse.

In recent years, the progress of H&M in undertaking the protection of labor rights has been the focus of attention of the alliance of human rights organizations and the Clean Clothes Campaign, Human Rights Watch.

Although H&M responded positively to these criticisms and provided detailed documents to deal with the abuses of human rights in the supply chain, the latest reports provided interviews with 251 workers in Kampuchea and India suppliers in H&M showed that H&M still failed to commit itself and blatantly violated international labour standards. It was pointed out that H&M should continue to maintain its commitment to dignity labor.

In fact, the employment of illegal labor force by fashion brands to control costs is a common phenomenon in the industry. It can also be regarded as an open secret.

This situation exists not only in these fast fashion brands such as ZARA, H&M and Gap, but also Prada, Chanel and

A secret supply chain has also been broken out. What's more sad is that after advocating the investigation of the openness of the 40 major fashion companies by the fashion public welfare and ethics department, it is found that 40% of the enterprises basically do not have any monitoring system that can monitor whether the factory's operation is in line with the labor standards.

Fashion is a word that goes ahead of the times. However, behind the fashion is full of illegal employment workers. It does not provide the most basic terms of life protection. As H&M Helmersson Helena director of global sustainable development said, the improvement of labor wages and the improvement of working conditions are part of the procurement cost. It has little impact on the price of products. The representative of the organization appealed that H&M would be able to keep its promise and become an example of respecting the rights and interests of the workers in the fast fashion industry.

Sometimes industry leaders say that low production prices have always been the key goal of fast fashion brands. They say they want to save the cost to benefit consumers. But when factory accidents continue to occur, workers lose their lives, more fashion salesmen need to reflect on whether their pursuit of low cost will affect labor safety.