"WORKER RIGHTS CONSORTIUM WHITE PAPER: WHO WILL BAIL OUT THE WORKERS THAT MAKE OUR CLOTHES?" March 2020

The economic repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic are colossal... The world’s wealthy countries are poised to spend trillions of dollars to shore up the income of their workers and to rescue their corporations... [But] who is going to rescue the workers who toil in the global supply chains of many of those corporations? These workers... are among the hardest hit by the economic catastrophe of Covid-19...This paper focuses on the apparel sector, as it will be among the most severely affected by the Covid-19 crisis...

Brands can—and should—take a more equitable approach to sharing the financial burden of the crisis, rather than sloughing all costs onto suppliers and, in turn, workers. Canceling orders already in production or completed and waiting to be shipped, without even making an effort to determine whether suppliers have the wherewithal to survive the damage, is not a responsible approach. Nor is ignoring contractual terms that obligate brands to pay for goods produced. While brands face their own very serious financial challenges, resource allocation is a matter of priorities...