For years the fashion, sportswear and clothing industry have been associated with the idea of sweatshops. For most people the term ‘sweatshop’ brings to mind images of deadly factories, forced labour and child workers: the most extreme cases of workers’ rights abuses are those that tend to get the media attention. While cases like this do exist, they are the tip of the iceberg.
Though it may not always grab the headlines, the real horror story is the systemic exploitation found in almost every factory, workshop and living room in which garments are manufactured. Workers across the world face a daily grind of excessive hours, forced overtime, lack of job security, poverty wages, denial of trade union rights, poor health, exhaustion, sexual harassment and mental stress. Even in factories which on the surface look clean and modern, workers are deprived of their internationally-recognised basic rights. The widespread repression of trade unions often denies workers the means to speak out about the reality of their conditions and the means to defend these rights in the workplace.
