The Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) was founded in 2007 as an Asian labour-led global labour and social alliance across garment producing countries (such as India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh) and consumer regions (USA and Europe) for addressing poverty level wages, gender discrimination, and freedom of association in global garment production networks.

Made in Myanmar

In Myanmar, the garment industry is booming thanks to an upsurge in investment by international brands, but garment workers are facing tough conditions. This briefing paper from December 2015 presents the research findings of and makes recommendations for international sourcing companies and factories to help them protect garment workers’ rights.

Gender Based Violence in the H&M Garment Supply Chain

A report by the Asia Floor Wage Coalition and others, as input for the 2018 International Labor Conference

Rethinking Bilateral Investment Treaties: critical Issues and Policy Choices

This book is available in many digital formats

Deadly Denim - interview on Making It Magazine

The Killer Jeans Campaign, launched in November 2010, called on major brands and retailers to stop sandblasting, a method of giving jeans a worn-out look. The process can seriously damage workers’ health if performed without suitable protective equipment. Over 40 major brands and retailers have issued a ban on sandblasting but, as Dominique Muller explains in this article from September 2012, garment workers are still being asked to risk their lives for fashion.

Gender Based Violence in the Walmart Garment Supply Chain

A report by the Asia Floor Wage Alliance and others, as input for the 2018 International Labor Conference

Employment, wages and working conditions in Asia's garment sector

Finding new drivers of competitiveness. This paper by the ILO presents regional trends and national estimates of exports, employment, wages, productivity and working time in the garment, textile and footwear industries in developing Asia and the Pacific based on official trade statistics and national labour force survey data.

Undress corruption. How to Prevent Corruption in The Readymade Garment Sector: Scenarios from Bangladesh

This study by Transparency International from January 2016 reveals that irregularities along the entire RMG supply chain have become a de facto rule. Violations of existing labor and safety laws are being “overlooked” through bribes which is also used to hide deficiencies of quality and quantity and non-compliance with buyers’ Codes of Conduct. In this atmosphere of failing governance and accountability of stakeholders, extortion is an additional “tool” used to maximize profit.

Binding Power: The Sourcing Squeeze, Workers' Rights, and Building Safety in Bangladesh Since Rana Plaza

The Center for Global Workers’ Rights at Pennsylvania State University has issued a new research paper assessing worker rights progress in Bangladesh as we approach the fifth anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse – the worst disaster, in any country, in the history of manufacturing. Authored by Dr. Mark Anner, the paper addresses the crucial questions of what has changed since Rana Plaza, what hasn’t, and why. The paper focuses on building safety and the impact of the Bangladesh Accord, contrasting the broad progress achieved in the safety arena with the lack of progress in other areas of labor rights.

Crackdown in Cambodia

The following report from March 2014 was written in response to the violent crackdown of garment workers in Phnom Penh in January 2014. It discusses the current human and labor rights crisis affecting garment workers in Cambodia; its relationship to the underlying issue of inadequate wages; the response of university licensees to the WRC’s recent communications to them on this subject; and the WRC’s recommendations for further action by licensees and other brands and retailers doing business in Cambodia.

Gender Based Violence in the GAP Garment Supply Chain

A report by AFWA and other NGO's towards the 2018 ILC meeting

Our Voices, Our Safety: Bangladeshi Garment Workers Speak Out.

A 100-page report published by the International Labor Rights Forum in December 2015 and based on in-depth interviews with more than 70 workers, shows that workers will not be safe without a voice at work. New interviews with Bangladeshi garment workers make clear that a climate of fear and intimidation prevails in the country’s industry, two and a half years after the Rana Plaza building collapse and the launch of the first industrial reform programs to address the pervasive fire and structural hazards in Bangladeshi garment factories.

Further reading