BuzzFeed News has been unable to contact the complainant, who union members say has left Yangon and returned to her native village. Already, several brands have canceled orders of clothes that have already been made in factories, and many have reneged on payments promised to workers in Asia. “The women and their husbands lived in the dormitory, so everyone found out.”On March 28, the union decided to speak to the factory’s owners again. Last updated on May 14, 2020, at 10:03 a.m. Experts fear that if the number of coronavirus cases increased dramatically, the country’s public healthcare system would collapse. The coronavirus has so far not spread extensively in Myanmar, despite the country sharing a nearly 1,400-mile border with China, and the fact that an estimated 10,000 migrant workers were crossing the border on a daily basis until late January. “Owners briefly shut down the factory only to quickly reopen with new, nonunion workers,” Tillet-Saks, the labor rights activist, said. Dear user, ET Retail privacy and cookie policy has been updated to align with the new data regulations in European Union. If we take even one day off, we lose money. The company said net profit for its year to end-January 2020 was 3.6 billion euros, a gain of six percent … The country’s first positive case of the coronavirus was recorded on March 23 — a Myanmar citizen living in the United States who had recently returned for a wedding. Brands like Zara and Mango advertise sustainability all over their stores; other brands assure customers that they recycle all their packaging. “It was a half-day, Saturday, so the management told us it would come back with a decision soon.” A few hours later, an official came to the room where the workers were gathered and read out a list of 571 names. It will mean a lot to the union in Myanmar,” said Tillett-Saks, who was aware of emails exchanged between the unions in Myanmar and Spain. Plus, beauty founders share how they are navigating the coronavirus crisis and experts turn a critical eye on the transparency movement. “Workers cannot oppress workers, but that’s what happens at the factories,” Myint said. In a pre-coronavirus world, Ortega’s way of doing business courted plenty of controversy. “We wanted masks to be made mandatory, an end to mandatory overtime while the crisis was on, and we wanted them to send home the two women whose husbands had COVID-like symptoms,” a veteran union leader named Mau Maung, who was part of the negotiating committee, said. Her entire body ached from hunching over the zippers and lining she sewed into skirts, jackets, shirts, and hoodies for Zara and its rival Spanish brand, Mango. Latest trends in clothing for women, men & kids at ZARA online. As people sang “Happy Birthday” to Ortega from their balconies in Spain, more than 500 workers at the two factories were laid off when they asked to be supplied with durable masks and for social distancing to be introduced to protect them from the coronavirus. Inditex, the cash-rich owner of other brands such as Massimo Dutti and Bershka, said the rapid drop in sales had slowed, with sales at constant currencies falling 34% in the June 2-8 period compared to a … WEB H&M Group’s 2020 goal, for instance, is to only use cotton from sustainable sources. Until then, Myanmar’s government was still patting itself on the back because there were “no cases of coronavirus in the country” — something the health minister said the people owed to their diet and lifestyle. Le géant du textile espagnol, propriétaire de Zara et de huit autres enseignes, dont Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Zara Home ou Oysho, réagit aussi à la crise du coronavirus. Then suddenly, in the last week of March, everything changed. The union has also approached the South Korean consulate and Yangon’s Arbitration Council. NEW DELHI — A woman immaculately dressed for quarantine reads on a plush sofa in her black crop top and anti-fit denim pants. May 29, 2020. “This union-busting case using COVID-19 as cover has not yet been resolved,” a union worker told BuzzFeed News, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Many want the ultra-rich to do more, which might be why Rihanna, who has donated millions of dollars to coronavirus relief efforts, has been described as a “one-woman COVID-19 foe.” But the pandemic and its economic repercussions have laid bare the hypocrisy of the super-wealthy who do just enough to make sure they get good press, while treating workers who labor for their brands as disposable. He directed 11 of his factories in Galicia, northwest Spain, to immediately switch to making personal protective equipment (PPE). Zara Home poised to unveil its new global image . Coronavirus; Crise du Covid-19 : Zara annonce la fermeture de 1 200 boutiques dans le monde. Nishita Jha is a global women's rights reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in India. As of May 7, the country has officially recorded only 176 cases and six deaths. “The working class is being sacrificed so they can wear good clothes.”. “We are working closely with our suppliers at this difficult time and we expect continued compliance with our Code of Conduct, which clearly requires fair treatment of workers and no discrimination against workers’ representatives.”. COVID-19 Information for the Otorhinolaryngology Community Elastomeric Respirators: Alternative to Disposable N95 Respirators. 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Oppmann to enter India by homegrown liquor startup Ciro, Better and reformed implementation of National Retail Policy expected as it proposes ease of doing business, Rising health awareness amid the pandemic to accelerate sale and visibility of premium salt segment; says Tata Salt, Snapdeal increases energy-efficient products on its platform, Actor Rana Daggubati funds alcobev startup Salud Beverages that has forayed into the ecosystem with RTD Gin-and-Tonic, Embed ETRetail.com Widgets on your Website. For instance, more than 500 workers who were laid off still had no jobs, and the fact that they had accepted a paltry severance was being used against them. Find new arrivals, fashion catalogs, collections & lookbooks every week. “If these brands were to indicate any interest in keeping workers safe, the factories would immediately follow suit. Myint said she and the other union members were growing increasingly certain that they were being punished. The protests, one of Modi’s toughest political challenges yet, follow an eventful 2020 when the combined fortunes of Ambani and Adani swelled by almost $41 billion, even as millions of Indians lost their jobs to the pandemic that pummeled the $2.9 trillion economy. Freedom of association is a core principle of our supplier Code of Conduct which is why as soon as the Myanmode dispute arose we insisted on a mediation process.”. Now, COVID-19 has deepened the inequity between garment workers and fashion labels rebranding themselves as saviors. Prince Charles and Camila Share Reunion Pic Ahead of 15th Anniversary Following Coronavirus Isolation By Rachel McRady‍ 5:44 AM PDT, April 9, 2020 Chris Jackson/Getty Images “We have communicated with suppliers to follow local government recommendations and instructions and/or to implement measures to ensure they are following the health protection guidelines for workplaces detailed by the WHO regarding Covid 19,” the Inditex representative wrote. A union leader in Rui Ning explains what happened at the factory. The World Bank has estimated that Myanmar has only 249 ventilators for a population of almost 55 million. A coronavirus is a common virus that causes an infection in your nose, sinuses, or upper throat. The latest trends for Woman, Man, Kids and next season’s ad campaigns. 15 December 2020. ET Canada; Bang Showbiz. Until lockdowns in Spain forced everyone to stay indoors, Ortega still drank his coffee at his favorite local café. The name was coined by June Almeida and David Tyrrell who first observed and studied human coronaviruses. 275000+ Industry Leaders read it everyday, How did you hear about us? The union worker said that the offer to reinstate 29 people fell short of the union’s demands. Zara’s story begins with the opening of our first store in the Spanish coastal city of A Coruña in 1975, an early milestone in our company’s long history. Coronavirus; Zara’s Billionaire Owner Was Praised For Helping In The Coronavirus Crisis. On days we finish our work early, we cannot sign out of the factory, we’re simply given another task, and then another, and another...the work never stops.”Being in the union gave Myint more bargaining power, she was part of a collective of over 500 people, most of whom were women. Please review and accept these changes below to continue using the website.You can see our privacy policy & our cookie policy. Popular fashion retailers such as H&M, Uniqlo, Benetton, Zara and a host of others are driving home the point that sustainability is an intrinsic part of their value chain and ethos. Inditex said it rejects the assertions made by BuzzFeed News. This, she said, was why she joined the union. Employees had been provided with cloth masks in February but they were not durable, and the factory did not supply any other masks. The pneumonia, a strain of coronavirus that WHO later named COVID-19, has since spread through China and into other countries. All Zara stores in the United States are temporarily closed, ... Jan. 17, 2021, 10:48 p.m. The company said net profit for its year to end-January 2020 was 3.6 billion euros, a gain of six percent with the charge, but which would have been 12 percent without it. The relentless consumer hunger for branded clothes and fast fashion means that when the worst of the crisis is over, and our appetite for shopping returns, all that a big brand has to do is find the next bunch of cheap laborers. As global leaders and health officials track the strain and make decisions regarding containment, supply chain leaders need to assess and plan for how the virus will impact global supply chains. Firefighters wearing protective clothing spray disinfectant along a street as a preventive measure against the spread of COVID-19 in Yangon, April 23. Wear Tight Clothes. “As soon as the Coronavirus pandemic hit, we committed to pay our suppliers in full for all orders produced or currently in production. Inditex was among 200 fast fashion labels to sign a worker safety accord for Bangladeshi workers following the accident — but increasingly, that accord has ceased to matter. In the past, labor unions and NGOs have been wary of publicly calling out brands because they were afraid of precisely what happened at Myan Mode and Rui Ning — troublemakers would be fired, or the brand would shut that particular factory down and sign a contract with another. Myan Mode had failed to honor an agreement that it would not target the union and lay off workers during the pandemic, the union member said. Meanwhile, in crowded factories located in chaotic, crime-filled industrial hubs, the workers making these clothes find themselves abandoned by Zara, the global retail brand that’s making quarantine look so glamorous. By February, Myint and the other union members had heard that the supply of raw materials from China, things like zippers, fabric, buttons, rivets, and velcro, had stopped coming to Myan Mode. But in the middle of a pandemic, it is no longer enough to wear faux concern. korṓnē, "garland, wreath". When confronted by these allegations from Brazil and Turkey, Zara turned to the argument often used by big brands that rely on cheap labor for supply chains — they had a contract with the factory, and the factory alone. Pop star Zara Larsson has revealed she hopes her new will be a form of "escapism". These workers cannot work from home and, in some cases, they are working in factories in close proximity to each other where there is no concern for protecting them from the coronavirus. The coronavirus pandemic caused the first decline in the number of international transfers in the men's game in a decade, FIFA has said. “If that does not work, we might even sue,” one leader told BuzzFeed News on the condition of anonymity. Another, dressed in a flouncy floor-length peach dress, dances in her kitchen with joyous abandon. At the height of the pandemic in Spain this year, Zara’s parent company, Inditex, closed more than 3,000 stores. Fast fashion was always a problem. Anxiety about being laid off or having your salary slashed because of the coronavirus crisis has led to thinkpieces, graffiti, and “eat the rich” memes. The globe-trotting, stylish woman from Zara’s campaigns moved indoors — or at least, that’s where you’ll see her in the slickly produced videos that the global fashion brand uploads to Twitter. COVID-19 is a novel strain of coronavirus that causes … Speak Like A Cartoon Cat: How Women Are Being Told To Behave Around Their Husbands Under Lockdown. PRINT “Inditex has worked tirelessly over many years to ensure the standards set out in its supplier code of conduct are followed, including through its global partnership with the IndustriALL Global Union – the first agreement of its kind in the industry – and its membership of the ACT platform on living wages,” a spokesperson said in a statement issued after this article was published. Ao continuar com a navegação em nosso site, você aceita o uso de cookies. Click "Continue" to accept and continue with ET Retail. Billionaires in the US have seen their net worth increase by tens of millions of dollars in the last three months. She had five hours to herself in the entire day, and those were meant for sleep.Myint said she first learned about the novel coronavirus in January, while browsing Facebook.“[I was reading about] how contagious it is, and that’s scary for me, because we work so close to each other all day, if one of us fell sick, everyone would fall sick,” she said. All they want is that workers who were fired should be reinstated and that they do not use the pandemic as an excuse to attack the union.”Inditex’s own code of conduct states that the company supports unions and wants factories to treat workers in the supply chain with care for their health and safety. The reputation that Ortega, Inditex’s billionaire founder, enjoys as a small-town hero in Spain is bolstered by stories about his legendary humility.