As a commitment to the health and safety of workers across the apparel industry, Levi Strauss & Co. and Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) today announced plans to implement a global ban on sandblasting in all of their future product lines. The two companies are encouraging others to join this ban in a move toward eliminating sandblasting as an industry practice.
Sandblasting is one of a number of finishing techniques used to create a worn look for denim and other apparel. When sandblasting is performed, proper safeguards, such as those used by Levi Strauss & Co. and H&M suppliers, must be in place to protect workers from potentially serious harm resulting from exposure to crystalline silica (a compound found in sand). But there are some factories in the apparel industry – often linked to counterfeit operations – which do not apply the same safeguards, putting workers’ health at risk.
Human trafficking is a crime against humanity and a violation of the most fundamental human rights. No attempt to build a more resilient society can ignore the systemic issues that allow trafficking to take hold, since the ongoing existence of moder...Read More
Authors: Hannah Darnton, program manager in ethics, technology and human rights at Business for Social Responsibility.Thi Hoang, analyst at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. There is a growing need for the developmen...Read More
On 19 September 2017, the Call to Action to End Forced Labour, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking was launched during the 72nd Meeting of the UN General Assembly.
I remember one particularly bad factory in China. It produced outdoor tables, parasols, and gazebos, and the place was a mess. Work floors were so crowded with production materials that I could barely make my way from one end to the other. In one ar...Read More
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