"Garment Workers Are Going Hungry: ‘Egg Is a Luxurious Food for Us Now’", 8 December 2020

In interviews conducted by the Worker Rights Consortium with 400 garment workers... 20 percent of respondents described having experienced hunger on a daily basis since the beginning of the pandemic. Another 34 percent said they grappled with the same at least once a week... “Before the pandemic, I bought fruit for my child regularly. But after losing my job, I cannot buy even fish or meat,” said a Bangladeshi worker who formerly made clothing for Mango and Primark. “Egg is a luxurious food for us now.”...

The brands and retailers most frequently cited by surveyed workers were Adidas, The Children’s Place, Express, Gap, H&M, JCPenney, Nike, PVH Corp, Gildan and Walmart.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, Nike has been working with our suppliers to support their efforts in response to the dynamic and unprecedented nature of the Covid-19 situation,” a spokeswoman [said]...  “As they continue to navigate these circumstances, we expect our suppliers to consider their employees’ health and livelihoods and continue to comply with legal requirements and the Nike code of conduct on the provision of wages, benefits and severance.”

...Adidas... said the report “does not contain any concrete allegations” against suppliers in its supply chain. “Since the start of the pandemic, Adidas has been committed to ensuring fair labor practices, fair wages and safe working conditions throughout our global supply chain,” he said. “We employ a team of 50 specialists mainly in the supplier countries, who work daily toward more sustainable business practices in our supply chain.”

Gap... said, “deeply values the wellbeing of the people who work throughout our supply chain and the communities we touch. We are actively engaged in assessing how best to offer our support during these challenging times, and we are committed to doing more.“ The retailer noted its support of a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the American apparel and footwear industry to bring relief to workers in the apparel supply chain, adding that it is “actively exploring“ different partnerships with multilateral agencies and nonprofit partners that are “focused on providing humanitarian relief in key sourcing markets.“

JCPenney declined to give a statement; other brands did not respond to requests for comment...