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GLOBAL – Across the world’s key apparel manufacturing nations, it’s alleged that unscrupulous factory bosses are using the COVID-19 pandemic – and the massive financial impact it’s had – to break up workers’ unions.
According to native trade unions in countries including Bangladesh, Myanmar, India and Cambodia, cases have cropped up which suggest trade unions are being unfairly targeted in attempts to strip power from workers, already on the poverty line due to factory closures and retracted brand and retail orders.
Scott Nova, of the Workers’ Rights Consortium, has reaffirmed: “It is illegal to dismiss workers because of their union affiliation or to close a factory because it is unionized. Such anti-retaliation laws exist in most countries, including Cambodia, Myanmar and India – though they are, unfortunately, often not enforced.”
