Gladys Cisneros, country program director at the Solidarity Center in Mexico City, says under the USMCA, Mexico will have to clear a huge backlog of labor disputes. And the courts have been shut down because of the coronavirus. “It’s not the most reassuring landscape, by any means, but this was going to be challenging no matter what.”
The rankings used to bring with them a risk to a country’s reputation. “Reputationally it meant a lot. It was embarrassing to be on Tier 3 or the Tier 2 Watch List. And if the tier rankings don’t mean anything, then that reputational pressure is gone,” said the Solidarity Center’s Neha Misra.
The garment industry tends to invest where the rule of law is weakest, where there are sizable degrees of poverty and a degree of impunity, said the Solidarity Center’s David Welsh on the podcast, “On the Level with Jeff Hutton,” With the advent of the pandemic, millions of workers are left without wages and economic and job security–and the blame lies with the brands, he said. (Starts at minute 19:30)
“Migrant workers have been left aside by governments who have relied on them to do dangerous jobs that have become even more dangerous during this crisis,” reports David Welsh, Solidarity Center’s Southeast Asia country director.
David Welsh, Southeast Asia country director of the Solidarity Center, said: “With the enormous profit margins [brands] have enjoyed on the backs of workers in Southeast Asia, they are easily placed to sustain workers and factories over this period.”
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