People Are Using Valentine's Day Cards to Support Lingerie Garment Workers
A new #PayYourWorkers campaign is targeting Victoria’s Secret.
Whether or not you acknowledge the holiday personally, one thing is for sure: Valentine’s Day is a big day for lingerie brands. But like any other type of clothing, intimate apparel has its downsides when it comes to ethics and sustainability, especially with the impact the pandemic has had on the global supply chain. Former workers at the Brilliant Alliance Thailand (BAT) factory understand this better than anyone.
In March 2021, these garment workers showed up to their jobs making intimates for major brands such as Lane Bryant, Torrid and Victoria’s Secret only to find out that the factory had been permanently closed. According to the Sourcing Journal, 1,388 employees were let go without notice, wages, bonuses or severance. "As workers, we were exploited and stripped of our dignity,” Kornchanok Thanakhun, a union leader told Reuters at the time.
Following the dismissal, the Thai government ruled that the factory was in violation of labor law and ordered them to pay $7 million. The parent company Clover proposed to pay the fine in installments over the course of 10 years, which was rejected by the union. Now, almost a year later, workers have still not been paid. As a result, protests have taken place in the city, asking the government to use emergency funding to help workers who have been displaced. According to IndustriALL Global Union, some protests resulted in several union leaders’ arrest including the chairperson of the Triumph International Thailand Labour Union, Chitnawatcharee Panad, the president of the Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation of Thailand (TWFT), Sia Jampathong, and four other labor activists.
This month, workers and the unions are looking to expand the protest globally. On Monday February 14, Valentine’s Day, the Clean Clothes Campaign is encouraging their followers to send cards to Victoria’s Secret asking them to intervene and take responsibility for workers. “Valentine's Day is a major commercial moment for Victoria's Secret. They are making money based on a message of love and women empowerment, but the Brilliant Alliance case very clearly shows that they are not putting their money where their mouth is,” Christie Miedema, campaign coordinator for Clean Clothes tells me in an email. “We're asking people to pressure Victoria's Secret by signing the e-mail action to the brand, sending out a tweet to push the company publicly, and showing solidarity with workers by posing with a solidarity poster and sharing that picture online.”
In fashion, oftentimes the factories making clothing are contracted and therefore, not owned by the brands. According to Miedema, that doesn’t mean the brands shouldn’t be held responsible for what happens to workers. “Garment brands are the prime profit makers in the garment supply chain, they wield enormous power. With power comes responsibility,” she says. “Their immense power in the supply chain means that they should take responsibility for the workers making their product.”
While U.S. import records list Victoria’s Secret as a product coming in from BAT in October 2021, in an email, Victoria’s Secret denied having products made in the factory at the time of its closing. “Regarding the situation at Brilliant Alliance Thailand (BAT), our merchandise was not being produced in the factory when it closed, and in years prior, we were only a very small portion of BAT's business,” a spokesperson for the brand said. They went on to say that the brand is committed to “doing the right thing for the workers who make our products, and we’re continuing dialogue with relevant stakeholders.”
You can find out more about the Pay Your Workers Valentine’s Day campaign here.
*This Stuff is a newsletter by me! fashion journalist, Alyssa Hardy. Three times a week, I unpack the ways our clothes impact the world through news, essays, interviews and more. Subscribe for free here and follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.*