Corona Daily 322: The Violence behind Jeans

M, 23, started working in one of the biggest jeans-making factory in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. After the probation period, her supervisor recommended her for a full-time job.  But just days later, near the end of the shift, her boss called her to his office, closed the blinds, and asked her to shut the door. When she refused, he said he expected gratitude. She ran out as he tried to assault her, went to HR and complained. The same evening she was fired.

***** 

Lesotho, a South African country, exports 90 million jeans a year, compared to 10 billion by Bangladesh. But Lesotho specializes in Denim. It makes more than 26 million denim pairs a year for Levi’s. The garment industry contributes to 25% of Lesotho’s GDP.

The jeans-making factories never hired enough full-timers despite the massive orders from US and Europe. Instead, every morning, a long queue of women waited at the gates. A male supervisor chose a dozen. They were called “dailies”, unemployed cutters and machinists, visiting factory gates looking for daily wages.

During the working day, the women endured sexual harassment, groping, abuse from their male supervisors. Forcing women to have sex was the lunchtime recreation for male bosses. Women with hungry babies agreed to the assault to keep their jobs. Others were raped on the factory premises. Junior managers’ sex was watched by senior managers as “porn” on the factory CCTV. Bosses regularly demanded unprotected sex before releasing the salaries. Some women contracted HIV as a result.

*****

The factories are owned by Nien Hsing, a giant Taiwanese corporation. It supplies jeans to Levi Strauss, Wrangler, The Children’s Place and other retailers. Major brands choose such intermediaries to keep themselves at arm’s length. Neither the sex predators nor the victims are employees of Levi’s or Wrangler. They are employed by a company in Taiwan, where labour laws and human rights are not as strict as in the USA.

The jobs at jeans factories require low skill and are paid poorly. Dailies are paid $7 a day. With low wages, destitute women pick up those jobs. They tolerate repeated harassment and sexual assaults to feed their malnourished kids.

Levi Strauss & Co. carried social audits and factory inspections as part of their operating procedures. However, their representatives talked to the women in groups, and in front of their supervisors. The inspections happened under conditions where the women could never speak out.

***** 

In 2018, Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) started investigating what was going on in the Lesotho denim factories. They conducted anonymous off-site interviews. All women said the main problem was the supervisors. Each one had a sordid story to tell. The 22-page WRC report giving the shocking findings demanded that binding, enforceable agreements be signed to root out GBVH (Gender Based violence and harassment).

Management of Nien Hsing initially denied the allegations, but the scale and evidence of the sexual exploitation was too widespread. Levi’s was forced to acknowledge this was happening in its supply chain. On 15 August 2019, Levi’s issued a statement accepting this to be a global, industry-wide issue, and promising to improve the lives of the workers.

*****

Lesotho is not an outlier. Garment workers in Bangladesh, India, Brazil, Mexico, Sri Lanka, China, Turkey, and Vietnam have reported being assaulted, stalked, groped, harassed and raped in factories producing jeans for international brands. A study last year found 80% of garment workers in Bangladesh have experienced or witnessed sexual violence and harassment at work.

*****

At least one pair of jeans each of us has worn was stitched by a woman sexually assaulted or harassed in the same factory.

(Tomorrow: Jeans industry during the pandemic).

Ravi