For 29 years, Santiago clocked into work at a Los Angeles garment factory before the sun was up. He worked 12-hour shifts operating a coverstitch machine, sewing pieces together for a women’s apparel manufacturer. His rates were based on how many pieces he completed during their work hours. “I would make $200, or $280 a week, and my pay was not set,” he said.
After California Garment Worker Protection Act passed in 2022, Santiago started getting paid the state’s minimum wage of $16 an hour. He also now works eight-hour shifts and is guaranteed overtime pay. “The hours are better and I make better wages,” he said. “I have more time to do other things outside of work.”
The passage of the garment worker protection bill was a historic win for the 45,000 mostly immigrant garment workers in the state who were paid as little as $5 an hour based on the piece rate system of 3 cents per item. And it wouldn’t have happened without the work of groups like the Garment Worker Center, Fashion Revolution and Remake, a fashion advocacy group that centers garment workers’ rights.
Remake’s 1,900 ambassadors sent letters to Gov. Gavin Newsom, posted on social media and protested outside the San Francisco headquarters of Levi Strauss & Co., which paid its overseas workers $26 a month. “Movement through legislation is where the real change happens,” said sustainable fashion designer and Remake ambassador Sophia Marie Poulos. “Making it fun and inviting at a local level is how we spread the word.”
Remake’s philosophy is that you can’t advance climate justice in the fashion industry without focusing on the people at the heart of the production — 80% of whom are women. In California, the majority of these women are Latina. Outside the U.S., many live in countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia, which are already experiencing the most extreme effects of climate change.
Some of Remake’s most successful campaigns have started on social media. After major brands like Zara, Target and Calvin Klein canceled $40 billion in completed orders at the start of the pandemic, Remake spearheaded a coalition that successfully recouped $22 billion in lost wages through a campaign called #PayUp. Another campaign, “Victoria’s Dirty Secret,” forced the brand to pay $8 million in severance fees to unionized workers in Thailand.
The industry “is only able to produce the huge amount of clothes we do because wages are so low,” said Becca Coughlan, a senior advocacy manager for Remake. “If you pay workers more, you can’t produce as much, and there’s a shift towards quality over quantity. When we ensure dignified, fair wages for workers around the world, that’s a climate solution.”
Encouraging fashion brands’ transparency
Global fashion production doubled between 2000 and 2015; at the same time, the average consumer started to buy 60% more clothing than before. But the growth has only just begun: the “fast fashion” market is expected to expand from $103 billion to $291 billion by 2032.
Meanwhile, the industry’s toll on our planet has been well-documented. Fashion production accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions, and an estimated 85% of all textiles produced end up in landfills. Fossil-fuel-based materials like polyester and rayon are found in 60% of the clothing produced, sending the equivalent of 50 billion plastic water bottles into the environment every year. The industry, which is the world’s second-largest consumer of water, uses enough water to supply 5 million people. By 2030, the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions will double what they are now.
Remake takes a multipronged approach to holding brands accountable. It partners with NGOs like the Awaj Foundation in Bangladesh, the Clean Clothes Campaign and the Worker Rights Consortium to launch viral campaigns like #PayUp and “Victoria’s Dirty Secret” to target brands. Because of #PayUp, Inditex, which owns the fast fashion brand Zara, committed to “ensuring that all orders that have been produced or are currently in production are completely paid, according to the original payment terms” in April 2020. And after Remake’s “Victoria’s Dirty Secret” campaign, the company “agreed to advance the severance funds to the factory owners” to pay Thai garment workers $8.3 million in May 2022. “We will continue to hold ourselves and our partners accountable for the high standards we set for the fair treatment of workers,” Victoria’s Secret wrote in a statement.
Through online signatures, in-person petition deliveries and demonstrations, Remake activists and partners have campaigned for hundreds of major brands like Primark and Adidas to sign on to the legally binding International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, aimed at guaranteeing workplace health and safety for garment workers. The Pakistan Accord, launched last year, has expanded the international accord’s protections to more than 500,000 workers in 484 factories in Pakistan.
“It was game-changing working with Remake,” said Daisy Gonzalez, the Garment Worker Center’s campaign director, who teamed up with Remake to pass S.B. 62. “They had a wide reach through social media to educate people on what was happening in Los Angeles.”
Remake also releases an annual fashion accountability report, which ranks brands ranging from Fenty Beauty to Patagonia on their labor and sustainability practices. While other organizations like Fashion Revolution and Business of Fashion also rate brands on their sustainability, what sets Remake apart is the wide range of metrics — wages, traceability, commercial practices, environmental justice, raw materials and governance — that it developed with the help of dozens of labor, environment and supply chain experts. Because of Remake’s yearly audits, brands like H&M Group and Levi Strauss have taken steps to be more transparent about their production levels, water footprints and chemical use.
Hakan Karaosman, an associate professor in fashion at Cardiff University who helped develop Remake’s latest sustainability metrics, said brands aren’t willing to give up their decision-making power and cost-cutting methods without a push. “If we want to be serious about sustainability, we have to give the microphone to the supply chain stakeholders: the suppliers, farmers and the garment workers,” Karaosman said. “They have the solutions, the ideas and the questions.”
In its campaigns, Remake centers workers’ stories to demand transparency around governance and worker rights. Katina Boutis, director of sustainability at retailer Everlane, said NGOs like Remake are challenging the industry to look inward at their own supply chains. “It’s opened up conversations about accountability, not just with sustainability groups, but also within the rest of the industry,” Boutis said. “It’s encouraging brands to be more collaborative up and down the supply chain and with other companies.”
Pushing for federal legislation to protect garment workers
Remake’s next target is passing a federal version of S.B. 62, called the FABRIC Act, to nationalize a minimum wage for garment workers. Seattle Remake ambassador JeLisa Marshall joined 80 garment workers and organizers in Washington, D.C., in September to meet with sponsors like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. “I never thought that I would be involved in legislative advocacy as someone working in fashion,” Marshall said.
The FABRIC Act also has the support of over 383 brands including Allbirds, Cotopaxi and Everlane. The industry’s growing embrace of sustainability is due in part to years of education from organizations like Remake, Fashion Revolution and the Business of Fashion on the links between labor and climate issues. Coughlan, of Remake, explained that companies too often focus on lowering costs at laborers’ expense. “You can’t be looking at these in silos,” Coughlan said. “If the merchandising team tries to get the lowest price from suppliers, that’s in direct contradiction to the social compliance team that’s trying to ensure workers’ rights.”
While the FABRIC Act is with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, ambassadors like Poulos are placing their faith in the younger generations of designers and consumers to do better. She and other Remake organizers give presentations on ethical and sustainable design to fashion students across the Bay Area. “If we give designers themselves the tools to change the industry, they can center sustainability in their practices,” said Poulos.
Part of what keeps Remake ambassadors involved is how fun and welcoming the community hubs are. Summer Dean, a sustainable fashion consultant and influencer, said she’s learned through Remake how to sew and play around with upcycling fabrics, and that she’s made lifelong friends. “Once you join a family like Remake, where everyone knows how to sew and be creative, you start to view your closet in a whole new way,” she said.
As for Santiago, the coverstitch operator now clocks into the factory at 7:30 a.m. and is out by 4 p.m., which allows him to spend more time with his wife and family. “With the new law, I make more, and I get to work less,” he said. “And I have a salary, just like everyone else.”
