Sri’s Lanka’s worst Covid-19 outbreak originated from a Brandix garment factory which makes clothes for Gap, Victoria’s Secret, and Marks & Spencer.
More than 1,000 of the factory’s 1,400 workers tested positive for COVID-19. Initially, about 600 employees reported having a high fever but were told to carry on working to hit production targets.
In efforts to control the outbreak the military was called in to forcibly remove the factory workers taking them to makeshift a quarantine centres in the middle of the night. Workers reported that centres were not clean, toilets were flooded, and they had not (by 13 October) been seen by any health professionals.
It has come as no surprise to trade unions, workers’ and women’s groups representing thousands of garment workers that a large Covid-19 outbreak has happened in a garment factory. For decades these groups have highlighted how the global fashion industry’s ‘race to the bottom’ has resulted in poverty pay, long hours, and unsafe working conditions. Crowded factories with poor ventilation and close working production lines create environments ripe for the spread of infectious diseases. War On Want