The Spanish fashion company Inditex, which owns Zara, Bershka and other brands, will gradually give up its production sites in Myanmar, writes business-humanrights.org. This measure is a response to the increasingly difficult framework conditions in the Southeast Asian country, which has been locked in a bloody civil war since 2021. The global trade union IndustriALL is also calling for divestments for Myanmar.
This announcement is also related to an incident at a factory that Inditex may have wanted to take over. At the beginning of June, however, seven unionized workers were fired there because, according to media reports, they were demanding a wage increase. Five of them were then arrested and taken to a junta interrogation camp, and two others went into hiding.
According to IndustriALL, this harsh approach is not new. In the two years since the government was overthrown, more than 300 union members and activists have been jailed. The junta has banned almost all trade unions and thus undermined the fundamental right to freedom of association.