Can Cheap Fashion Ever Be Ethical?

The global fashion industry has a problem. As it has criss-crossed the world in search of ever-cheaper places to manufacture its clothing, the stories of worker abuses that have followed remain depressingly similar: Violence, brutally long hours, dangerous conditions, and pay that amounts to poverty wages continue to surface. Last year, at one Indian factory supplying a number of well-known brands, workers said they were viciously beaten for daring to join a union. Earlier this year researchers for an aid group found that garment workers in Bangladesh and Vietnam making clothes for big international labels were paid so little they couldn’t adequately feed themselves. A new report found that female garment workers in Vietnam face “systemic” sexual harassment and violence at work. Read more at Quartz.