After years of pressure, denim giant Levi Strauss & Co. has signed the International Accord on Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry and the country-specific Pakistan Accord.

MSN joins with other members of the Clean Clothes Campaign global network in welcoming Levi’s decision to join this binding and independent mechanism to protect workers in Pakistan and is grateful to the many unions and campaigners that have worked with us to make this possible. We also continue to urge Levi’s to take the same decision for workers in Bangladesh and sign the country-specific Bangladesh Accord.

The International Accord is a legally binding agreement between brands and unions originally created for factories in Bangladesh after the deadly collapse of the Rana Plaza building in 2013. The Accord ensures that brand signatories’ supplier factories are inspected and that identified safety hazards will be remediated.

In 2023, the Accord started a country program in Pakistan, with more country programs expected in years to come. The Accord’s independent inspections, strict remediation program, complaint mechanism and worker trainings ensure that the supplier factories of Levi’s and other signatory brands will be made safer.

For many years, Levi’s has been the target of intense campaigning by unions in Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as unions and labour rights organizations around the world. For years, store actions, campaigns and a public petition, which collected almost 70,000 signatures, have urged the brand to join more than 240 other brands in the collective effort of the International Accord to improve factory safety.

In 2022, the death of four workers in its Artistic Milliners supplier factory disproved the company’s assertion that its own monitoring systems were sufficiently protecting its workers.

Even when workers making Levi’s products in Bangladesh enjoyed certain protections, it was due to the efforts of other brands. A report and several statements by the Clean Clothes Campaign exposed how Levi’s was freeriding on the efforts of other brands without taking responsibility for the safety of its workers.

The urgency of a major brand like Levi’s signing this agreement, and the real human cost of brands dragging their feet, was once more shown by the tragic death of a worker in an explosion in Levi’s supplier factory Combined Fabrics in Pakistan on October 14, 2024. Four other workers were injured in the explosion.

Pakistan’s garment sector is notoriously dangerous, and the Pakistan program of the International Accord needs the support of all major brands sourcing from Pakistan. Major brands like Nike, Amazon, Decathlon and IKEA continue to refuse to sign the agreement. We will continue to push these companies to sign.

Zehra Khan, general secretary of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation in Pakistan, said: "We’re happy that Levi’s finally listened to the voices of workers and activists around the world telling the company to take responsibility for their workers’ safety. But our minds are also with the workers who died, were injured or feared for their lives while Levi’s was still refusing to join the Accord, including in the deadly incident this week. Other brands should learn from this: there is no time to waste. Sign the Accord now and make sure that your unsafe supplier factories in Pakistan are inspected and fixed."

For more information:

• After years of pressure Levi’s commits to protecting workers in Pakistan (CCC)