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To: NBC Universal

NBCUniversal: pay the migrant workers making your products in Thailand!

Clean Clothes Campaign

NBCUniversal finally agreed to pay up the #Kanlayanee workers stitching their Despicable Me T shirts! This is the first time migrant workers in the Mae Sot area in Thailand receive full compensation for the wage theft they fight against. Thank you for your relentless support, we love international solidarity! Without the energy and work from people and organisations all around the world, this would not have been possible.

For two years a group of Burmese migrant workers were illegally paid less than a dollar an hour, were forced to work unpaid overtime, and had their holiday pay withheld at the Kanlayanee factory in Mae Sot, Thailand. In Sept 2019, the Kanlayanee workers bravely spoke out to stop the labour abuses. A few weeks later, the factory suddenly closed, leaving them with nothing.
They have been fighting for justice ever since; demanding that they receive the $100.000 usd they are legally owed for making products for four major global companies: Disney, Starbucks, NBCUniversal and Tesco Lotus - เทสโก้ โลตัส. The factory owner made sure they got blacklisted as a result, leaving them unable to find alternative work.

What seems like nothing to these brands, means the world for the workers. With this compensation, they can repay debts, send money to their family back home in Myanmar and rebuild their lives.

UPDATE: After global coffee brand Starbucks and UK supermarket brand Tesco, today Disney also made a commitment to pay us! Thank you so much for your support! We now ask NBCUniversal: what are you waiting for?

For two years we, a group of Burmese migrant workers, worked long hours making Starbucks aprons and Disney, NBCUniversal and Tesco products and clothing in the Kanlayani factory in Thailand. We worked 12 hours a day, had only a day off each month, and all that was illegally paid out to us was $1 an hour. Thailand is cheap, but not that cheap. We decided to speak out in Sept 2019, and were punished. Starbucks cut orders causing the factory to close immediately, leaving us with nothing. Soon after the factory closed we were blacklisted for being troublemakers, so our pockets are empty and we can't look forward to a job in the near future.

We are a group of mostly women, and we are legally owed approximately $110.000 USD for making the products of these global brands. We urge NBCUniversal to immediately pay us what we are owed. This amount is peanuts compared to the annual profits of the world's biggest companies, which have a combined market value of $508.7 billion USD. Each company would have to contribute less than $30.000 to make us whole. Disney, Starbucks and Tesco have made a commitment to contribute. NBCUniversal, what are you waiting for?

Why is this important?

NBCUniversal has a responsibility to ensure workers’ rights are respected in their supply chains. They must ensure we receive all the money we are owed for making their products, and their profits.

The Mae Sot region of Thailand is known to be 'a black hole' in the Thai garment industry, where labour rights violations are common place, and factories routinely take advantage of visa dependent migrant workers. If we win, this can set an important precedent for the future – that brands can’t just walk away, proving the power of collective worker action and global solidarity to ensure justice, even in the darkest corners of the garment industry.

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Updates

2021-03-23 15:28:01 -0400

Petition is successful with 3,839 signatures

2020-11-24 14:58:53 -0500

1,000 signatures reached

2020-11-13 09:00:50 -0500

Meet Myinth Myinth, one of the workers making aprons, T-shirts, bags and other products for Disney, NBC Universal, Starbucks and Tesco. And now taking on these same brands to get what was legally owed to her. https://www.facebook.com/cleanclothescampaign/photos/a.160446857336184/3469300406450796/

2020-11-12 06:03:39 -0500

500 signatures reached

2020-11-11 09:40:00 -0500

Big News: Starbucks made a commitment to pay the workers..!! After UK supermarket brand Tesco, global coffee brand Starbucks now also said they will contribute to the workers. Check out the news here: https://cleanclothes.org/news/2020/tesco-and-starbucks-take-action-in-exploited-burmese-migrant-garment-worker-case-but-where-are-disney-and-nbc-universal

2020-11-10 09:44:30 -0500

Check out this op-ed by the Clean Clothes Campaign for additional background of this campaign: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/11/2/global-brands-global-exploitation

2020-11-03 03:46:26 -0500

100 signatures reached

2020-11-02 07:41:24 -0500

50 signatures reached

2020-11-02 04:52:01 -0500

25 signatures reached

2020-11-02 03:52:07 -0500

10 signatures reached