Levi’s under fire after supplier laid off hundreds of workers

Critics accuse Levi’s of ignoring its own labor standards after it continued working with a factory in Turkey that fired around 400 people last year after they joined a union and went on strike.

Levi’s is a global brand that says it has always stood up for “what’s right.” But its claim to be an ethical company is now in question following the release of a report from an independent labor monitoring group. Critics accuse Levi’s (LEVI) of ignoring its own labor standards after it continued working with a factory in Turkey that fired around 400 people last year after they joined a union and went on strike over pay and working conditions. Turkey is a critical link in the global supply chain for apparel. The country exported around $30 billion worth of apparel and textiles last year, according to the Istanbul Exporters’ Association, a clothing industry group. One player in the industry is Ozak Tekstil’s factory in Turkey’s Sanliurfa region, which exclusively makes jeans for Levi’s. Ozak Tekstil also produces clothing in its other factories in Turkey for brands such as Zara, Hugo Boss, Guess, Mango and Ralph Lauren, according to the report by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), published Friday. Seher Gulel worked in quality control at the factory before she was fired in late November. She was paid Turkey’s minimum wage, she told CNN, which at the time was about $15 a day. Pressure, bullying and insults by managers were frequent, she says, and excessively long days were common. She would often work from 8 a.m. until midnight or even into the early morning hours — even though, under Turkish law, workers should not work more than 11 hours in a day. “The (illegal) overtime problem was constant,” she said.