Guardian · 34 days ago

Justice for Jeyasre: How a Brutal Murder Led to a Better Deal for Garment Workers in India | Global Development...

After Jeyasre Kathiravel's body was found in 2021-a 21-year-old Dalit woman raped and murdered by the supervisor she'd complained about but couldn't stop-international outcry forced a reckoning that transformed Natchi Apparels into a model of worker safety and dignity. The Dindigul Agreement brought union organizers to the factory floor, created grievance mechanisms so robust that one longtime cutter marveled, "the men are scared of us now," and turned a place of "production tortures" into something resembling workplace justice. Yet here lies the bitter paradox: despite overwhelming evidence of success, despite restored humanity and increased productivity, the factory's order book remains gutted because most global brands won't touch a supplier with empowered workers and collective bargaining power. As one researcher studying the agreement observes, unless there is "some massive tragedy, nobody will do anything"-and even tragedy, it turns out, guarantees nothing beyond temporary shame.