Just seven months after California’s historic SB62 garment worker protection bill passed and only four since New York State’s proposed Fashion Act was announced, another piece of legislation impacting the fashion industry is coming—and for the first time it’s happening on a federal level. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-D) exclusively tells Vogue Magazine that she will introduce the Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change (FABRIC) Act in the Senate on May 12, with dozens of endorsements from activists, manufacturers, and brands throughout the industry already behind it. If written into law, the bill will extend the anti-wage theft principles of SB62 nationwide and offer incentives like tax exemptions and grant programs for brands looking to manufacture in the United States.
While almost every consumer-product industry in the United States has enforced regulation to some degree, fashion has long been the exception, and it’s been the workers who have paid the price. Even within the country, the supply chain is complex, and suppliers often use layers of subcontracted work to skirt labor laws. For decades, brands have contracted work out to manufacturers using a piece-rate payment system where employees are paid per item they make, resulting in as little as $2 per hour for full-time work. The FABRIC Act would extend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, placing liability requirements onto those brands that work with factories paying less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. The act also includes a 30% reshoring tax credit to cover some costs for brands seeking to bring manufacturing back to the United States and a $40 million Domestic Garment Manufacturing Support Program administered by the Department of Labor for those looking to update their facilities and improve them for workers.
For Gillibrand, the FABRIC Act is not just about holding the fashion industry accountable for its past but also about bringing women back into manufacturing’s future. Right now, 80% of garment workers around the globe are women. Despite the 40 million garment workers employed, only around 93,800 of those jobs are in the United States. In New York’s garment district, once a hub for the fashion industry, those jobs have alarmingly shrunk from 26,966 to 4,394 in just the last 20 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“There are not many industries where women are at the core of the workforce, except for in the fashion industry,” Senator Gillibrand told Vogue in a phone call about the bill. She also mentioned that the United States garment industry is losing about $30 billion annually because of imports. “To fix this, we need to put a prohibition on predatory payments through the piece rates, but we also need to give these companies the incentives to bring the manufacturing back to the U.S. or make it possible for them to start up here in the first place.”
Gillibrand went on to say that providing resources for start-up costs is a crucial piece of growing domestic manufacturing in fashion. “It’s important that we invest strongly in workforce development. We need to get the next generation of fashion industry leaders trained to do this work effectively.”
Ayesha Barenblat, the founder and CEO of the fashion advocacy group Remake, who helped draft the bill, explained that creating and updating garment jobs in the United States is more critical than ever due to the fractured global supply chain. “The supply chain changes since the pandemic have made business difficult for many brands, and for the first time, we are seeing interest in nearshoring products,” Barenblat said. She brought up the example of mask and PPE supplies during the early parts of 2020. The United States had to rely on imports in an emergency when they could have been made domestically if the infrastructure allowed for it. She went on to say that the problem is two-fold since many of the factories in the United States are severely behind from a technological standpoint. “When you go to Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and other places around the world, you see that the industry has moved on,” she explained. “The grant could allow for necessary updates that will bring in a larger workforce.”
Both Gillibrand and advocates supporting the bill say that bipartisan support is likely. “Several of my Republican colleagues are working on bills around imports from China, and the FABRIC Act would support those efforts,” Gillibrand explained. Barenblat echoed that sentiment, mentioning that workforce development and revitalization is of interest across the country, not just in New York and California. It’s something she is confident representatives across the board can get behind.
Garment workers in California who fought for the passage of SB62 are also offering their support for a federal extension. “The FABRIC Act is necessary because it will advance the wellbeing of garment workers and their families,” Cris Lopez, a garment worker and member of the Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles, said via email. “The FABRIC Act not only offers workers protections for our wages but also provides investment in the industry. This promises more jobs and better wages, which ultimately supports those most in need—our children, the elderly—and ensures better education, health, and housing opportunities.”
Senator Gillibrand will hold a press conference on May 13 introducing the bill to the press at the Ferrera factory in New York City’s garment district. “As a domestic manufacturer, it would create vital programs to expand our unionized workforce as well as innovate using advanced machinery to modernize our prestigious trade,” COO Gabrielle Ferrera told Vogue about the business’s support for the bill. Workers in the Ferrera factory are currently unionized through Worker’s United, another endorser of the bill. Other industry endorsers include The Model Alliance, Fashion Revolution, Center for the Advancement of Garment Making, Fashion Connection, Skilled Laborers Brigade, Sustainable Brooklyn, Custom Collaborative, The Slow Factory, New Standard Institute, and the California College of the Arts fashion design program.
Photo: Alex Wroblewski / Bloomberg via Getty
BY ALYSSA HARDY