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Dignity factory workers producing shirts for overseas clients, in Accra, Ghana

More TLC? Trade-Labor Connections in the New Global Order

Join GLI’s day-long 2025 conference, which will focus on the state of labor standards and work in the new era of global trade. What does the landscape of trade policy look like in the Trump era? How will forced labor affect U.S. and E.U. trade actions? We will discuss those topics and more.

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More TLC? Trade-Labor Connections in the New Global Order

Hot Air: What works to combat extreme heat in apparel production in Asia?

Join us in Bangkok, Thailand at Thammasat Business School as we present new analyses and responses to heat’s impacts for workers, manufacturers, apparel brands and governments in South and Southeast Asia.
Workers walking across a precarious bridge over scant water
Hot Air: What works to combat extreme heat in apparel production in Asia?

The Dindigul Agreement to End Gender-based Violence and Harassment

Has It Worked?

This is GLI’s official final assessment of the Dindigul Agreement to End Gender-Based Violence and Harassment at a South Indian apparel factory that could be a model for other factories around the world. 

Large room of garment factory workers
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Warming to the Idea? Labor Governance and Extreme Heat in Apparel Production

Impacts of Climate Change on Global Apparel Production

How have weather conditions already started to affect the apparel industry and how should the industry adapt? This policy brief builds upon past GLI research and our report co-produced with the IFC and the ILO's Better Work program to present new findings on the impacts of extreme heat and the adaptation responses from employers, workers, their governments and buyers in the global apparel and footwear industry. See our new research here.

Cambodian workers are seen in a local footwear manufacturing plant, with containers of materials in multiple colors sitting in front of workers wearing bandanas and many wearing masks as well.
Read the full report

Measuring Supply Chain Due Diligence

Labor Outcomes Metrics

Read about the Global Labor Institute's new quantitative metrics that measure labor outcomes—actual impacts for workers.

Workers in Bangladesh
Read more about Measuring Supply Chain Due Diligence

Latest Research and Events

GLI 2024 Conference Rolls Up Sleeves to Tackle Global Apparel Production

“The progress of science begins with this sharing of knowledge, expertise and networks, and today we are guests of the Global Labor Institute conference where these three components converge,” said Samira Rafaela at the 2024 GLI Conference on Feb. 2.
Jason Judd at GLI Conference
GLI 2024 Conference Rolls Up Sleeves to Tackle Global Apparel Production

Presentation Angus Bauer, Schroders, and Jason Judd, Cornell University

Higher Ground? Climate breakdown and its impacts for global apparel production.
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Presentation Angus Bauer, Schroders, and Jason Judd, Cornell University

Presentation Sarosh Kuruvilla, ILR School, Cornell University

Groundhog Day. Or, How do we know what works to improve working conditions and advance labor rights?
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Presentation Sarosh Kuruvilla, ILR School, Cornell University

Keynote Samira Rafaela, Member of the European Parliament

What do E.U. and U.S. corporate accountability in supply chains look like?
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Keynote Samira Rafaela, Member of the European Parliament

Didier Reynders Opening Remarks at GLI Conference 2024

Opening Remarks on European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence. Presentation from the Cornell Global Labor Institute's 2024 Conference: Change or Groundhog Day? What new research tells us about what works in global labor governance.
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Didier Reynders Opening Remarks at GLI Conference 2024

Recent Publication by Sarosh Kuruvilla: Shifting Modes of Labor Regulation in Global Supply Chains

This essay outlines changing modes of regulation of labor conditions in global apparel supply chains, which are concentrated in Asia; assesses the effectiveness of 25 years of private voluntary regulation by global firms; and examines critically the implications of new European regulation now mandating what was previously a voluntary corporate activity.
Sarosh
Recent Publication by Sarosh Kuruvilla: Shifting Modes of Labor Regulation in Global Supply Chains

In The News

Media Mentions

The COP30 Deal Won’t Solve Fashion’s Climate Problems

The Business of Fashion News
Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute, recommends that the fashion industry should “get their act together” with regard to heat and climate change, “because workers are suffering from heat stress and, in turn, so are margins.”
The COP30 Deal Won’t Solve Fashion’s Climate Problems

Do the Labor Provisions in Trump’s Southeast Asian Trade Deals Have a Point?

Sourcing Journal
Kelly Fay Rodriguez, visiting lecturer at ILR’s Global Labor Institute and former special representative for international affairs at the Department of State, analyzes the importance of labor provisions in trade agreements and discusses how these provisions can best be enforced.
Do the Labor Provisions in Trump’s Southeast Asian Trade Deals Have a Point?

Resilient Threads: Weaving A Climate-Ready, Regenerative Future for Cotton in India

Observer Research Foundation
A study by ILR’s Global Labor Institute is cited in a discussion about climate change causing problems for the cotton supply chain used by Asia’s fashion sector.
Resilient Threads: Weaving A Climate-Ready, Regenerative Future for Cotton in India

Hot Air: How will fashion adapt to accelerating climate change?

Impacts of Climate Change on Global Apparel Production

How have weather conditions already changed in major apparel production centers? In this follow-up to our Higher Ground? reports, we looked at the past twenty years of weather data in our 23 focus cities to try and find that out, as well as ask how workers, brands and retailers, manufacturers and their governments should react and adapt to our warming future in a world of corporate due diligence. Read our findings here.

A flooded area near to Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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Higher Ground? Fashion’s Climate Breakdown

Impacts of climate change on global apparel production

In partnership with Schroders, we report the impacts of climate change on global apparel production. In our first report, we track climate change impacts at the global, national, and factory levels. We map fashion's climate vulnerabilities across production centers, and estimate future economic damages from extreme heat and flooding. Our second report examines company-level climate risk, cost, and financing for adaption and just resilience.

Textile workers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Read the reports

Change or Groundhog Day? What new research tells us about what works in global labor governance

2024 GLI Conference Highlights

Samira Rafaela
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