What was the scandal connected with the famous Japanese brand Uniqlo?

LONDON – Campaigners have projected a series of messages onto the Tate Modern in London demanding that Japanese fashion brand, Uniqlo pays 2,000 workers US$5.5 million in severance payments. Labour rights activists from War on Want, Labour Behind the Label, and Clean Clothes Campaign projected the messages, such as “pay the workers who have made you rich” onto the building the night before the Uniqlo Tate Late event.

Campaign groups claim the company has left 2,000 workers unemployed, with unpaid wages and no severance packages after two Uniqlo Indonesian suppliers collapsed in 2015. Labour Behind the Label says the support of people around the world is aimed to catch the attention of Uniqlo CEO, Tadashi Yanai, to force the company to make the payments.

The event at the Tate Modern was sponsored by Uniqlo and aimed to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Representation of the People Act.

Thulsi Narayanasamy, War on Want’s senior international programmes officer, said: “Tate Late rightly celebrates the amazing activism that women have and are still engaging in, by showcases creative and inspiring methods that woman have used to demand their rights and raise their voice. We absolutely support the event itself and the organisations involved. However we believe Uniqlo should not be able to buy credibility through sponsorship while simultaneously ignoring the voice of thousands of women workers whose labour made them rich enough to do so. We hope that those participating in Uniqlo’s Tate Late tonight will recognise the Jaba Garmindo workers as sisters in the same struggle.”