A Turkish garment workers’ union is accusing H&M Group and Zara owner Inditex of failing to act on what it says is a clear case of union-busting by one of their suppliers—one that could undermine the retail giants’ code-of-conduct commitments to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Öz İplik-İş, an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union, said it had until recently been authorized to negotiate collective bargaining agreements for workers at Eroğlu Giyim’s three sites in Istanbul, Aksaray and Çorlu. When the sustainability-focused denim manufacturer closed its Aksaray factory in 2025 and then its Çorlu plant the following year, talks over the remaining Istanbul plant broke down, the union said.
“They cut communication with our members, so we were not able to communicate with them,” Rafi Ay, general president of Öz İplik-İş, said through a translator. “And then they stopped talking to us. Repeated calls for dialogue and negotiations remained unanswered.”
The closures, which shed roughly 3,200 jobs, coincided with new export-oriented manufacturing facilities in Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone—all multi-million-dollar investments—where Ay said labor costs are significantly lower and there is no trade union presence. That left only 300 employees at the Istanbul location, including 100 on the production floor, half of them union members.
But Eroğlu Giyim, which also owns the Turkish brands Colin’s and Loft, began to chip away at the union’s position, Ay said. He said that when Öz İplik-İş called a strike on April 30 after completing the legal steps required under Turkish law, factory management brought in a notary public and threatened workers with immediate dismissal if they stepped outside to join it, “discouraging participation in what is a constitutionally protected right.”
The manufacturer, Ay added, later tried to challenge the union’s majority status and collective bargaining authority through a series of administrative processes, including ones involving the Turkish Employment Agency, İŞKUR. Under Turkish labor law, once an authorized union initiates a legal strike, active worker participation is required to complete the process. Because Eroğlu Giyim’s intimidation kept workers from joining the monthlong demonstration at the factory and outside stores, Ay said, the Labor Ministry disputed the union’s majority status and ultimately revoked its collective bargaining authorization.
Eroğlu Giyim did not respond to a request for comment.
Ay said Öz İplik-İş held joint calls with H&M Group and Inditex to remind them of their obligations under their global framework agreements with IndustriALL Global Union, including respect for freedom of association and collective bargaining. The brands said they would “look into it” and talk to management, but Ay said they took no concrete action and did not intervene. It’s that lack of brand accountability, he added, that allows Eroğlu Giyim to exploit a system that prioritizes cheap labor over union rights, a key driver of its move to Egypt.
“The system here works like this: the Istanbul office handles all the orders—even for Egypt—managing design, modeling and operations before sending everything to the Egyptian factories,” Ay said. “Because of this, management simply doesn’t want to pay these workers higher wages. It’s the classic employer mentality to avoid unions. They think it’s easy because if global brands are open to it and support it by sourcing from Egypt, why wouldn’t they? That’s why it’s critical to elevate workers’ voices and highlight these violations globally. They need to realize this isn’t just a national issue where they can simply close down, get rid of us and walk away.”
For workers who have been let go, the impacts are immediate.
Zeynep, who asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation, is a widowed single mother with two children, one of whom is engaged. She stitched jeans for 15 years at Eroğlu Giyim’s Aksaray facility before it shut down without warning or employment support eight months ago. At 40, she now faces age discrimination from other garment factories in the region, many of which refuse to hire workers her age or older.
Aside from a brief three-month stint at a manufacturer that withheld her salary, leading her to resign, Zeynep has remained unemployed. She has also maxed out her bank credit limits, struggles to pay for basic necessities like food and rent and faces worsening anxiety over being unable to afford her child’s upcoming wedding.
“We need to highlight the impact on women specifically, because the garment sector is a female-dominated industry,” Zeynep said through a translator. “So many women now simply don’t know what to do. We were making clothes for all these global brands, and now what happens to us? Who cares? We aren’t even truly living our lives—we are falling deep into debt, and we don’t know where to turn.”
H&M Group said that it takes the allegations very seriously and that while it works with Eroğlu Giyim, it does not source from the Istanbul facility. (Historic supplier data shows that the retailer sourced from the Aksaray plant in 2023.)
“H&M Group has a longstanding Global Framework Agreement with IndustriALL, of which Öz İplik İş is a member, and we remain committed to supporting freedom of association, collective bargaining, and constructive social dialogue throughout our value chain,” a spokesperson said. “Together with other brands, we are in consistent communication with Öz İplik İş about this case. We are in touch with management as well to ensure that they understand our expectations on freedom of association and dialogue.”
Inditex, which does not publish its supplier list, did not respond to a request for comment.
At its post-Covid height, Turkey’s textile and apparel sector employed roughly 1.3 million workers, accounting for 14 percent of manufacturing employment and up to 2.5 percent of total national employment. Since 2022, rising labor costs and domestic energy prices have accelerated a shift in manufacturing to cheaper climes like Egypt, wiping out more than $14 billion in annual export revenue as shipments fell from a $41 billion peak to roughly $26.2 billion. The exodus has also shrunk the workforce: Over the past four years, some 6,000 textile and apparel companies have closed, according to estimates, eliminating more than 310,000 jobs.
“I’ve never seen a sector switch so quickly to another country,” said Christina Hajagos-Clausen, IndustriALL Global Union’s director for the textile, garment, shoe and leather sector. “It’s been almost impossible for factories to stay in business, and the number of workers losing jobs is staggering, so we’re very concerned.”
She said the organization is using the ACT freedom of association annex to address Öz İplik-İş’s complaints.
For Hakan Karaosman, a Politecnico di Milano associate professor specializing in environmental and social sustainability in fashion, the Eroğlu Giyim case is a “prime example” of how “the concept of sustainability has become empty.”
This isn’t a matter of just one supplier preventing workers from being empowered, he said, but rather a situation where people in power “dominate the system with norms and goals that safeguard their economic interests rather than the interests of the majority, who need to be safeguarded, represented and protected.”
“This case is important because it has global, societal and economic implications for the system as a whole,” Karaosman said. “While I am aware that most brands have good intentions, we must be clear that we cannot talk about social accountability and responsibility within a system driven by cost reduction and operational efficiency, which, by default, treats all workers as resources to be optimized. I am tired, but I will say it again: sustainability will not work unless we wake up to the reality that our system needs to be structurally challenged and shaken.”
Ay also took a larger view, saying that the manufacturer dispute, beyond the signing of a single collective bargaining agreement, has become an “important test” of the effectiveness of Global Framework Agreements, supplier codes of conduct, human rights policies and due diligence commitments.
“We shouldn’t say, ‘Oh, this union only has a few members in this factory, so we shouldn’t go after this.’ The case has broader implications for the future of labor rights in Türkiye’s garment sector and for the credibility of global brands’ commitments to human rights and responsible business conduct,” he said, using the country’s official name. “If this can happen at this factory, it could happen at other factories and to other workers as well.”
