Dear Mr. Hicks,

The women and men working who make clothes for Mark’s in Bangladesh garment factories are trapped in poverty because they earn only $6 or $7 per day. As shown in the Steelworkers Humanity Fund report Not Even the Bare Minimum, this is much lower than a living wage, which would allow garment workers to meet their family’s basic needs (food, healthcare, housing, education, transportation, and a small amount for savings). A living wage is a basic human right.

The situation was only made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, when many companies cancelled orders, leading to massive job loss and wage theft (in the form of unpaid wages and severance pay), plunging hundreds of thousands of garment workers into even further poverty.

Mark’s, and its owner Canadian Tire, have a responsibility to ensure that workers’ rights are protected throughout their global supply chain. Mark’s and Canadian Tire control decisions about its own clothing brands, such as Helly Hansen, Wind River, Denver Hayes, and Dakota.

In 2020, Canadian Tire made CAD $14.87 billion in revenue, which represents a $337 million annual increase in spite of the pandemic, and pre-tax profit of $1.2 billion.

Canadian Tire has the power to act to bring real changes to the lives of thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers in its supply chain and their families, as well as workers in other countries around the world who make clothes for Mark’s.

We the undersigned are calling on Mark’s and Canadian Tire to publicly commit to paying living wages to the women and men who make their clothes in their global supply chain.