In another photograph taken inside Bowker, a thermometer shows 35.2C and humidity of 57.6%.<\/p>\n
“The heat stress is really taking a toll on our health,” said an employee on the ironing line.<\/p>\n
Workers at both factories described pressure to meet group production targets of between 300 and 700 items a day.<\/p>\n
“Just think about that,” they added. “If one shirt sells for $120 (\u00a390) in the store, how much are they pulling in from 600 of them? They make a ton of money but give almost nothing to the workers.”<\/p>\n
Others described verbal abuse when targets were missed.<\/p>\n
“When we can’t complete the quota they scold and yell at us and tell us to resign,” said a third worker at Bowker.<\/p>\n
The same employee said they received two electric shocks from an exposed wire.<\/p>\n
“I tried to report it multiple times, but they only took action after the second time I got shocked,” they said.<\/p>\n
Adidas told us both factories had “heat-management measures”, that its standards “do not permit any form of harassment”, and that “no electrical-related accidents” had been found in Bowker’s records.<\/p>\n
Trax acknowledged “periods of elevated temperature” but said cooling systems were in place and insisted its approach “is not based on enforcing output targets”.<\/p>\n