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

Cooling Before It Got Cool: Case Studies in Heat Adaptation in Southeast Asian Factories

Heat Adaptation in Apparel Factories

A new examination of how apparel factories are adapting to extreme heat while investing in cooling, automation, and climate resilience strategies.

A thermal image of a worker at a station in a garment factory, showing the high heat levels through brighter orange colors at their workstation.
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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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Global Labor Institute's Climate-Labor Work

GLI Climate-Labor Research

See all of our analyses on the intersection of labor rights and climate change.

GLI climate workers webinar
Read GLI's Climate-Labor Work

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

AI and the New Informality

GLI Fellows Sarah Krasley and Maria Mexi announce a new AI impacts project: What happens when workers remain employed, but their autonomy narrows day to day? When organizational accountability becomes blurred, professional recognition declines, and the protections that once made employment meaningful begin to thin out?
Illustrations of six data workers, working at computers in isolation from each other. Painted background includes hazy image of cubicles; digital overlay of glass fractures.
AI and the New Informality

"Mitigating Heat Stress in Garment, Footwear, and Travel Goods Sector"

GLI's Jason Judd publishes "Migrating Heat Stress in the Garment, Footwear, and Travel Goods Sector," a new policy brief from GLI and GIZ (Germany) that makes the case for new heat-stress protections for workers in Cambodia’s apparel, footwear and travel goods industries.
Image of bright sunny sky
"Mitigating Heat Stress in Garment, Footwear, and Travel Goods Sector"

The Global Fight against Forced Labor: The U.S. and the EU at the forefront

This policy brief from Visiting Fellows Samira Rafaela and Kelly Fay Rodríguez looks at the EU's Forced Labour Regulation, compares it with legislation in the US, and presents recommendations and solutions to make the FLR more effective.
Women wearing bright colored outfits carry bricks across a short rickety wooden bridge in front of a lightly colored brick wall.
The Global Fight against Forced Labor: The U.S. and the EU at the forefront

22 January 2026 Cornell Southeast Asia Program, Global Labor Institute and Thammasat Business School Bangkok Conference 'Hot Air: What works to combat extreme heat in apparel production in Asia?' Recap

Please enjoy our recap of our 22 January 2026 conference in Bangkok, 'Hot Air: What works to combat extreme heat in apparel production in Asia?'
People sit in a room for a conference behind wooden tables.
22 January 2026 Cornell Southeast Asia Program, Global Labor Institute and Thammasat Business School Bangkok Conference 'Hot Air: What works to combat extreme heat in apparel production in Asia?' Recap

Cooling Before It Got Cool: Case Studies in Heat Adaptation in Southeast Asian Factories

A new examination of how apparel factories are adapting to extreme heat while investing in cooling, automation, and climate resilience strategies.
A thermal image of a worker at a station in a garment factory, showing the high heat levels through brighter orange colors at their workstation.
Cooling Before It Got Cool: Case Studies in Heat Adaptation in Southeast Asian Factories

Falling behind: Minimum wage-setting in Sri Lanka’s apparel industry

In this GLI Policy Brief, we provide an analysis of the government’s wage-setting process and changes in the minimum wage’s value and purchasing power over the last 15 years.
Front page of a GLI policy brief. It says "GLI Policy Brief | December 2025 Falling behind: Minimum wage-setting in Sri Lanka’s apparel industry, By Jason Judd, Avi Hossain and Brian Wakamo" with an image of Sri Lanka garment workers at the top of the page and the ILR Global Labor Institute and Cornell University logos at the bottom of the page.
Falling behind: Minimum wage-setting in Sri Lanka’s apparel industry

In The News

Media Mentions

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

Jason Judd wants the apparel industry to take heat stress very seriously

Big Closets Small Planet Podcast
The garment industry can mitigate health problems and production slowdowns caused by heat stress, but will it? In this podcast episode, Jason Judd, executive director of the ILR Global Labor Institute, shares a nuanced look at climate change adaptation in the garment industry.
Jason Judd wants the apparel industry to take heat stress very seriously

Commentary: How Chinese imports are skirting Trump’s tariffs

Yahoo News
Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute, explains that Chinese companies are avoiding Trump tariffs because they are increasingly building their own production facilities outside of China.
Commentary: How Chinese imports are skirting Trump’s tariffs

This week in Trumponomics: The looming import shortage

Yahoo News
Once current inventories are gone, the rest of 2025 could be rocky. “Our perspective in terms of how this will affect manufacturers and workers is that we’ll see a replay of the initial COVID shock,” said Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute.
This week in Trumponomics: The looming import shortage

Nike Repeatedly Raised Concerns About Repression in Cambodia. It Expanded Its Factory Workforce There Anyway.

Pro Publica
Brands increasing their orders from Cambodia while raising concerns about labor rights are “obviously mixed messages,” Jason Judd said. “And one message, the purchase order, has a lot more weight than the other. Until those are credibly threatened, the government has no reason to act.”
Nike Repeatedly Raised Concerns About Repression in Cambodia. It Expanded Its Factory Workforce There Anyway.

How Trump’s tariffs could affect Nike and its factory workers

Pro Publica
Jason Judd, executive director of the Global Labor Institute, discusses the impact of tariffs on Nike's workers.
How Trump’s tariffs could affect Nike and its factory workers