A coalition of footwear and fashion companies is raising the alarm, after the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) canceled a slew of government contracts related to rooting out forced labor and monitoring trade agreements.

Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) announced on March 26 that the DOL had eliminated all contracts for the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB). ILAB was established in 1947 under the Truman administration, and oversees dozens of projects to combat child labor and forced labor, while enforcing free trade agreements, while also providing data and research on labor practices across the globe. ILAB contracts canceled by DOGE included an initiative for gender equity in Mexico, another for worker rights in agricultural supply chains in Latin America, and a program providing protections for migrant workers in Bangladesh.

The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) — which represents brands such Adidas, DKNY, Gap and Ralph Lauren among others — spoke out against the move from DOGE, warning that it could lead to unfair competition with countries and foreign businesses "not held to the same laws and standards for labor abuses." 

"Our members, and their 3.5 million American workers, rely heavily on ILAB’s work to promote a fair global playing field for American workers and businesses," AAFA president and CEO Steve Lamar said in a March 26 news release. "With today’s elimination of ILAB’s grants, we will be moving from an even playing field to an uphill battle."

The AAFA also signed onto a letter to U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, urging her to reinstate ILAB's project designed to protect the rights of cotton workers in Uzbekistan. The International Labor Organization estimates that two million children working in Uzbekistan's cotton industry were rescued from child labor between 2015 and 2022. The country is one of the biggest cotton producers in the world, and it's only in recent years that it was able to declare itself free of systemic labor abuses. In its letter, the AAFA warned that those abuses could creep back into Uzbekistan's cotton industry without ILAB's support, and force American businesses to "compete against Uzbek cotton produced under unsafe and inhumane conditions."