PRATO, Italy/GENEVA –
“Made in Italy: Shame on Italy,” a handful of migrant workers from Italy’s famed leather goods region of Tuscany chanted outside the flagship store of luxury accessories maker Montblanc in Geneva last week, holding up signs with the slogan.
About two miles from where Montblanc’s $76 billion parent company Richemont was meeting with shareholders, workers — flanked by more than a dozen Italian and Swiss union representatives — accused the pen and watch maker of ditching its supplier Z Production last year over rising costs.
The Chinese construction company, based in Tuscany, had improved working conditions in October 2022 after years of irregular contracts and long shifts, workers and union officials said.
