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Workers Push for Fair Wages in Asian Garment Industry |
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Workers in Asia, the United States, United Kingdom and throughout Europe are mobilizing to secure a living wage for garment workers in Asia. The Asia Floor Wage is focused on making sure that the more than 100 million mostly women workers in the Asian garment industry receive adequate wages for what they produce.
Launched on Oct. 7, World Day for Decent Work, the Asia Floor Wage is pushing for a minimum wage equivalent to $475 for a month with a 48-hour workweek. That’s twice what Indonesian laborers get. It’s three times the minimum rate of pay in Sri Lanka and more than six times the wage in Bangladesh.
The best protection for workers is a minimum wage that crosses borders, according to a new report by Labor Behind the Label, a British workers’ rights group. In an interview on the Marketplace radio show on American Public Media, Anna McMullen, the report’s author, said:
There’s a race to the bottom between different countries to set lower minimum wages in order to attract foreign business. So the minimum wages that are set are well below what is necessary for a decent quality of life.
Mark Brenner, director of Labor Notes, said having a continent-wide minimum wage would prevent big U.S. and Western European companies from dodging the issue of how much people who make their products are paid. He said a single floor wage could force Western companies to take responsibility. They’ll know what a living wage is, he said, and they’ll come under pressure to abide by the same rules.
The working conditions in the factories also must be improved, says Institute of Labor Education and Research (PILER). As Zulfiqar Shah, joint director of PILER, said:
A fair wage is a human right. Without adequate income one cannot fully realize basic rights.
In the United States, Jobs with Justice is teaming up with the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and the AFL-CIO to help educate our members and allies about the need for a minimum wage and better working conditions for workers who make the garments we buy in stores like Wal-Mart.
To learn more about the Asia Floor Wage campaign, click here.
3 Comments
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I think thats great we’re trying to raise the living standards of folks outside the U S in an industry that use to be ours.I wonder how many ex garment workers here in the U S will support that.
U.S. garment workers lost their jobs due to the greed of big garment manufactureres like Wrangler and Levis who sought cheaper wages in Asia, Mexico, Costa Rica and other Third World nations.
It is not in our interest to be angry or jealous of these workers, as it is not theirr fault that they are employed while American garment workers are not. Remember our government helped the garment bosses relocate to these other countries with our tax dollars!
So if you are going to be upset, be upset with the U.S. government and U.S. based garment manufacturers that chose to abandon American workers!
I would encourage you to read this article to better understand how this campaign works and why its a positive step for American Workers. http://www.newlaborforum.org/Home/Vol1832009FallArticles/RaisingTheFloor/tabid/767/Default.aspx
In case you don’t want to, here’s some points:
- this campaign is a new model that recognizes that corporations and industries are now operating in a globalized economy - essentially pitting workers in different countries against one another - all for their profit. It is important that workers in the U.S. realize the need to stop the corporate race to the bottom on wages and benefits.
-U.S. workers will not be able to gain any leverage against their employers here unless they find ways to limit the power of large multinational corporations. As long as these large corporations are allowed to grow without restraints, they will bully their own workers, as well as the employees of their competitors. They will also be able to set the terms of business within communities. It’s no surprise that U.S. corporate taxes fell dramatically and corporate subsidies increased while multinational corporations were gaining more and more leverage within their global supply chains.
- this is not new to labor, in fact the AFW is similar to what the CIO (pre merging with the AFL) did establising pattern bargaining in auto, rubber, steel, and garment industries. The challenge is to take that approach to bargaining across borders
One other thing - there are opportunities to organize U.S. workers alongside the supply chain - from those that deliver garments to those that are selling it at large retailers and big-box stores