Formation

An Asian Strategy for Garment Industry

Union leaders and labour activists in Asia came together to explore a union-based Asian strategy for the global garment industry. The discussions began in India and moved to other Asian countries. Wage emerged as the key issue for strategising; and the concept of an Asia Floor Wage began to be explored. The scope of the discussion was then expanded by organizing meetings in different places in North America, United States and Europe with the help of several partners. This process took place between 2005 and 2007.

In 2007, the First International Planning Meeting was held in South Asia . Discussions took place on how to move forward, given that we had achieved consensus on the concept itself. The international participants came to an agreement on the goals, overall direction, content, structure, and timeline for an Asia Floor Wage campaign!

What began as an Asia-based process has now expanded to become an international alliance for Asia Floor Wage.

 

Let´s see what other people are saying about the Asia Floor Wage Campaign

Dr. Prabhat Patnaik, Economist, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India:
"You have my full support in your movement for the implementation of a floor wage. Through a variety of means such as informalization, casualization, outsourcing, the replacement of non-unionized for unionized workers, and a strengthening of the employers' capacity to hire and fire, the effective real wage of workers, even in the so-called organized sector of the economy, has been declining in the recent period despite substantial increases in labour productivity. The current capitalist crisis has made matters even worse, as firms attempt to survive the crisis by cutting wages, which only makes matters worse in the aggregate. The struggle for a floor wage goes against this tendency of increasing the burden on the working class and is therefore most welcome. But even as we struggle for a minimum living wage for the workers, we should remember that the condition of the petty producers, artisans, craftsmen, poor and marginal peasants and fishermen, is so abysmal that the return per labour day that they get falls well short of even the statutory minimum daily wage. The struggle for a floor wage therefore must be accompanied by demands for ensuring that these petty producers too are offered income security ensuring that their return per their labour day does not fall below the floor wage."  
Dr. Chang Kai, Professor-Labour Law & Labour Relations, Beijing University, China:
"The issue of how to promote the minimum wage of workers has become the hottest social issue. AFW has made a great contribution to increase the minimum wage of workers in garment industry."

Dr. Pratima Paul Majumdar, Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies:
"Ensuring minimum wage in the garment sector of Bangladesh will increase not only the well-being of the workers but also the productivity of this sector several times".

Dr. Amit Bhaduri, Political Economist, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India:
"The concept of 'living wage' combines natural justice with humanistic economics. The just price of labour/work in Asian countries, especially in the textile sector, would increase purchasing power in the hands of the workers to expand the domestic market. Increasingly a wedge is being driven deliberately between the just and the actual wage through corporate led globalisation which emphasises the external rather than the internal market, and export competitiveness rather than domestic production for the majority in a country. The movement for living wage can alter the situation, especially if the Asian countries cooperate rather than compete leading the whole region towards greater prosperity."

President Shamima Nasreen, SBGKSF (Shadhin Bangla Garments Sramik-Karamchari Federation), Bangladesh:
"The AFW campaign should pressure global brands and retailers to a pay a fair price for the product and ensure that the workers right to trade unions is respected, which most codes of conduct recognize as an important right anyway." ”

Joko Hariyono. Serikat Pekerja Nasional (SPN), Indonesia:
The AFW is indeed a good initiative. It gives us opportunities to negotiate wages with the manufacturer, as well as with the brands."

Palitha Athukorala, President, Sri Lankan Progress Union (JSS), Sri Lanka:
"Garment retailers and brands have such big profit margins, they can definitely afford to pay a few cents extra to help garment workers in Asian countries. Just as an example, if you take a shirt that is sold at US$22.50 to US consumers, 75% of that price is profit for the retailer. If the shirt is made in Sri Lanka

Committee for Asian Women, Thailand:
"Women workers in the garment industry make up almost 80 percent of the export manufacturing workforce in the developing world. Yet they lack the ability to improve their wages, working conditions or to bargain for more secure jobs. A strategy like Asia Floor Wage will be a solution in attenuating women's unequal bargaining power, gender wage gaps and in improving their well being"

Richard Trumka, President, AFL-CIO, USA::
The AFL-CIO applauds the Asia Floor Wage Alliance in its efforts to raise global labor standards in the garment industry. The Asia Floor Wage Campaign is an innovative and concrete way to raise wages and protect workers' rights across borders in our global economy.

Fahima, Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers Union Fed (BIGUF), Bangladesh::
We express our support of Asia Floor Wage campaign. BIGUF endorses this campaign because we believe thatgarment workers are entitled to the rights of minimum living wage, a wage that is sufficient to fulfill the workers needs of a decent and humanly life.

Chamila Thushari, Da Bindu, Sri Lanka:
"We are not asking for a lot. A few cents extra will make a big difference. We are saying give this extra money directly to the workers, not the garment factory."

Babu Mathew, Country Director, Action Aid-India:
"There is nothing more important than a decent minimum wage for those who live by the sale of their labour power…..We must reclaim the rich jurisprudence that exists across the world in respect of wage determination and indeed the Indian labour movement has contributed significantly to this jurisprudence…My best wishes for the success of the AFW!"

Taj-Ul-Munir Taj, PNTLGGWF, Pakistan:
We , Pakistan National Textile Leather Garments & General Workers Federation, endorse this campaign because we believe that garment workers are entitled to the right of a minimum living wage, a wage that is sufficient to fulfill the workers needs of a decent and humanly life.

National Worker Congress, Sri Lanka:
"…the Asia Floor Wage Campaign is an innovative regional initiative for higher wages n a global industry."

Worker participant in wage workshop, Indonesia:
"I really hope that there is a support from the Indonesia government for Asia Floor Wage, so our wage in Indonesia is with workers all over Asia."

Siagawati, Serikat Pekerja Nasional (National Industrial Workers' Union), Indonesia:
"All of my living needs are supposed to be solved with wage. Because it is always deficit, the only solution is to live very economically."

Action Aid-Bangladesh:
"No to gender division in wages and benefits……women worker's liberation is civilization's existence"

Jantien Meijer, Fair Wear Foundation, The Netherlands:
"I wish you a lot of attention for the launch and a great success for the campaign."

Khalid Mahmood, Labour Education Foundation, Pakistan:
"We Labour Education Foundation (LEF) endorse this campaign because we believe that garment workers are entitled to the right of a minimum living wage, a wage that is sufficient to fulfill the workers needs of a decent and humanly life."

Liesbeth Sluiter, journalist, Europe:
"I endorse the demands of the AFW; and I hope that the book I wrote titled Clean Clothes, A global movement to end sweatshops (published by Pluto Press, London) will contribute to its success."

"AUR" - The National Association of Human Resources Specialists, Romania:
"We fully support this initiative and wish all the involved activists good luck in their activity."

Jenny Chan, SACOM, Hong Kong:
"SACOM (Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior) fully support the Asia Floor Wage campaign. Please sign us on."

Dharmendra Kumar, FDIWatch, India:
"We believe that the Asia Floor Wage Campaign is an innovative regional initiative for wage increase in a global industry. We also believe that the Asia Floor Wage demand will help strengthen workers' access to right to organize."

Joseph L. Kanknhwangwa, Association for Elimination of Child Labour, Malawi:
"We, the Association for Elimination of Child Labour (AECL) endorse this campaign because we believe that garment workers are entitled to the right of a minimum living wage, a wage that is sufficient to fulfil the workers' needs of a decent and humanly life."  
 
     
Copyright © 2008 Asia Floor Wage. All Rights Reserved