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We are asking for your support for the Asia Floor Wage Campaign.
Asia Floor Wage is a historic attempt at concretising a minimum living wage for workers in a global industry. Asia is the largest hub for garment manufacturing. The industry employs around one hundred million workers, majority of whom are women. The garment industry is a source of huge revenue and profit for multinational companies and producing countries. Despite the importance of workers in the global production of garment, they do not enjoy fair share of the value they produce. They earn around half of what they actually need to fulfill their daily needs.
Asia Floor Wage is a regional strategy to raise wages in the global garment industry and is based on factors unique to today’s global supply chain economy. The AFW is a strategy for fighting poverty, for a more equitable economic development, for decent labour standards, and for the betterment of a workforce that is composed largely of women.
The AFW concept has been progressively developed and formalised since 2005; the process has resulted in an international alliance to support workers’ struggles for a living wage. Today, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance comprises of 70 trade unions, labour and human rights organisations, development NGOs, women’s rights groups, and academics in 17 countries across Asia, Europe and North America. The campaign will target giant retailers and prominent brands for a fair share of the immense value their labour create in the global garment chain.
he Asia Floor Wage Campaign will be launched globally on October 7th – the ILO’s International Day of Decent Work. Events in Asia are currently being planned in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, China and Hong Kong. There will also be events all over Europe, the UK, and the United States. The keystone launch event will be in Delhi, India.
We would like to seek your support for this campaign. You can show your support to this campaign by sending a signed letter (see the attached sample endorsement letter) indicating your support to the Asia Floor Wage Campaign and send it to: asiafloorwage@gmail.com.
We list below the four levels at which your organization can get involved in this campaign:
- Join the AFW Alliance and endorse the demand for AFW
- Integrate the AFW demand into your existing campaigns and charter of demands
- Organise in your region an activity for the public launch highlighting the demand and need for an Asia Floor Wage
- Join the active membership of the AFW Alliance and plan to be part of the campaign to ultimately win an Asia Floor Wage
We look forward to working with you.
In solidarity,
Asia Floor Wage Campaign |
