Tuesday March 8, 2011 marks 100 years of International Women's Day. It all began with the garment industry. In 1909, a strike of 30,000 garment workers in the United States, mainly migrant women, almost shut down the garment industry. It lasted for three months and won most of the workers’ demands for the right to organise and bargain collectively, and improved wages and working conditions.
In the garment industry where 75% of the workforce is female, gender is a huge consideration. Labour Behind the Label supports women workers in garment producing countries around the world who struggle on a day to day basis to uphold their rights as women and mothers in their fight for equality. Here are some of their stories.
Income
Mirza is a mother and a garment worker from Gurgaon in India. She and her 4 children live in a one room tenement on her meagre salary. She struggles to make her budget work and to feed and clothe her kids. When her daughter was told by her school that she must wear a hair band, Mirza worried that she won't be able to afford to buy it. For mothers, poverty wages are a child welfare issue.
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 Working Hours
Rumana works in a sewing section of a factory in Bangladesh making for Dutch brands. She has a daughter but has to work long hours so she can care for her. When she has to do overtime, which she has no choice about whether to accept, she finds it difficult to cope with cooking, housework and being a mum. She says 'Sleep is a luxury. I love sleeping. Sometimes I sleep at work. I'm always so tired because I'm always busy with work, cooking, housework and care of my daughter.'
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 Insecure employment
Sewani works in a factory in Indonesia making a famous brand of sport shoe. She was on a six month contract and later this was extended with another six month contract but before the end of the second contract she was sent home and never called back to work. No reason was given and no final pay packet was paid. Temporary contracts are common and many employers use them to shirk the responsibility of paying social securities such as pension, maternity and holiday. Sewani is lucky to be young without a family. For workers with family commitments, the trend for hiring and firing causes instability and fear.
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 Maternity
Garment Worker Najma Akhter, 23, is depressed after she had to leave her work in a sweater factory for taking care of her new born baby. Even though it is a legal obligation, the factory didn't provide a day care center for children. Najma started working in the garment factory 5 month after her delivery. But when she didn't get the chance to breast feed her child for more than 5-6 hours, she couldn't stand the pain for long. After a short time she decided to leave the factory.
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 Decision making and politics
Emine Arslan is a union activist previously employed in a Prada factory in Turkey. She was fired for taking part in union activities and then proceeded to protest outside the factory on her own for a period of Factory management attempted to bribe her, harassed and intimidated her for her gender and for her bravery. When this failed to work, a man attempted to kidnap her 11 year old daughter, yet still she continued to take a stand. Emine wants to go into politics because she says there aren't enough women in the union movement in Turkey.
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Sexual harassment
Women in the garment industry tend to have the lowest paid jobs, while their male superiors and managers have better paid jobs. This gender hierarchy is often abused by male bosses who intimidate and harass their workforce. Women at risk, walking home late at night from their shifts, often fear for their safety.
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To stand in solidarity with women around the world, you can donate to Labour Behind the Label and help up continue to support women in their struggle to uphold their rights.
