Walmart, Tesco, Carrefour, Aldi, and Lidl – with huge market shares and enormous buying power these are truly giants in the field of retail. But their performance when it comes to labour rights is anything but impressive. Garment workers in the workplaces that supply these and other retailers face poverty wages, forced overtime, and repression when they organise to improve conditions. The CCC believes these workers deserve a better bargain.

Discount retailers like Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Carrefour, and Walmart try to lure consumers into their shops with low, low prices. A man’s suit for £25 at Tesco, a woman’s dress for $9 at Walmart, or jeans for €8 at Carrefour. How do they do it?

If you’re a worker in the workshops or factories that supply these stores, you’ll have some of the answers – poverty wages, forced or unpaid overtime, no work contract, harsh repression of any attempts to organise to improve working conditions. These aren’t just problems for workers in the garment production supply chains for the international giants but also for the retailers who are giants in different national contexts. Companies like Primark in the UK, Upim in Italy, Casino in France and Kik in Germany.

Although these retailers sell many different products from a range of sectors, they have profound and ever-increasing power in the garment retail market. The CCC believes that workers rights must be respected and that consumers should be able to do their shopping in stores where they can be sure that every effort is being made to ensure that no human rights have been violated in the production of their clothing.

• Research on Working Conditions; Recommendations for Retailers

More About the Campaign

• Read about the aims of the Better Bargain campaign
• Support the demand for a living wage for garment workers producing for giant retailers
• Take action to support workers producing for Carrefour in Turkey
• Links to other campaigns and resources on giant retailers
  

A living wage is a human right, but for most workers in the garment industry this is a right denied. Poverty wages are the norm, but with your help that can be changed. Send a message to the world’s biggest retailers asking that they take steps to ensure that garment worker wages are raised.  - Read more >>

Send a message of support

Fill in the form below and send a message of concern directly to decision-makers at Carrefour, Aldi, Lidl, Asda/Walmart and Tesco.

Dear Retailers,

I believe that a living wage is a human right.

The Asia Floor Wage alliance, a growing coalition of garment workers’ rights organisations, has calculated a minimum living wage for key Asian countries where garments are sourced.

I ask that your company publicly commit to take steps to ensure implementation of a living wage, taking into account the benchmark proposed by the Asia Floor Wage alliance, and to take pro-active measures to ensure that all workers involved in garment production for your company in Asia are paid according to this living wage benchmark.

As a major buyer sourcing garment production in Asia your company must ensure that the right to a living wage isn’t denied to the women and men who make your company’s clothes. A job in the garment industry should keep workers out of poverty, not in it. Please inform me of any commitment and ongoing steps that your company takes to implement the living wage.

Sincerely,

What’s the problem?

A living wage covers the basics that a working family needs for a life lived in dignity: food, shelter, clothing, child care, education, health care and transportation. However, current wages in the garment industry are often so low that workers and their families suffer from malnutrition, lack clean drinking water and live in substandard housing.

Typically, the person stitching the clothes we wear is a woman, who’s overworked, underpaid, in poor health, punished if she complains about her working conditions, and has a family to feed and look after. Sure the cost of living is lower in places like China, Bangladesh or Indonesia, where clothes are produced, than in Europe or North America, where they’re marketed, but people still need to earn enough to pay for things -- and they simply aren’t paid enough.

Who can fix it?

The companies who set the standards in today’s global garment industry – including multinational retailers like Carrefour, Tesco, Walmart, Aldi and Lidl – have a responsibility to ensure that the workers who make the clothes they sell are paid a living wage. Anything less means directly profiting from their poverty and hunger. Others have a role to play in fixing this problem – for example governments and factory owners – but without question the giant retailers at the top end of garment supply chains have to change their practices if workers are to receive a living wage.

While some companies will say that it’s impossible to figure out what a living wage is, we don’t agree. In Asia, where the bulk of garment production takes place, a growing coalition of local organisations has a concrete proposal on the table – a calculation for an Asia Floor Wage. Giant retailers can make a real commitment to ending poverty wages in the workplaces that supply their shops by working with the Asia Floor Wage alliance to take concrete steps to implement a living wage.

You can help today

Please lend your voice to those speaking out in support of a living wage for garment workers. Sign and send the message to decision-makers at the retail chains where you shop (or might be shopping in the future).

Send a message of support now >>