Links to interesting
websites on the garment industry and strategies
for change!
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 SOMO
, or the Centre for Research on Multinational
Corporations, is a Dutch research and advisory
bureau that, since 1973, has been investigating
the consequences of corporate policies of
Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and the consequences
of the internationalisation of business for
developing countries in particular.
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Women Working Worldwide is a
UK based organisation which supports the
struggles of women workers in the global
economy through information exchange and
international networking.
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Transnationals Information Exchange-Asia (TIE-Asia)
is a non profit, independent, regional
labour network.
TIE-Asia began in 1992 in response to the
growing number of mostly women workers, who
are largely unorganised and precariously employed
in the export orientated textile, garment
and related industries, within and outside
of the zones, which are dominated by suppliers
to transnational corporations (TNCs).
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IRENE has been stimulating and
facilitating the exchange of information on
labour issues since 1981 and has contacts,
resources and a European programme of work
which covers current international labour
issues.
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 Campaign
for Labor Rights is a labor organization
which specializes in the struggles of workers
in sweatshops. Labour updates on Nike, Disney,
Guess, Child Labor, Mexico, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Nicaragua, United States (esp.
Farm Workers and Poultry Processing Workers),
Youth and Campus Activism, various Policy
Issues and more.
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Corporate Ethics and Governance Watchdog
is an organization that files reports
on the conduct of businesses from around the
world. Due to globalization and the profit-driven
interests of multinational corporations, local
laws and communities are being ignored. Corporate
Ethics and Governance Watchdog files reports
on these companies relating to issues of ethics
and governance. |
The
Solidarity Center is a non-profit
organization that assists workers around the
world who are struggling to build democratic
and independent trade unions. As an allied
organization of the AFL-CIO, we work with
unions and community groups worldwide to achieve
equitable, sustainable, democratic development
and to help men and women everywhere stand
up for their rights and improve their living
and working standards.
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US/LEAP (formerly the U.S./Guatemala
Labor Education Project) is an independent
non-profit organization that supports economic
justice and basic rights for workers in Central
America, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico. US/LEAP
focuses especially on the struggles of those
workers who are employed directly or indirectly
by U.S. companies such as Starbucks (coffee),
Chiquita (bananas), and Phillips-Van Heusen
(clothing).
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 The
Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN)
is a Canadian network promoting solidarity
with groups in Mexico, Central America, and
Asia organizing in maquiladora factories and
export processing zones to improve conditions
and win a living wage. In a global economy
it is essential that groups in the North and
South to work together for employment with
dignity, fair wages and working conditions,
and healthy workplaces and communities.
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Business
and Human Rights: a resource website
The purpose of this website is to provide
easy access (through links) to a wide range
of materials on the subject. The site is maintained
by Christopher Avery, an international lawyer
working independently on business/human rights
issues.
|
 Sweatshop
Watch is a coalition of labor,
community, civil rights, immigrant rights
and women's organizations, attorneys and advocates
committed to eliminating the exploitation
that occurs in sweatshops. Sweatshop Watch
believes that workers should be earning a
living wage in a safe and healthy working
environment, and that those who benefit the
most from the exploitation of sweatshop workers
must be held accountable. Our work includes
public education, public policy advocacy and
coalition-building.
|
 The
National Labor Committee (NLC)
is a human rights advocacy group, dedicated
to promoting and defending the rights of workers.
Through establishing long standing working
relationships with non-governmental, human
rights, labor and religious organizations,
primarily in Latin America, the NLC puts a
human face on the global economy. The NLC
educates and actively involves the public
in actions aimed at ending labor abuses, improving
living conditions for workers and their families
and promoting the concept of a living wage
and true independent monitoring.
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 UNITE
A new chapter in the history of the
U.S. labor movement was written in 1995 with
the founding of UNITE (Union of Needletrades,
Industrial and Textile Employees). The new
union was formed by the merger of two of the
nation's preeminent and oldest unions, the
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
(ILGWU) and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile
Workers Union (ACTWU) in Miami where delegates
from both former unions ratified a merger
agreement.
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Thai Labour Campaign has four
goals:
- Bring Thai workers into solidarity with
international workers
- Help workers to win living wages and
improved labour rights
- Pressure the government for meaningful
labour protection standards and enforcement
of those standards
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Human Rights for Workers focuses
on how globalization affects working men and
women and on how it creates the need to incorporate
the human rights of workers into global rules
at the national, regional, and international
levels through governmental, quasi-governmental,
private business, labor union, and other non-governmental
channels.
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 Fair
wear Australia
Stopping exploitation of home based outworkers.
In Australia and other countries around the
world women and their families work at sewing
machines to produce the clothes that are sold
in our shops and markets.
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The
Multinational Monitor is published
monthly except bimonthly in January/February
and July/August by Essential Information,
Inc. The Multinational Monitor tracks corporate
activity, especially in the Third World,
focusing on the export of hazardous substances,
worker health and safety, labor union issues
and the environment.
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 No
Sweat is an activist, campaigning
organisation, fighting sweatshop bosses,
in solidarity with workers, worldwide.
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International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions (ICFTU) The
ICFTU represents 124 million Trade
Union Members Organised in 213 national
trade union centres from 143 countries and
territories
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HomeNet is representing, organising
and supporting homebased workers around
the world to improve their working and living
conditions.
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Asia Monitor
Resource Center (AMRC) is an independent
non-government organization (NGO) which focuses
on Asian labour concerns.
|
 Hong
Kong Christian Industrial Committee
Since its birth, CIC has been deciding
to stand with workers. We do not attempt to
become a leader of workers, but rather to
struggle with workers and to organize them
to fight for their own rights. We strongly
believe that workers' desperate struggle is
the only way to change their poor situations.
CIC is an enabler only.
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 China
Labour Bulletin seeks to promote
independent trade unionism and provide information
on the activities of the official All-China
Federation of Trade Unions, as well as attempts
by workers to organise outside it.
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United Students
Against Sweatshops is fighting
to end the use of such sweatshop labor.
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