| Action Week Focuses on Living Wage |
| Thursday, 15 October 2009 00:00 |
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Clean Clothes Campaign activists throughout Europe took to the streets in October to support garment workers in their demand to be paid a living wage. The International Living Wage Action Week, part of the CCC’s Better Bargain campaign, sent a strong message to retail giants Carrefour, Tesco, Aldi and Lidl to take up the proposal for an Asia Floor Wage and ensure that garment workers in their supply chains earn enough to provide for their families’ basic needs. New Reports on Wages and Company PoliciesIn Norway, the speaker tour helped highlight a new living wage report that focused on workers in the supply chains of 29 clothing brands sold in Scandinavia. Representatives from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise responded to the report. The Swedish CCC teamed up with Norway to present the report to the press, and urge the public to take action online. The Denmark CCC also issued a report, “The Wage Must Be Enough to Live On!”, about the need for a living wage among companies in the Danish clothing market. Leading brands and retailers in the UK and the Netherlands faced massive media attention with the release of new CCC reports there. The Dutch CCC presented its report about wages in September, focusing on factories in Bangladesh and India that produce for the Dutch market. The research found that Bangladeshi workers earned about 1/3 of what is necessary to live on. The research was coupled with the launch of a blog written by a Bangladeshi garment worker and translated into Dutch. The UK CCC’s “Let’s Clean Up Fashion” report surveyed retailers and brands on their commitment to a living wage for workers in their supply chains, and found that none pays a living wage, nor has a systematic programme into place to raise wages to acceptable levels in the near future. With an important election coming up, the German CCC took the opportunity to press Chancellor Angela Merkel to address labour violations in supply chains of giant retailers, including Lidl, KiK and Aldi. During the Living Wage Action Week in October, German activists took action at the headquarters of Lidl and KiK. The Belgian CCC presented a documentary about garment workers in Indonesia. A clip was screened by 10 of 12 local TV stations in Belgium South, reaching an audience of approximately 375,000 people. The documentary was also shown and discussed in ten theaters. Belgian CCC activists made use of the Decent Work campaign slogan, “Workers are not tools”, as volunteers dressed up like nails to distribute information about the Asia Floor Wage. In Brussels, activists presented a “hammer and nail concert”, and at the close of the Action Week, the CCC held a “Fair Hammer” street action, like those seen at fun fairs. Volunteers asked people if they would agree to pay Sahida €100 instead of €25 a month. The banner behind the hammer showed the levels of wages along the supply chain, from Sahida on the bottom to the boss of a retailer at the top. The CCCs Living Wage Action Week was mirrored by events in Asia highlighting the launch of the Asia Floor Wage Campaign. In reaction to the week’s events, H&M issued a response in support of higher wages in Bangladesh, but stopped short of supporting the wage levels calculated by the AFW Alliance. Other brands reacted similarly. The Clean Clothes Campaign will continue to push companies to make a concrete commitment to a living wage, using the Asia Floor Wage as a benchmark. |
