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NEWSLETTER 20, Dec 2005
Midnight Coffee with the Supervisor
Putting Rights Violations on the Public Agenda
in South East Europe
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In February 2005, country teams (consisting of representatives
from local NGOs and trade unions) from Bulgaria, Macedonia
and Serbia set out to develop exhibitions to highlight the
situation of garment workers in their countries, as well as
the local, national, regional and the global context of labour
conditions in garment production and the link between unfair
trade and poverty. The idea was to create an exhibition that
is suitable for use in a variety of situations in each of
their countries, for example to accompany public actions,
advocacy activities, educational events and workshops. The
project, which had financial support from Novib, was inspired
by the experience of national CCC platforms, for example in
the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK and Germany, in creating
exhibitions targeting consumers, authorities and the business
community to communicate information and action suggestions.
Audience attending the exhibition
in Macedonia. |
Macedonia
In Macedonia, interactive activities accompanied the exhibition
of posters, photographs and comics. CCC partner organisation
PPC SHTIP easily found a group of young people to work with
who were eager to get involved in public action. After participating
in discussions on the issues garments workers face, the
young people generated ideas to get the broader public involved
in the exhibition. A flip chart was put up at the exhibition
so that visitors could show their support for the rights
of workers with finger-prints, and postcards were printed
for visitors to sign. More than 600 postcards were signed,
and PPC SHTIP will send the cards to whom the visitors addressed
them - to the government, unions, labour inspectorate, employers
and the mayor.
The price make up of a pair of
jeans (Bulgaria). |
At the exhibition, one visitor said, "I have worked
nine months for €50, somebody tell me how to survive
on that amount!" Another visitor, addressing the President,
said: "Branko, it is a shame let people work for €50
a month in this beautiful country!"
Another suggestion from the young people that was used
at the exhibition was a quiz based on a real pay cheque
of a seam-stress. None of the visitors who tried could understand
how the wage was calculated - not even a professional accountant.
More than 1,400 people saw the exhibition on central streets
in Shtip, Tetovo and Delchevo (Macedonian towns with many
garment factories) in October. Women passing by who saw
the posters reacted spontaneously; "This is about us!"
Men ex-pressed deep concerns as husbands and fathers: They
know about the extreme overtime their wives are forced to
work before returning home exhausted.
Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, the exhibition was shown in Sofia, Haskovo
and Dupnitsa in September and October. It was made up of
photo-graphs (contributed by the Serbian team), children's
drawings and quotes extracted from in-depth interviews with
workers from South West Bulgaria, as well as big posters
about basic labour standards. For some visitors, the quotes
from the workers were familiar to stories coming from their
own neighbourhoods.
Volunteer musicians produced voice and background sound
material. Jeans were cut into different-sized pieces to
symbolise the cost breakdown and the very small piece that
goes to wages. Visitors took out their mobile phones to
calculate the wage of the workers who had sewn the pair
of jeans they were wearing: "Two levs (€1) - unbelievable!"
In Haskovo, at the opening of the exhibition, the public
relations officer of the local garment employers' association
dismissed the workers' quotes as being false as no employers
"allowed women to work under such awful conditions",
and argued that the association has a code of ethics and
therefore all of the employers were bound to stick to ethical
principles. However, the testimony of a former seamstress
who spoke up during the opening supported the reality presented
by the other workers in their quotes. Many journalists,
including from national electronic media, attended the opening
of the exhibition.
In Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, the vice president of
the biggest trade union confederation, the CITUB, attended
the opening event. An estimated 3,000 people visited the
five-day exhibition, among them employees of an agency specialising
in occupational health and safety monitoring. Afterwards
the director of this agency approached Women's Alliance
for Development, the CCC partner that organised the exhibition,
to seek more information regarding the appalling conditions
in garment factories. The director also expressed his readiness
to distribute information leaflets in the factories he inspects.
School activities
Activities based around the exhibition were organised in
schools in six towns in Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria,
involving several hundred students aged 16 and older, including
students at vocational textile schools. Through these activities
it became clear that most of the young girls do not really
want to work as seamstresses, but have few other opportunities
to obtain a vocational qualification. Some of them said,
"Now we know why we should not work in the factories."
Another student said, "It is senseless to speak about
the problems and it is no use, because people are afraid
to seek their rights because they might risk their jobs.
Never mind how small the wages are, families have to be
fed." In Haskovo, a girl explained how she was employed
in a garment factory during school vacations when she was
below the minimum age, and was given the passport of a 23-year-old
woman so she could be on the official payroll. Students
in Macedonia confirmed that their peers were working in
factories. In schools, some of the young people made drawings
showing mothers sitting in front of sewing machines surrounded
by walls and small windows as if they were in a prison.
Need for support
It was very difficult to get representatives of the labour
inspectorates to participate in the opening events for the
exhibition and the public debates in any of the three countries
where the exhibitions took place. Those who dared to attend
behaved defensively. Many participants, including employers
and other officials, agreed that the labour inspectors do
not do their job well enough. In Bulgaria, it was also difficult
to get even the most basic information about the results
of inspections. In Macedonia, the labour inspectors said
they were working very hard, but that workers would not
speak up, and judges were not defending workers effectively.
Lyubka, the unionist in the exhibition organising team,
recalled a case when labour inspectors asked workers what
they were doing in the factory at midnight. The workers
stated they had come for coffee with the supervisor; they
were too afraid to tell the truth - that they were working.
These women need support - from trade unions and NGOs, the
public and international solidarity.
This report was contributed by Katerina Milenkova, Polina
Radeva and Regina Barendt, who are active in garment workers'
rights projects in the region.
For
more on the garment industry in Bulgaria, Macedonia and
Serbia, as well as Turkey, Poland, Romania and Moldova,
please see "Workers'
Voices - The Situation of Women in the Eastern European
and Turkish Garment Industries". The exhibitions
were based upon the research done for this report.
