WELCOME TO THE ARCHIVE (1994-2014) OF THE MAQUILA SOLIDARITY NETWORK. For current information on our ongoing work on the living wage, women's labour rights, freedom of association, corporate accountability and Bangladesh fire and safety, please visit our new website, launched in October, 2015: www.maquilasolidarity.org
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Solidarity actions are taking place around the world in support of Cambodian garment workers who are facing government repression for taking part in a massive strike for an increased minimum wage. The workers currently receive some of the lowest wages in garment-producing countries around the world.
On January 9th, 2014, international labour rights groups called on global clothing brands to use their influence to achieve an end to repression against workers involved in wage protests and the resumption of good-faith wage negotiations.
In the last two years, thousands of garment factory workers have fainted en masse in Cambodian garment factories. While factory owners blame women workers for this phenomenon, labelling it mass hysteria, a recent report, "Shop ‘til they drop," by UK-based Labour Behind the Label (LBL) and the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC) of Cambodia identifies starvation wages as one of the main causes of the faintings.
In the last two years, thousands of garment factory workers have fainted en masse in Cambodian garment factories. While factory owners blame women workers for this phenomenon, labelling it mass hysteria, a recent report, "Shop ‘til they drop," by UK-based Labour Behind the Label (LBL) and the Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC) of Cambodia identifies starvation wages as one of the main causes of the faintings.
In this Update, we look at a number of issues concerning wages and compensation - the compensation owed to injured workers and the families of those killed in the Rana Plaza disaster, the starvation wages behind the mass faintings of workers in Cambodia's garment industry, the decline in real wages of garment workers in Central America and globally, and the failure of employers to pay the legal minimum wage in Haiti.
The Peoples Tribunal on a Living Wage, which was held in Phnom Penh on February 5 and 6, found that the combination of inadequate nutrition, excessive working hours, and exposure to hot, dusty working environments and harmful chemicals amounts to "a systematic violation of [workers'] fundamental right to a decent human life."
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