Welcome to the Clean Clothes Podcast. In this series we’ll look at the challenges, strategies, and gains of the Clean Clothes Campaign. We’ll share the stories and reflections of members from across the network. We'll begin full publication in January 2021.
Organising workers in the time of COVID
Episode 1
Thursday, January 13, 2022 • Duration 33:13
The half hour episode explores how organisations in different countries from across the Clean Clothes Campaign network supported workers in the time of COVID. In this episode, we hear how:
Community mobilisation defended a garment worker in Romania;
Trade unions and worker organisations made gains in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka;
The effects of the pandemic in Turkey has led to a re-think on future campaigns to support worker rights;
Plus thoughts and reflections on the impact of COVID on worker organising.
Speakers: Laura Stefanut, campaigner and former investigative journalist, Romania Anton Marcus, Joint Secretary of FTZ&GSEU (Free Trade Zone and General Services Employees Union), Sri Lanka Kalpona Akter, Executive Director of BCWS (Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity) Bego Demir, Clean Clothes Campaign, Turkey Christie Miedema, Clean Clothes Campaign International Office, Netherlands Mandy Felicia, EILER (Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research), Philippines
Host: Febriana Firdaus (febrianafirdaus.com) Sound Engineering Support: Steve Adam (www.spectrosonics.com.au) Producer: Matthew Abud Clean Clothes Podcast Team: Anne Dekker, Johnson Ching-Yin Yeung, Liz Parker, Tanne de Goei
Full Transcript
HOST
Welcome to the first episode of the first series of the Clean Clothes podcast. I’m Febriana Firdaus.
As this episode is being produced, we’ve all heard terrible news out of Myanmar, with the military overthrow of the elected parliament.
From all of us on the podcast, and certainly everyone in Clean Clothes, we want to express our solidarity and support to everyone from our network in Myanmar.
And to all the people of that country who stand for democracy, and for human rights and the rights of workers.
We’re also sending our solidarity to my co-host, Manny Maung – she’s completely caught up now, in the response to the military coup.
We’ll have more to say from Clean Clothes, at the end of the show.
We know that under COVID, brands have cancelled orders and refused to pay for completed work.
Many suppliers have cut wages and fired workers, who have far too often also been excluded from social safety nets and other support.
In Romania one worker, Angelica Manole, protested against her wage cut.
Laura Stefanut is a former investigative journalist there, who got involved in the campaign. She tells the story.
LAURA
Angelica is a brave worker who spoke about the fact that she was only paid about one hundred and forty Euros for one month’s work. Each day she worked at least eight hours a day and she was paid like about half the minimum legal wage in Romania. So she spoke about this on Facebook. I believe she was the first garment worker that was so outspoken and so open to speaking to journalists and to Facebook friends. That’s how we found out.
The company Tanex where Angelica was working, they’re among the biggest garment factories in Romania. Certainly they’re a famous factory. They were actually in the past they were trying to attract workers by saying that they pay more than other factories because as you probably know, in Romania workers are only paid the minimum wage, they work extra hours many times unpaid, the living wage is way above the legal minimum wage here so we’re talking about people who work but stay poor.
At the factory what they did when the inspection went there, they said that she didn’t work actually. So basically they lied, they said that she didn’t come to work. But then you know it was a public scandal, I mean I helped her write some complaints to the Ministry of Labour, to the worker inspection, I also myself wrote complaints. I also contacted the Labour Ministry in Romania directly by phone and I was promised that things would be resolved and somehow they were, I mean there was another inspection which found the first inspection was wrong, and actually the factory did not register any absence of the worker, she was obviously there. So they fined the factory.
Angelica was fired by Tanex. So even having all the national media’s attention on you, even having strong figures who are taking your side like the Minister itself, she was still fired by the factory. Why, the factory wrote that she was fired because she spoke to the media.
I decided to generate a fundraising for Angelica, so we can cover the costs for her during the trial which lasted at least six months and have her paid the minimum salary, what she had at the factory. And it was amazing, in less than two days all the money were raised and there was huge support for Angelica from the public, you know, they were like cheering her, and actually so much money was raised that we were able to help three persons who were laid off from the factory.
I think that this was utterly important, because the factories try to show that if you don’t do exactly what the factory wants you to do, then you are, it’s game over for you. And it usually is you know, so it’s so important to show that the community can support you in such cases. It’s utterly important.
Then I proposed this Urgent Appeal to the Clean Clothes Campaign on Angelica’s case because I thought it made all the sense. She was very involved, she was very active, we knew the brands, we had a lot of data on the factory. They contacted the brands that were headquartered in those specific countries. At first it didn’t seem to go well because the brands were reluctant, they were saying we were not right, the factories were saying everything is ok, look. So the CCC actually provided proof of these fines, and proof that the factory was actually lying to the brands. And they finally you know, they were convinced.
All the workers were paid. This was indeed a victory, even those who were fired, they were finally given the money, all the money they were owed. But this was just a case where everybody got involved you know. There are over one hundred and twenty thousand workers in this industry, like legally registered. So in order to make things work like for a bigger length of time, you have to have the people inside who know their rights, who are organised in one way or another.
There was a trade union, Unicomf, which was pretty active meaning that they heard about the case, they went there, they tried to get inside the factory, they were not allowed. So then they pushed together with the help of the brands and they were allowed inside the factory, they could talk to workers. But after this point they couldn’t form a trade union. So they said Ok, guys we did what we could, we went there, we presented the case. If the workers didn’t get subscribed then we cannot waste much resources because we don’t have so much resources. Which I can understand, but at the same time we know that community organising or forming a trade union somewhere, it takes a lot of time and patience and some resources. They were helpful, but unfortunately a trade union was not formed there.
Th...
Women Fight for Safe Workplaces
Episode 2
Wednesday, January 12, 2022 • Duration 31:35
What does it take to make the workplace safe for women, free from sexual harassment and gender-based violence? What are some of the ways women have won improvements, and how did they build their power to do this?
In this episode:
A union in Indonesia declares an industrial park a ‘harassment free zone’: Dian Septi Trisnanti, FBLP, Indonesia
An Enforceable Brand Agreement aims to end severe gender-based violence in factories in Lesotho: Motheba Ramaema & Sam Mokhele, NACTWU, Rola Abimourched, WRC.
Rukmini tells her story of becoming a union founder, and why more women need to lead worker struggles: Rukmini, GLU, India
Campaigns to ratify ILO Convention 190 on Violence and Harassment: Priscilla Robledo, CCC Italy and Sina Marx, FEMNET, Germany
Please tell us what inspired you about this show, and share your feedback, comments and questions, by emailing: podcast@cleanclothes.org
Speakers:
Dian Septi Trisnanti, founder of FBLP union (Federasi Buruh Lintas Pabrik) , Chairperson of KPBI union, Indonesia Motheba Ramaema, shop steward, National Clothing, Textile and Allied Workers Union, Lesotho Sam Mokhele, General Secretary, National Clothing, Textile and Allied Workers Union, Lesotho Rola Abimourched, Senior Program Director at the Worker Rights Consortium, USA. Rukmini Vaderapura Puttaswamy, President of Garment Labour Union (GLU), Bangalore. Priscilla Robeldo, campaigner and lobby and advocacy coordinator with CCC Italy. Sina Marx, Coordinator International Projects and Campaigns, FEMNET, Germany.
Cracking Corporate Impunity
Episode 3
Tuesday, January 11, 2022 • Duration 29:43
In this episode, our contributors reflect on laws and regulations for holding brands and retailers accountable for violations of worker rights in the factories that supply them, including:
Nayla Ajaltouni from Collectif Ethique sur L'Etiquette in France tells how campaigners succeeded in getting the first law protecting human rights in supply chains passed in France – and how this law might set a European precedent for stronger worker rights protection.
Nasir Mansoor from NTUF in Pakistan reflects on the experience of using legal mechanisms to hold KiK accountable for the Ali Enterprises fire.
Muriel Treibich from the CCC International Office introduces human rights due diligence and presents opportunities including the European Supply Chain.
Scott Nova from WRC in the USA highlights the closing of a loophole means the section of the US Tariff Act that prohibits companies importing goods made with forced labour could be enforced.
Please tell us what inspired you about this show, and share your feedback, comments and questions, by emailing: podcast@cleanclothes.org
How can we get fair pay in workers’ pockets, and replace poverty wages with a real living wage? What new tools can our campaigns use?
In this episode:
Reflections on how low wages help trap workers as much as bonded labour (Tola Mouen, CENTRAL, Cambodia)
A research project starts gathering wage slip data across several countries, in a step to hold brands accountable for the pay their workers receive (Anne Bienias, CCCIO; Martua Raja Siregar, Garteks, Indonesia)
The EU Directive on Minimum Wages falls well short of what’s needed, but still provides campaign and negotiation opportunities (Štefica, Garment Worker; Mario Iveković, Novi Sindikat; Nikola Ptić, Regional Industrial Trade Union, Croatia)
Activists in European production countries learn from the experience in Asia, as they define what a living wage should be across borders (Bojana Tamindzija, CCC Serbia, Artemisa Ljarja, CCC Germany)
Thoughts on how a living wage is essential to tackling globalisation (Ashim Roy, Mill Mazdoor Panchayat & AFWA, India)
Please tell us what inspired you about this show, and share your feedback, comments and questions, by emailing: podcast@cleanclothes.org
If you want to know more about the Europe Floor Wage, including its methodology, you can find that here, and in even more detail here.
Speakers:
Anne Bienias, Clean Clothes Campaign International Office, Amsterdam
Martua Raja Siregar, Garteks Trade Union, Indonesia
Štefica, Garment Worker, Croatia
Mario Iveković, President, Novi Sindikat Trade Union, Croatia
Nikola Ptić, Regional Industrial Trade Union, Croatia
Ashim Roy, Asia Floor Wage Alliance International Secretariat, India
Formalise It! Rights for All Workers
Episode 5
Friday, January 7, 2022 • Duration 36:15
Formalise It! Rights for All Workers
How can we expand rights to all garment workers, no matter where they work – in factories or their own homes, or as refugees or migrants far from their country of origin?
In this episode:
How workers from Myanmar fought for the pay they were owed, from a factory in Mae Sot, Thailand (Brahm Press, MAP Foundation)
Some of the challenges faced by migrant workers in Thailand, and what support is needed (Reiko Harima, Mekong Migration Network)
The story of Hussain, a refugee garment worker in Turkey
How home-based workers – mostly working in the garment sector – have got organised over several decades, and some of their wins (Janhavi Deva, HomeNet International; Zehra Khan, Home Based Women Workers Federation; Poonsap Tulaphan, Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion)
Building collaboration between home-based worker and other worker rights supporters (Marlese von Broembsen, WIEGO)
Please tell us what inspired you about this show, and share your feedback, comments and questions, by emailing: podcast@cleanclothes.org
Speakers:
Brahm Press, MAP Foundation, Thailand
Reiko Harima, Mekong Migration Network, Japan
Hussain, Turkey
Mariam Danishjo, Turkey
Janhavi Deva, HomeNet International, India
Zehra Khan, Home Based Women Workers Federation, Pakisan
Poonsap Tulaphan, Foundation for Labour and Employment Promotion
Marlese von Broembsen, Women in Informal Employment Globalising and Organising
Host: Febriana Firdaus (febrianafirdaus.com) Field Reporters: Petra Ivsic and Aca Vragolovic Sound Engineering Support: Steve Adam (www.spectrosonics.com.au) Producer: Matthew Abud Clean Clothes Podcast Team: Anne Dekker, Johnson Ching-Yin Yeung, Liz Parker, Tanne de Goei
A Just Transition
Episode 6
Thursday, January 6, 2022 • Duration 30:55
Industries around the world including the garment sector have to change if we’re going to survive the climate and ecological crisis. How can we make sure that worker and community rights are at the centre of this change?
In this episode:
Efforts in the Philippines to develop a Just Transition campaign for workers and communities (Rochelle Porras, EILER)
What a Just Transition must involve, from a global union perspective (Alison Tate, ITUC)
Campaigns to pressure garment manufacturers to stop polluting the environment that also highlight worker rights (Urska Trunk, Changing Markets)
How environment movements and worker movements share the same goals in a Just Transition (Karin Nansen, Friends of the Earth)
Steps the Clean Clothes Campaign can take to push for a Just Transition for garment workers (Tibbe Smith-Larsen, CCC)
Please tell us what inspired you about this show, and share your feedback, comments and questions, by emailing: podcast@cleanclothes.org
Speakers:
Rochelle Porras, EILER, Philippines
Alison Tate, ITUC
Urska Trunk, Changing Markets
Karin Nansen, Friends of the Earth Uruguay & Friends of the Earth International
Tibbe Smith-Larsen, Europe Coalition Coordinator
Host: Febriana Firdaus (febrianafirdaus.com) Field Reporters: Petra Ivsic and Aca Vragolovic Sound Engineering Support: Steve Adam (www.spectrosonics.com.au) Producer: Matthew Abud Clean Clothes Podcast Team: Anne Dekker, Johnson Ching-Yin Yeung, Liz Parker, Tanne de Goei
Full Transcript
HOST:
Related Shows Based on Content Similarities
Discover shows related to Clean Clothes Podcast, based on actual content similarities. Explore podcasts with similar topics, themes, and formats, backed by real data.
Host: Febriana Firdaus (febrianafirdaus.com) Field Reporter: Harsha Vadlamani
Interpreter: Kaveri Sound Engineering Support: Steve Adam (www.spectrosonics.com.au) Producer: Matthew Abud Clean Clothes Podcast Team: Anne Dekker, Johnson Ching-Yin Yeung, Liz Parker, Tanne de Goei
Full Transcript
DIAN:
When we built our union in 2009, most of us, the officers, are women. And we have the same vision for the equality and also fight against GBV. We have method in organise women workers as women.
HOST:
That’s Dian Septi Trisnanti, one of the founders of the Forum Buruh Lintas Pabrik union, or FBLP in Indonesia.
Welcome to episode two of the Clean Clothes podcast. I’m Febriana Firdaus.
This time, we’re talking women workers – about the violence and harassment they often endure
And some ways of building power and fighting back.
In 2014 Dian’s union joined with other organisations, to promote women’s rights in a large industrial park in North Jakarta, Indonesia.
DIAN:
There are two union, one women’s organisation, and Jakarta Legal Aid, become one alliance in the women worker committee, to struggle against GBV, gender based violence. We have two programs, the first program is to install warning board that the industrial park is free from Gender Based Violence or sexual harassment.
HOST:
The warning board was a large sign that announced the industrial park was a zone free of gender-based violence and harassment.
It was part of a strategy to raise the profile and awareness of this as an issue for workers.
And of course, as a warning to any perpetrators.
DIAN:
The industrial park, KBN Cakung, in North Jakarta, agreed to install the warning board in 2016 on November, it’s the international day against women violence.
HOST:
Dian also directed a documentary film, Angka Jadi Suara, which followed this effort.
The film shows the effort behind the campaign. This included lobbying the management of the industrial park, and the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection.
At the centre of the film though, is the workers – and the sexual harassment and gender-based violence they experience.
DIAN:
There were one person, one woman, who want to tell the story. This women, my friend yeah, she has a trauma. The interview takes about five hours and we have to stop about one hour just to give her time to stop and then take a breath and then take a break. And after that I asked to her if she want to stop then we will stop. But she said that she will not stop because if not now, then when? And after the documentary finish the first person that we give the edited version is her.
HOST:
The documentary had a number of public screenings, and media coverage.
It took the story beyond the industrial park, to a bigger audience.
The voices of women workers, are at the centre of the union’s efforts.
In 2012 they established community radio station Marsinah FM.
The station is named after Marsinah, a female union leader murdered in 1993 under the Suharto dictatorship.
DIAN:
We know that as a women, the social construction always ask us to be silent and do not have any chance to share our opinion. We have to be brave enough to speak up our mind. The community radio teach us to speak up our mind in our studio. We have journalistic, journalism training. We encourage women workers to write their story. It increase women workers’ confidence that they have ability to write, to tell the story and to be recognised by the community because they can speak their mind and share it in the social media.
HOST:
Supporting women’s leadership, in the union and the community, is the central focus.
That includes Dian’s friend, who told her story for the documentary film.
DIAN:
She now go to college. She have scholarship. And she built a house that poor children, they learn about theatre, art, and also about the school the education, and she look for scholarship for the children that want to continue their school.
HOST:
Just last year, the FBLP merged with another union to become the All-Indonesia United Workers Confederation, or KPBI.
In the November Congress, Dian was elected chairperson.
HOST:
In Maseru, Lesotho, workers have been subjected to severe and extensive sexual harassment and sexual violence in the factories of global supplier, Nien Hsing.
An investigation by the US-based Worker Rights Consortium, from 2017 to 2019, documented the scale and nature of the abuse.
This led to a ground-breaking Enforceable Brand Agreement, with a program led by local unions and non-government organisations, to end the abuse.
Production: Matthew Abud with support from Anne Dekker
Podcast Team: Johnson Ching-Yin Yeung, Liz Parker, Tanne de Goei
Full Transcript
JUDGE:
Order! Order! I mean it – I will have order in this court!
Now then. To the defendant. Mr. Ralph Hermes Vuitton
You may deliver your statement.
RHV:
Thank you, Your Honour. May I say with great humility, I’m humbled by the privilege to address this court. Very humbled. Humblingly so.
Because as everyone knows, we at Ralph Vuitton are a humble, ethical, caring, socially responsible, innovative brand ...and we pay record dividends!
The simple fact is – we didn’t know! And our promise is – we will do better!
We can’t know everything our suppliers do. It’s unrealistic.
We have thousands of them! We change them all the time! Some employees even work from home. Are we supposed to visit them too?
I mean, what would happen to my exclusive trench coat in those neighbourhoods? It would be ruined.
JUDGE:
Order! Come on now, let’s have a little order here.
Right. Now Mr. Vuitton. Please keep to the point.
RHV:
Yes your Honour. To put it simply.
Did we make the building a fire trap with no escape? No, we didn’t.
Did we ban the workers from organising together or cut their pay? No, it wasn’t us.
Can you blame me that women are constantly harassed in the workplace? That’s outrageous!
Let me finish with this point. Your Honour, could I say how stylish you would look in a bold red Faux Leather Coat. For you, it would be an affordable 175 Euros.
But if we had to pay for all the things they propose? Why, it could go up to 176! We’d be bankrupt!
Thank you, Your Honour.
JUDGE:
And why are you giving me your business card, Mr Vuitton?
RHV:
Just if you are interested in that Faux Leather Coat.
JUDGE:
This is not a sales pitch, Mr. Ralph Hermes Vuitton. We’re in a court of law. Do you understand?
HOST:
Could that be the court-room of the future?
Where brands must prove that they take care of human rights, through their whole supply chain?
I’m Febriana Firdaus.
Welcome to episode three of the Clean Clothes Podcast.
Today we talk human rights due diligence, and making laws to keep brands honest.
Human rights abuse includes stolen wages, sexual harassment, and union busting.
It has also cost many workers their lives.
This is Nasir Mansoor, General Secretary of the National Trade Union Federation or NTUF in Pakistan.
NASIR:
There was a tragedy in September 2012, where in a factory there was a fire and 260 workers died in that factory. And that factory was producing merchandise for a German brand, its name was KIK. So when we look into the law, even Pakistani law, European law, German law, we didn’t get any space for the workers to go for filing of a case and make them accountable for it.
So in that context we get to know that we should have, not only in Pakistan but also in European Union there would be some kind of a law or some kind of a mechanism to make them account for. Unfortunately after filing a case in Dortmund against KIK in German court, after three years of hearings, the court verdict that on technically on Pakistani laws it was a time bar issue.
HOST:
The push for human rights supply chain laws, has a long history.
Trade Unions and NGOs campaigned on it for decades.
This is Muriel Treibich, Lobby and Advocacy Coordinator for Clean Clothes Campaign
MURIEL:
Of course a lot of the initial efforts were pushed by NGOs and trade unions that highlighted really important cases and important situations where that would happen. And so for years they brought information, reports, they communicated, they campaigned about those issues. And progressively that led also to the international recognition that that was an issue, and that was something that international institutions, governments, the United Nations, had to look at.
In 2011 when you had the United Nations that published their first Guiding Principles on business and human rights. And what it says, is that first states have an obligation to ensure the respect of human rights, but that also companies have a responsibility to protect human rights. And that was let’s say one of the first recognitions, and one of the biggest recognition that yes, international companies have a responsibility to protect human rights across their supply chain and not only in the companies and in the operations they fully own and they fully control.
The human rights due d...
Host: Febriana Firdaus (febrianafirdaus.com) Field Reporters: Petra Ivsic and Aca Vragolovic
Sound Engineering Support: Steve Adam (www.spectrosonics.com.au) Producer: Matthew Abud Clean Clothes Podcast Team: Anne Dekker, Johnson Ching-Yin Yeung, Liz Parker, Tanne de Goei
Full Transcript
TOLA:
Even the law, even the convention of ILO, mention that people working 8 hours per day and they should, they should be entitled to the decent living standard with human dignity. We talk with the workers, no single worker work, in our experience work only 8 hour per day and then enjoy with the decent living standard. Visibly we see that they have to force themselves to work overtime. Even you are not well enough, you are sick. And then if you just complain, you just make the complaint, they may frame up you with any criminal cases in the courts. So this is happening. So wage for me, as I said, it’s a key issue that put the people into the modern-day slavery. Forced labour. They don’t lock you by the key but they lock you by the system.
HOST:
That’s Tola Moeun, founder of the worker rights NGO CENTRAL in Cambodia.
Today we’re talking about workers’ pay.
How to use data to make the reality of poverty wages transparent.
And ways to campaign for a living wage.
TOLA:
The supplier always say we cannot pay higher living wage or minimum wage because the brand just pay them low price, but we don’t know how much the brand paid to the supplier because the business agreement between the brand and the supplier is quite confidential, so it is not transparent enough and then the brand does not disclose, even some brand do not disclose their supply list so we don’t know, and then the brand make an excuse saying ok they do not have much leverage to pressure their supplier because they have a small percentage of order either from the country or either from the individual factory.
The business agreement between the brand and the supplier, should be transparent. We know that some information they should hide, but I think the export country should also consider about the ethical information act, so the brand will not be free in terms of providing a fake information to the consumers or to its own government in terms of the situations of the workers where they’re producing the clothes. I know that in Norway for example they had introduced already the ethical information act, which hold their business or private sector be accountable in providing the accurate or real information to consumers, transparency in terms of throughout the supply chains.
HOST:
Welcome to the show. I’m Febriana Firdaus.
Making supply chains more transparent, is a key campaign tool.
The fashionchecker.org website, is a step towards this.
It matches brands with their supplier factories, so consumers and campaigners, can see where clothes are made.
But this does not show factory conditions, including how much suppliers pay their workers
To try and change this, a recent Fashion Checker project began collecting worker wage slips in several countries.
Anne Bienias is from the Clean Clothes Campaign’s International Office.
ANNE:
We can’t just go out and campaign and ask for brands to pay something because they will always say they’re already doing that, or that it’s not as bad as we’re saying. So we need real data, we need real evidence to show that we are right and that workers have the right to earn more. So it might seem like just a small part, but it’s very important for our credibility also as a Network that our campaigns are fact-based or data-based.
HOST:
Martua Raja Siregar is from the Garteks trade union in Indonesia.
His union was part of the research.
He says getting wage slips from workers can be difficult.
RAJA:
For in the field, it’s some of the workers is afraid that their name will leak to the company, and some workers also afraid that the name of the company will be give to the brands and they scared that the brands say that this company is not good and then they stop the orders, it will be also impact to the workers. It’s also difficult for us actually to expose the name of the workers and also expose the name of the company directly if we put it in public.
ANNE:
We told the workers we would not publish the name of the factory. But it’s then impossible to make the connection to the brand, and that’s ultimately what you want to do, because you want to hold the brand accountable for the poverty wage that they’re paying. It might be that we do eventually publish the name of the factory if we know that that worker is no longer working in that factory for example, because it’s usually workers that we know. But yes, it’s very tricky and the last thing we want to do as a campaign is of course to put workers at risk.
HOST:
The research gathered data in several countries.
Full Transcript
HOST:
Welcome to the show, in our second instalment of the Clean Clothes Podcast.
I’m Febriana Firdaus.
Today we’re talking about rights for all workers – meaning migrant workers. Refugee workers. Home-based workers.
Workers who might not have all the right documents, or who might be hidden from view.
Sometimes governments and employers, don’t see them as workers at all.
But they still demand their rights.
Mae Sot is in Thailand near the Myanmar border.
Refugees and migrant workers from Myanmar, have lived there for decades.
Now it has hundreds of garment factories that depend on migrant workers.
They’re often underpaid to an extreme degree.
The Kanlayanee factory there made clothes for famous brands: Starbucks, Disney, NBC Universal, and Tesco.
In 2019 the workers demanded their proper pay.
Brahm Press takes up the story.
And just a note: Kanlayanee is the name of the factory, and the name of the factory owner as well.
BRAHM:
My name’s Brahm Press, the Director of MAP Foundation. MAP Foundation started in 1996, and one of the things we do is we have a process of developing peer leaders, and other migrant worker leaders, identify people who are potential leaders, give them training, and eventually even have passed some through paralegal training. So these workers are able to organise other workers, so that they can collectively bargain with employers for improved working conditions.
In 2019, we invited a reporter from Reuters to Mae Sot to look at the issue of underpayment of wages to migrant workers in factories, and found workers from the Kanlayanee factory. Everyone was being underpaid and there were massive labour rights violations going on. And this developed into a story mainly because these factories were producing for American brands.
Soon after that, the factory closed once Starbucks withdrew its order. So out of the 50 workers around half decided they wanted to take their case for redress, they wanted to make claims for unpaid back wages, unpaid overtime including working on days off and holidays. This group as it turns out, had also passed through some paralegal trainings that MAP had provided so they were very active and very aware of their rights.
Kanlayanee wanted to negotiate with the workers, and so she started negotiations at around half a million Baht, and there were a couple of rounds of negotiation but it was unsatisfactory. So that was around the time that we decided that maybe we should look at the brands. MAP, CCC and WRC, Worker Rights Consortium, worked together along with our community partner CBO, known as Arakan Workers Organisation.
The factory owner actually put up pictures of all the workers who were part of the claims, and said do not hire these people, basically put out a blacklist and everywhere they went they found that they were not accepted even though they have obviously extensive experience in garment factories. A lot of them stayed together and they were sharing food which included foraging for like bamboo shoots and morning glory and other things that were just available in the jungle or on the roadside and then eat that with the rice. So it was difficult.
So finally in August or September the court ordered Kanlayanee to pay thirty per cent of the total, or around one point one million Baht. She was able to pay that pretty much right there and then, and so from that, we then turned around and asked the brands to simply pay a portion of the remainder divided between the four brands. Reuters was covering the situation and giving updates on who was paying and who was not, so again that media back-strategy was really helpful.
That left Universal as the last company not to pay any compensation. Three companies paid, including Starbucks. In order to pressure Universal, we decided to focus on their character the Minions from the Despicable Me cartoon, which I think was what was being produced there. And so there were videos and photos of workers dressed as Minions doing the same things to survive as the workers. It was rather cute and creative but at the same time very meaningful.
Later in February NBC approached us and Clean Clothes Campaign saying they would pay, kind of out of the blue. The workers are amazing because besides taking care of their debts and remitting back to their families, mostly they’ve also decided to use funds to help improve the workers’ centre by the CBO that I mentioned, Arakan Workers Organisation, and that centre will help receive similar complaints, and they also put together funds to purchase dry foods to assist other workers in the area who are out of work due to COVID. So that’s our story.
HOST:
That was Brahm Press from MAP Foundation.
The situation for migrant workers is often complicated.
It depends on labour law, but also migration laws. The details are different, in different countries.
Mae Sot is just one example....
Welcome to the Clean Clothes Podcast.
In today’s show we’re talking about a Just Transition.
It’s a big conversation.
KARIN:
We believe that the systemic crisis are interconnected, be it the climate crisis, biodiversity crisis, water crisis, food crisis, and now the pandemic. So if we all want to overcome this crisis, this systemic crisis we face, we really need the people’s movements, people’s organisations, to come together.
HOST:
It’s about how we need to build a better world, if we want to survive in the future.
And about what that means for the rights of all workers.
URSKA:
I mean in general we’re talking about one of the most polluting industries on the planet, synonymous with over-consumption, pollution, increasing waste crisis, but also exploitation of workers in the global supply chains
HOST:
And what the Clean Clothes Campaign Network needs to do.
TIBBE:
To have a consciousness about the environmental issues, climate issues, it’s still quite a new thing. And I think it really is a challenge for us as a Network now to understand what are these implications for workers, and what are the responses that we propose and what is it that we imagine a Just Transition looks like
HOST:
You just heard from several of our guests – we’ll meet them all again, later in the show.
I’m Febriana Firdaus.
The challenges of climate and ecological crisis are profound. But in many ways, we’re still working out what it involves for workers.
How do we transition from the current business model to one that is good for workers and the environment?
In mainstream debates a lot of the talk is about a just transition in the energy sector.
Often Just transition is seen as something for the energy sector to carry out.
We need to change the energy sector – but we also need much more than that
This episode is about starting some of that discussion.
With people in the Clean Clothes Network, and with others outside it.
Right now, a Just Transition can have different meanings for different movements.
But the campaigns will be stronger, if these meanings are connected. If the understanding is shared.
How do we make that happen in our own countries, and our own places of work?
Rochelle Porras is Executive Director of EILER, Ecumenical Institute For Labor Education and Research in the Philippines.
ROCHELLE
It’s true, we have to really transition into a low-carbon economy otherwise we won’t have a planet to live in, the production system is absolutely not sustainable as of the moment. But I guess the problem lies in the implementation of the programs that the country-level policies when we talk about Just Transition. First and foremost Just Transition in developing countries like the Philippines receive less attention because the energy industry is still is facing the very basic of problems such as you know, many of our areas still don’t have electricity. So it’s mind-blowing for us to talk about these technological advancement when the very basic, you know we need electricity to run things, something as basic as that, we don’t have it yet. Likewise the Philippine energy industry’s also guided by privatisation, liberalisation, and so no public ownership. And renewable energy industries are primarily being provided and enjoyed by the biggest industry players as well.
As a third-world country it’s a lot different. So a lot of production are happening in South East Asian countries including the Philippines. But a lot of the design, the research, the planning, these are happening in the countries where multinational corporations are hosted or based. So what we get here in producing countries are the model of production that these multi-national corporations want us to take on in order to produce the products that they needed. So essentially there is no technological transfer and once a new technology is introduced in a setup of a neo-colonial country and with the rise of neo-liberalisation as well, most of the workers experience displacement.
Decent work will not exist if workers’ rights and welfare are not protected, and if the current economic systems that you know, we have in this present COVID-19 pandemic is promoting neo-liberal policies and extreme attacks on workers’ wages, labour standards and welfare, if this persists you know, green jobs will not really mean decent work or decent job quality for all.
We felt like it is high time to start a worker-led Just Transition, hence we started a round table discussion in 2018 and from there we gathered more facts and then brought it out and presented it to NGOs, CSOs that we work with, such as environmental groups that are working on transition to renewable energy and so on. By 2019 we have pledges from unions in the service sector, in the manufacturing sector, and likewise included are the agricultural workers. We have all agreed and pledged that this will be a campaign platform and a research platform to conduct more evidence-based research on the possibility and understanding the impact of implementing just transition in the particular industries.
You know the organised forces of labour and along with the environmental groups and the youth are all involved in understanding that without a collective voice and co...
