Big garment brands and retailers have their products made under exploitative and unhealthy conditions by girls in Tamil Nadu, South India. The girls, mostly younger than 18 and from a Dalit (‘outcaste’) background are employed under the Sumangali Scheme. Continue reading “SOMO Captured by cotton”
(Español) Empleadas de Zara se mobilizan contra el abuso de la contratación a tiempo parcial
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(Español) Zara: otra marca que viola los derechos humanos.
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Captured by Cotton
Exploited Dalit girls produce garments in India for European and US markets
This report highlights several labour rights violations faced by girls and young women employed under the Sumangali Scheme in the Tamil Nadu garment industry. The Sumangali Scheme equals bonded labour, on the basis of the fact that employers are unilaterally holding back part of the workers’ wages until three or more years of work have been completed.
Made in Dagenham
In 1968, the Ford auto factory in Dagenham was one of the largest single private employers in the United Kingdom. In addition to the thousands of male employees, there are also 187 underpaid women machinists who primarily assemble the car seat upholstery in poor working conditions. Continue reading “Made in Dagenham”
(Español) Tejiendo salarios dignos en el mundo.
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Strike at the garment industry in Egypt
Garment strikes and Arab spring
The 2008 Egyptian general strike was a strike which occurred on 6 April 2008, by Egyptian workers, primarily in the state-run textile industry, in response to low wages and rising food costs. Strikes are illegal in Egypt and authorities have been given orders to break demonstrations forcefully in the past. The strike took place just two days before key municipal elections. Continue reading “Garment strikes and Arab spring”
The women of Brukman
During the 2001 economic collapse in Argentina, the seamstresses at Brukman’s Clothing Factory took over the operation the owners had abandoned. They reorganized it on a self-management model, without a doubt the most inspiring of the many new economic experiments in that country. Isaac Isitan followed these courageous women over many years, their struggle to get the operation running again, their expulsion from the factory, months of battling to get it back, and tangles with the law. This is the story of a venture that began as a means of survival and became a genuine school for civics.