☆ Intro ☆ Call ☆ Supporters ☆ Reports of Actions ☆ Brands involved ☆

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The poor conditions of sanitary facilities as well as the lack of menstrual products pose severe problems for factory workers worldwide. The Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM) together with the working group Asia of the International Confederation of Labour (ICL) initiated an international call to commemorate the Day of Feminist Struggles on March 8th and push for changes inside the factories.

On March 8th the factory workers will attempt to inform the management/owners about their demands. All comrades worldwide can help to increase the pressure by approaching the retailers/ brands involved, for example by handing over the demands put forward by the factory unions on the ground to the store management.

Contact: asia@icl-cit.org

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Call: International Day of Feminist Struggle –
Menstrual products for all who need them!

Imagine you’re in pain, you’re bleeding, but you cannot leave work. You do not only risk consequences – you physically cannot leave the premises without the permission of your boss.

That is the reality for thousands of female workers at garment factories in South and South East Asia. Especially in Myanmar, the situation got even worse within the past four years, since the military forcibly took power, (re)installing a dictatorship. Even when the female workers are on their period they have to work overtime, six days a week and without proper sanitary facilities. In addition, the prices for menstrual pads have been rising so high, that most workers cannot afford them anymore. The toilets aren’t clean, there’s trash all over the place, the lights aren’t working properly and the workers use left over fabric from the garment factories as pads, often resulting in infections and allergies.

Not just in Myanmar – affected people all over the world have to pay for their own menstrual products and need to perform like anyone else on their jobs while suffering from pain and bleeding. Some are worse off than others as pain is always individual, and the various factors that lead to pain affect each person differently and vary from day to day.

In some countries, like South Korea, Taiwan and Zambia, some form of a right to menstrual leave was introduced already. Also, in Spain a similar regulation was just passed in 2023. Looking at these examples, there is no excuse for other countries not to follow suit!

On the global level we struggle for:

• Free menstrual products at the workplace or the payment of a bonus equal to the cost of these products!
• Paid leave for workers during their menstruation period!
• Adjustment of workload for pregnant or menstruating workers and dropping of imposed production targets!

The comrades of FGWM push for the following demands inside the factories:

• Free menstrual products at the workplace or the payment of a bonus equal to the cost of these products!
• Paid leave during menstruation period and a guarantee that workers can leave the factory or have the possibility to rest at the factory clinic!
• Adjustment of workload for pregnant or menstruating workers and dropping of compulsory production targets!
• Clean toilets, drinking water, soap and additional garbage bins for menstrual products at all factories!
• Provide necessary healthcare for female workers at the workplace – also during their menstruation period!
• Provide contraceptives for free or pay a refund!

Our demands are directed at the factory owners as well as the brands/ corporations, which mainly profit from the exploitation inside the factories. They must ensure that the required working conditions are met at the factories they source from!

The factory unions on the ground affiliated to FGWM confirm that production is currently taking place for the following brands: 

1/ Sinsay (owned by LPP S.A. based in Gdansk, Poland. The company owns five distinct fashion brands: Reserved, House, Cropp, Mohito and Sinsay.)
2/ SHISKY (owned by DRIVE Ltd based in Nagoya, Japan)
3/ BREIZH OCEAN (based in Saint-Vigor-le-Grand, France)
4/ ONLY & VERO MODA (both belong to the company BESTSELLER based in Brande, Denmark)
5/ SOULCAL & CO (owned by the retail, sport and intellectual property group Frasers Group plc based in Shirebrook, UK)
6/  H & M (owned by H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB based in Stockholm, Sweden)
7/ ENCUENTRO (Encuentro Fashion Group based in Barcelona, Tenerife and Shanghai)
8/ ZARA & Bershka (both owned by the multinational fashion design, manufacturing, and retailing group Inditex based in Arteixo, Spain)
9/ SIOEN (Sioen Industries based in Ardooie, Belgium)
10/ FB SISTER (belongs to the retailer New Yorker – New Yorker Group Services International GmbH & Co.KG – based in Braunschweig, Germany)
11/ La Vie En Rose (owned by Boutique La Vie en Rose Inc. based in Montreal, Canada)
12/ Hunkemöller (Hunkemöller International B.V. based in Hilversum, Netherlands and Worcestershire, UK)
13/ My Specials (belongs to Women’Secret based in Madrid, Spain)
14/ FieldCore (owned by Workman Co., Ltd. based in Shiba-cho, Japan)
15/ Etam (Etam Groupe based in Paris, France)
16/ LC Waikiki (ready-to-wear fashion company based in Istanbul, Turkey)
17/ Wilson Sporting Goods (owned by Amer Sports based in Helsinki, Finland)
18/ BH Bikes (Beistegui Hermanos S.A. based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain)

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Supporters of this call:

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Reports of Actions:

Berlin

Members of the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) Berlin rallied in front of the H&M store in Kurfürstendamm on March 7th. The following day comrades joined the 8M rally in the city center with the FGWM solidarity banner. (instagram.com)

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Chiang Mai

The feminist initiative Sisters 2 Sisters joined an event in Chiang Mai – the second biggest city in Thailand – together with several other organisations to mark the International Day of Feminist Struggle on March 8th. Speeches were held on a stage, also the six demands of FGWM were presented. The program on stage was followed by a rally. The common claim Solidarity Against Patriarchy was displayed. (facebook.com)

The news channel Prachatai reports about the event:

On Saturday (8 March), activists in Chiang Mai staged an International Women’s Day march from Tha Pae gate to the Three Kings Monument carrying signs calling attention to gender equality issues, from abortion rights and the legalization of sex work to calling for support for women facing violence in Myanmar.

The march was organized by the Northern Labour Network, the MAP Foundation, the Empower Foundation, the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), and other civil society groups.

Chananad Chotsuwanrat from the queer feminist group Sapphic Pride said that there needs to be more visibility for issues relating to queer women in Thailand and that she would like gender issues to be viewed through an intersectional lens.

Napatporn Pannao, a participant in the march, said that there need to be more changes when it comes to women’s rights issues, and that people must come together for change, such as for welfare issues like access to sanitary products and abortion rights.

Momo, another participant from Myanmar, joined the march in solidarity with the movement for women’s rights, noting that women in Myanmar are currently unable to celebrate International Women’s Day, which is a day for gender equality, because they are facing violence and their lives are not safe.

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Dortmund

Comrades of the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) Ruhr spontaneously decided to confront the involved stores of H&M, Vero Moda, ONLY, Hunkemöller, ZARA and New Yorker in Dortmund on March 8th. They handed over the demands of FGWM to the store management asking them to forward them to their headquarter and put the factory owner under pressure to give in to the workers’ demands on the ground. (ruhr.fau.org)

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Freiburg

In Freiburg the local section of the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) staged rallies in front of New Yorker and H&M. Also here comrades attempted to forwarded the demands of the local factory unions to the respective store management.

A comrade reports:

Freiburg: On the afternoon of March 8, we held a rally with about 20 people in front of the H&M and New Yorker stores in the city center of Freiburg. We gave speeches, listened to Helene’s audio speech and distributed a total of 600 flyers to passers-by and customers. We printed out the FGWM’s demands in large print and handed them out to store employees. In both cases, the store management withdrew as soon as it became clear that we wanted to speak to them directly. At H&M, the manager referred us to the control center in Hamburg (We’ll try to send the demands to the stores by email as well.) We then took part in the Freiburg March 8th Alliance demonstration with the banner and played an audio speech with extracts from the Fundraising Mobi video. (freiburg.fau.org)

The Free Radio Dreyeckland reports about the action: rdl.de.

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Göttingen

A comrade on the ground reports:

• A rally with a few hundred people (maybe 600) took place.
• A picture in solidarity with the factory workers in Myanmar was taken in front of the local New Yorker store.
• Letters with the demands of the local factory unions were handed over to the store management of H&M, ONLY, Vero Moda und New Yorker. The staff at Hunkemöller didn’t accept the letter, claiming that they won’t have a store management for at least the next three months.
• Speeches on the working conditions were held at the beginning of the rally and also while taking the solidarity picture at New Yorker.
• We spoke to the local press and emphasized that the connection to Göttingen, where the products manufactured under miserable conditions are sold, is particularly important to us.
• We distributed all of the 400 leaflets that we had and could have probably distributed another 400.

goettingen.fau.org

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Hamburg

Around 20 people joined a mini-rally through the city center of Hamburg on March 8th. Purpose of the rally was to confront various stores, namely H&M, New Yorker, ZARA and RESERVED with the demands of FGWM.
Letters listing the demands were also handed over to the store management of Hunkemöller, ONLY and Vero Moda inside the shopping center Europa Passage. Speeches were held at each station. Many leaflets informing about the struggle and the related crowdfunding were distributed to customers and passers-by.
All, accept for H&M, took the letter and confirmed to forward it to their headquarter. Since the H&M Germany headquarter is located in Hamburg, we visited them again on March 14th. We manage to give them a letter with the list of demands as well as pictures from the rallies in front of H&M stores in other cities.

After the successful rally, organised by comrades of FAU Hamburg and IWW Hamburg, some of them still joined the main 8M rally with thousands of people. The FGWM solidarity banner was also displayed at this occasion. (hamburg.fau.org)

Furthermore the below speech – made by comrades in Freiburg and Hamburg – was played at the beginning of the major rally in front of a few thousand people:

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Kassel

Comrades of FAU Kassel joined the 8M rally in the city center and displayed an FGWM solidarity banner. (kassel.fau.org)

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Lübeck

In the past few weeks the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) Lübeck already staged two rallies in front of the local New Yorker store. On March 8th they did so again and forwarded the demands of FGWM to the store management.

In addition a press release was published.

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Magdeburg

10 members of the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) Magdeburg visited stores of H&M, Vero Moda, New Yorker and ONLY and delivered the demands of FGWM. A pre-recorded speech was played and a few hundred leaflets distributed.

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Myanmar

Comrades of different factory unions across Myanmar took part in a photo action and communicated their six demands within their factories. For their own security the workers remain anonymous; also the factories should not be identifiable.

Most of the workers are well connected to the Federation of General Workers’ Myanmar (FGWM). (facebook.com)

In addition the FGWM Women’s Committee organised an online event for factory workers on the topic of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. (facebook.com)

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Pakistan

Comrades of the All Pakistan Federation of United Trade Unions (APFUTU) submitted the following report:

Under the auspices of the All Pakistan Federation of United Trade Unions, March 8 Women’s Day celebrations were organized across the country. In which a large number of women associated with employment in the private sector participated. The women demanded that the provincial and federal governments take practical steps to provide employment to women. While there is concern among working women due to non-payment of minimum wage. Because payment of minimum wage is the biggest problem in the private sector. Government institutions are not able to do anything to pay minimum wage. While women are not registered in the Social Security Institution and Old Age Pension Institution (EOBI). Government institutions do not register women at all.
The rights of working women are being violated due to the lack of interest of government institutions.
While women in the private sector do not have the right to form unions in any province, the government should take practical steps to improve the rights of labor and trade unions in the country.
The All Pakistan Federation of United Trade Unions celebrated International Women’s Day in a grand manner this year as every year. A large number of women participated and emphasized the need to openly discuss the rights of labor and trade unions and to obtain the right to form unions.

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Rostock

Comrades of FAU Rostock gathered in the city center in front of the H&M store at Kröpeliner Straße and distributed leaflets on March 7th. (instagram.com)

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Strasbourg

Comrades of CNT-F made this sign in context of the call and presented it during the main 8M rally in Strasbourg.

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The Swedish Syndikalisterna (SAC) and Myanmar Labour News also reported about the coordinations.

Questions related to the coordinations? Contact asia@icl-cit.org.

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Materials:

Leaflets related to the call can be downloaded here in English and German.