Garment workers of various factories rallied in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka (Bangladesh) on September 29th. This protest was called by the Garment Workers’ Trade Union Center (GWTUC) and kicked off the struggle for 25 000 BDT minimum monthly wage on the streets! Though 25 000 BDT don’t even equal 215 EUR (227 US$), this fight is essential to every single factory worker.
In 2018 the minimum wage was increased the last time. Since then workers have to get along with a meagre 8 000 BDT minimum wage. Since then also many people in Bangladesh suffered under an enormous inflation rate. Especially lower wage workers hardly get along.
Therefore GWTUC, which unites hundreds of thousands of garment workers across the country, fights for an increase in wages for garment workers of more than 200%!
Look out for a call of international solidarity in the future.
Hello, Mingalarbar. I’m reaching out to seek assistance from fellow members of international unions. I work in the garment industry and hold a leadership role within the union. I’m a part of both the Federation of General Workers (FGWM) and a leading position in a garment factory’s union. These unions have been actively combating labor exploitation and advocating for workers’ rights through united efforts. The recent military coup has turned our workplaces into unbearable environments. Under the leadership of FGWM, our trade unions initiated campaigns (inside factories) against the military dictatorship on February 5, 2021, immediately after the coup. On February 6, our union federation, FGWM became the pioneering group to voice opposition against the military rule in Yangon. Unfortunately, this led to their identification and subsequent capture by the military. Many workers have also become jobless as they fled their workplaces to escape danger. Some have been imprisoned due to the military’s arrests. At present, amidst extreme challenges and the oppressive actions of employers within the workplace, we are seeking aid for fellow workers. These individuals include those spearheading the movement for labor rights and federal democracy, as well as those imprisoned for advocating human and women’s rights in the workplace. We earnestly request support from our international unions and comrades to help with solidarity. We have only a limited time left to participate in the fundraising campaign aimed at supporting our comrades inside factories.
message by a factory worker shared on August 23rd, 2023
The FGWM consists of 40 (factory) labour unions and keeps uniting thousands of members. It is one of the very few labour federations known to us in Asia, which follows a grassroots approach. The FGWM has its roots in the textile factories of the industrial zones in Myanmar. The vast majority of secretaries had to flee to escape pocecution by the military junta and now operates from a house in exile. Some of the comrades who initiated this fundraising met them at their house last year. They emphasized they some of them only managed to escape with the support provided by the previous fundraising done last year. Despite the military dictatorship they continue with their efforts. The FGWM supports workers to get organised, follows labour fights (like the recent strike at Sun Apparel), which still take place under great danger, and also tries to support members facing state repression, for example seeking refuge or supporting them in prison as far as this is possible. Another focal point is to provide training opportunities for factory workers in regards to organising and labour struggles. All of this can’t be upheld without external support. Due to the extremely precarious living conditions, which evolved especially after the military coup in February 2021, the income of membership fees collapsed. Their supportive partners on the international level are the ICL Working Group Asia as well as the Solidarity Center.
First of all, you can support the work of FGWM by simply contributing to the fundraising. You can do so with a credit card using the firefund page or by transfering to the account of FAU Hamburg.
Account name: AS FAU Hamburg IBAN: DE43 4306 0967 2070 7898 00 BIC: GENODEM1GLS Bank name: GLS Bank Purpose: FGWM solidarity
In the end all contributions will be added to the firefund page. The amounts submitted via firefund will only be deducted from your account, if the fundraising is successful, i.e. in case the goal of 15 000 EUR is reached. Furthermore you can help to inform many others about this effort by spreading the links listed at the beginning. Furthermore you can order a stylish solidarity shirt at DNA Merch. They will take orders until August 31st 2023 and then ask a textile/ printing collective in Croatia to make them.
Workers at Sun Apparel Myanmar Co. Ltd garment factory have been on strike since June 6, 2023. Almost the whole factory workforce, totalling just more than 400 workers, united in the strike action. One of their main demands is an increase of the basic daily wage from 4,800 MMK (approx. 2.09€) to 6,000 MMK (approx. 2.61€) per day. According to the minimum wage law, the minimum wage should be reviewed every 2 years and the last time the minimum wage was set in 2018. Since then, no review took place. In the industrial zone, there are a number of factories which have recently increased the minimum daily wage to 5,600 MMK per day, which also motivated the workers to go on strike. The increase in wages is vital due to the significant inscreases in prices for basic commodities. Not increasing wages since 2018 is like cutting your wages each month!
According to sources close to the military council, M.T.W., the leader of the Sun Apparel Myanmar garment factory protest workers, has been arrested by the military council. M.T.W. was arrested a day before the scheduled date to negotiate the demands.
The sources also said that it was known that M.T.W. was arrested at around 11:00 p.m. on June 14, and was taken to the No. 1 Army Military Affairs Security Support Unit for questioning.
Another main demand is the increase of attendance bonus from 20,000 MMK (approx. 8.70€) to 40,000 MMK per month. This bonus was deducted during the Covid pandemic to 10,000 MMK and still remains at 10,000 MMK. In addition to these two main demands, there are several other demands related to serious violations of labour rights.
Those include:
Factory management calls for meetings during the workers’ lunch break.
Although there is no clause prohibiting to bring your mobile phone to the workplace, they are confiscated during work hours and not even stored properly, so that in some cases they are returned damaged.
For those workers who can’t or don’t want to work overtime after an eight-hour work day, the factory does not arrange return ferries to their homes. Furthermore the management refuses to pay the piece rate fees for the completed pieces during these eight hours.
The factory owners don’t provide a proper dining place for lunch breaks and therefore workers must eat at the car parking space.
The drinking water that the factory owners provide to the local workers is unclean and the drinking water tank is located just 3 feet away from the toilets for the female workers. In contrast, the factory provides commercial clean drinking water bottles to the foreign staff at the workplace.
Two leaders of the factory union were arrested so far, in an attempt to crush the strike. The factory union at Sun Apparel is part of the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM). You can support them by contributing to this fundraising ending August 31st, 2023.
Sun Apparel Myanmar garment factory is located in industrial zone 5 in Hlaingthayar township in Yangon and it is operating with a workforce of more than 400. According to the data collected since January 2022, Sun Apparel is a regular supplier to the JAKO sports clothing brand based in Germany.
Any possible calls against JAKO will also be announced here.
The Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM) shares the following updates:
Myanmar industrial workers, especially garment workers are in the front line against military dictatorship in Myanmar since the start of the coup and until now. They are still participating in every possible way in the struggle against the military junta, such as participating in flash mob strikes, online campaigns and funding the resistance forces.
The majority of garment workers are women. At the workplace, they face the violation of labour rights on various levels; e.g forced overtime without compensation, higher production targets demanded by bosses, pressure on permanent workers to resign and be employed again as daily wage workers. Recently a new trend can be observed: owners close their factories, re-open them again with another name, and re-hire workers as daily wage workers. Factory owners want to get rid of permanent workers to avoid having to pay legal entitlements. This is one way of how factory owners worsen working conditions and the life of workers in Myanmar. Due to the social and economic hardships, and lack of employment opportunities, an increase in child labour can be observed in the garment sector.
In the past two years the world was able to witness the brutality of the military towards the people in Mynamar. Thousands of civilians were killed and villages attacked. Many of which burnt down during air strikes.
The Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM) and Myanmar Labour Alliance (MLA), together with over 200 other civil society organizations, keep calling for the support of comprehensive economic sanctions on Myanmar. This is the only way to stop flow of money to the Myanmar military.
Brands are taking advantage of the political instability. In factories producing for major brands such as H&M, Lindex and Mark Apparel, workers are being attacked by supervisors, for example with a hot iron. These violent acts are part of a structural problem. They aim to put workers unter pressure to finish production targets. There are no mechanisms in place to prevent this kind of power abuse.
The FGWM joins Global May Day 2023 and will created t-shirts with these prints:
An alliance of 11 federations and unions in the garment sector of Bangladesh joined the Garment Workers’ Trade Union Center (GWTUC) in their call to fight for an increase in minimum wages to 25 000 BDT (approx. 215€ / 235US$) per month. That might not sound like much. But considering that the current minimum wage for garment workers in the country is a meager 8 000 BDT, an increase of more than 200% would be a real mile stone for the four million workers in that industry. The vast majority of which are female workers.
In Bangladesh you can find aroud 4000 garment factories, most of which produce for brands like Adidas, H&M, Nike, Marc O’Polo and Zara.
The GWTUC calls on fellow unions and individuals to stand in solidarity with the garment workers. See the call below. GWTUC has been involved with the Global May Day network in the past few years and also supports the call for Global May Day 2023.
Let’s bring their struggle to our streets and cities! Their fight is our fight! #unionisethefight #1world1struggle
This year the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) Hamburg actively supported a rally with the focus on the struggle against patriarchy on the global level. Inputs were held on the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz on the current conditions in Iran, Myanmar as well as Zimbabwe while also refering to patriarchal structures in Germany and Europe. Around 50 people joined the rally, partly with self-made signs.
The rally was shaped by faces of political prisoners in Iran, who are part of the feminist movement there. That’s why the predominant slogan of the day was Woman – Life – Freedom, which has its root in the Kurdish liberation movement.
After about an hour the main 8M demo of the day – organized by a broad local alliance passed by the rally. One of the rally organizers held a speech directed at the thousands of participants, pointing out the global dimension of the struggle against patriarchy.
For the rally a general leaflet was prepared in German and English as well as a hand-out focussing on the current uprising in Iran.
Below you will find some more on the content presented at the rally:
One of the focal points was the current feminist movement in Iran. Exemplarily inputs were given on the political prisoners Soheila Hejab, Sepideh Gholian, Zeynab Jalalian and the rappy Toomaj Salehi. Among others the song Shallagh by Toomaj and the rapper Justine was played, in which they express their support for the feminist movement:
That input was followed by a message recorded by our friends of the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM). The original audio file (in English) was played and each paragraph translated into German: (The translation can also be downloaded here (.pdf).)
Last but not least Patience prepared an input. Though she doesn’t live in Hamburg, she recorded a message for the rally as well. She focussed on the patriarchal circumstances in Zimbabwe. You can listen to her message here: (A translation of the text into German can be downloaded here (.pdf).)
The rally came to a closing end when members of the hip hop collective Rapfugees spontaneously performed some tracks. Everyone appreciated that. A big THANKS goes out to them! You can check out their music here.
Members of the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) and Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in Hamburg together with women who fled from the regime in Iran decided to organize a rally focussing on the international nature of the struggle against patriarchy in the city center of Hamburg.
They adopt the slogan Woman – Life – Freedom, and call on others to display it as well. By doing so you support the feminist movement in Iran and help to globalize the resistance against patriarchy at the same time. The slogan originates from the Kurdish liberation movement and became a rallying cry in the latest feminist movement triggered by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini on September 16th 2022.
The pictures show: Moreblessing Ali – Mya Thwe Thwe Khine – Jina Mahsa Amini
The rally in Hamburg will air feminist music and short speeches from different parts of the world.
Contribution by Patience on patriarchy in Zimbabwe:
After March 8th an overview of related activities in different parts of the world can be published on this website. In case you plan any actions, consider to include the slogan Woman – Life – Freedom and send a short report to the maling list: globalmayday@lists.riseup.net.
The comrades in Hamburg made this banner design as well as the below leaflet and invite you to distribute it in your location as well:
In case you want to make any changes to the leaflet, you can download the ZIP file HERE. It includes the .indd file for editing.
United for a powerful International Day of Feminist Struggles!
Statement released by the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM) to commemorate two years of military dictatorship following the coup in February 2021:
A Statement by the worker mass regarding the 2nd anniversary of 2021 Anti-junta Movements
Date : 5th February 2023
The Military junta forcibly seized power on 1st February 2021. In such miserable times, the public also experienced misleading information such as no public-protesting within 72 hours of the attempted coup. On 5th February, conscious workers of FGWM rose up against the Military Dictatorship. Over 12,000 workers and union leaders from 10 factories began the “Red Ribbon” campaign. On the next day, February 6th, workers and labour unions leaders marched through Insein Road and Parami Sein Gayhar Shopping Mall amidst all the risks and threats, protesting the coup and the military dictatorship. Students, People and Monks who joined the protesting workers will be remembered by our FGWM.
On this 6th February, it has been two years since the worker mass courageously rose up against the coup. As FGWM, we would like to declare to the public that we will vigorously continue our struggle until the fall of the dictatorship along with the workers.
With ultimate faith to the revolution, Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM)
In August foodpanda riders in Hong Kong submitted an open letter directed at the management following a fatal road accident of a fellow rider. In that letter – which is being supported by at least 25 rider unions internationally – they call for safer working conditions and compensations for the colleague’s family. (globalmayday.net) Reaction by the management: Some warm words, little action.
In September foodpanda finally introduced long awaited changes to the distance calculation system, the so called “real distance calculation scheme”. BUT, at the bottom line it resulted in pay cuts. In reaction riders went on strike for longer than 24 hours during the weekend in mid-October. (globalmayday.net) Reaction by the management: Some warm words, little action.
Consequently riders are back in action again and self-organized a second strike in a short period of time. On November 3rd and 4th (Thursday/ Friday) hundreds of riders refused to sell their labour and rallied at different points across Hong Kong instead:
rally in CE | “We want fair pay!”
Riders rally on the streets Nov. 4th
rally in TKW
On Nov 3 & 4, Hong Kong foodpanda riders had a strike of two full days, following the last one on Oct 15 & 16. The main issue is still the pay cut disguised under the new map system. This time, more zones are on strike and the service is shut down on a larger scale and to a greater extent. Riders become more experienced; the picket lines in some zones are performed in a highly organised way.
In the press conferences, riders’ show the unity and expose the lies made by foodpanda’s public relations. A motorcycle march is held at the busiest city centre.
The company still pretends that nothing happened and doesn’t listen to riders’ voice. The struggle will not end until they invite riders to table talk and fulfill the core demand for FAIR PAY and a TRANSPARENT distance system.
labour activist S. on the ground
We have at least 9 ‘delivery zones’ (that’s more than 14 districts in an administrative or commonly-known sense) where the Pandamart and most vendors are shown as ‘temporarily closed’. TST and Central are the busiest zones with the highest order volume. – Tsim Sha Tsui – To Kwa Wan & Hung Hom – Lai Chi Kok & Sham Shui Po – Central & Peak – Shatin – Tai Wai – Yuen Long – Tung Chung – Tsing Yi
In many other zones there are also riders on strike. The strike is everywhere.
The demands are basically the same as last time, with only slight modification, as this time it’s an escalation following FP’s refusal to talk and denial of the issues.
STRIKE DEMANDS
Fair Order fee a. announce the distance fee formula b. increase the distance fee rate and base fee c. Stack orders: should get 100% order fee; should know the payment of each order and reject accordingly
Freedom to decline and redispatch a. No suspension due to low AR (acceptance rate) b. Cancel the 3-redispatch-then-break rule c. The requirement for Quest should be 75% AR
Insurance protection Increase the accident insurance compensation amount & extend the insurance coverage to 1 hour before and after the shift
Vendor waiting time should be shortened a. Shouldn’t assign to riders long before prepared b. Waiting over 5 min should be paid
Set 5 mins time limit for the customer to pick up orders
Pandamart order weight should be limited to 5-6kg; auto-split should be done better
Transparent and fair suspension & termination process: the company should bear the burden of proof
Make the standard of the Proof of Delivery more reasonable
CS (rider support) should be more efficient and helpful
Provide extra fee for bad weather (rainy days, typhoons, very hot weather, etc)
Company must ensure parking places for riders AND cover 2 tickets each month
For more than one year riders in Hong Kong have been waiting for Foodpanda (Delivery Hero) to implement the real distance map calculation scheme. Last month this new scheme was finally announced. Now it turns out that the long awaited new scheme results in a pay cut. Consequently riders get organized and went on strike today.
A fellow comrade S. on the ground reports:
The new real-distance map system in Foodpanda Hong Kong brings new problem. What riders feel is, the distance calculation is actually more accurate, but the distance fee RATE has been reduced, and the range for only paying the base fee has been extended. For example, in the old map, let’s say it’s $1 for every 1km outside the 1km base, now it becomes, e.g., $0.5 for every 1km outside the 1.5km base. Overall, workers feel the distance payment has been reduced by 40-50%, and the overall order pay and income reduced by 10-20%. It’s a PAY CUT.
Thus, after a discussion by representatives from different zones, workers decided to stage a strike from this Saturday 6pm to Sunday fall day. If no good result, they will not pick up Pandamart orders for the whole week and continue a full-scale strike on the next weekend. The main demand of the strike is to ensure transparency of and increase in distance payment.
An update shared a few hours later:
The strike started at 6pm 15/10 and will continue until midnight of the next day. In different districts colleagues gathered at ‘Pandamarts’ (Foodpanda’s grocery delivery warehouses) to do picketing there, convincing more riders to join the strike. All across Hong Kong a few hundred or maybe over a thousand riders are on strike. In a few zones the Pandamart operation was fully stopped and was shown in the customer app as closed. In two zones all the restaurant orders were also fully stopped. A press conference was held in the zone where the recent pay cut is the most severe, with around 50 riders attending.
Until the company invites workers to negotiate and give acceptable response to the demands, the industrial action will be continued by boycotting all Pandamart orders in the next week and staging another full strike next weekend.
And he emphasizes the need for international solidarity:
We request all colleagues from different countries to support the Hong Kong strike by reposting news in Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., with the following hashtags: #DeliveryHeroRidersUnited #shameonfoodpanda #boycottfoodpanda #foodpanda #foodpandaHK #DeliveryHero
If you can do solidarity action in any form, such as banners, demonstration, etc., and post them on the social media and share with us, it will be more than helpful and will encourage local HK couriers immensely.
It is highly possible the new map and distance calculation system will be launched in other countries as well. In many countries, colleagues (even not only in Delivery Hero, but also other companies) have been asking for a real-distance map, which HK just gets through last year’s strike, but the company distorts it and makes it a pay cut in a tricky form. This again highlights that we need FULL TRANSPARENCY in the algorithm of payment calculation, which should be a universal demand shared by all platform delivery riders, otherwise the companies can always cut the pay arbitrarily.
STRIKE DEMANDS
1. Fair Order fee a. Announce the distance formula b. Increase the distance fee rate c. Stack orders should get 100% order fee d. The base fee can’t be reduced 2. Freedom to decline and redispatch a. No suspension due to low acceptance rate (AR) b. Give us 5 chances to redisptach c. The requirement for Quest should be 75% AR 3. Increase the accident insurance compensation amount & extend the insurance coverage 4. Vendor waiting time should be shortened a. Shouldn’t assign to riders long before prepared b. Waiting over 5 min should be paid 5. Pandamart order weight should be limited to 5-6kg; auto-split should be done better 6. Company must ensure parking places for riders AND cover 2 tickets each month 7. Transparent and fair suspension & termination process: the company should bare the burden of proof 8. Proof of delivery: rider can take picture without internet and upload it later 9. Rider support (CS) should be more efficient and helpful 10. Provide extra fee for bad weather (rainly days, typoons, etc)
