‘Better Work’ for Garment Workers: Which Side Are You On?

[Omaha Steve]

http://labornotes.org/2009/12/%E2%80%98better-work%E2%80%99-garment-workers-which-side-are-you

Jeff Ballinger | December 1, 2009

With the best of intentions, the International Labor Organization has launched “Better Work” programs in several countries in hopes of easing harsh conditions for long-suffering garment workers.

In terms familiar to any veteran of joint labor-management schemes, the ILO—the special United Nations agency set up in 1919 to address workers’ issues—predicts relief can be achieved by squeezing out conflict and putting everyone on the same team.


With the best of intentions, the International Labor Organization has launched “Better Work” programs in several countries in hopes of easing harsh conditions for long-suffering garment workers.


Better Work projects are newly underway in Jordan, Vietnam, and Haiti; these are patterned on the decade-old “Better Factories Cambodia” model, but with an ominous new twist—funding from the World Bank, Jones Apparel, Sears, Wal-Mart, Levi Strauss, and many rich-country governments (for most of you reading this, that means: your tax dollars).

Who can imagine that workers who face incredibly long odds in the struggle for self-organization will benefit from this scheme? The answer from Cambodia is “they won’t.”

In mid-September, a Cambodian labor rights advocate, Moeun Tola, testified before a U.S. House human rights panel. His message was that working conditions in his country had “sharply deteriorated.”

The Global Union Federation for apparel and textile workers noted in a recent study that Cambodian workers spent nearly 25,000 working days on strike over low pay in the first six months of 2006.

The 48 Cambodian garment workers I spoke with during a research trip this summer repeated the same age-old complaints about sweatshops: below-subsistence pay, forced overtime, and abusive bosses.

FULL story at link.

[HopeHoops]

1. I'm sure WalMart is actively fighting this.

They can't survive without slave labor.