Living Wage

Garments Sramik-o-Shilpa Rokka Jatiya Moncha, a platform of the garment workers, Monday demanded of the government to allocate sufficient budget for their accommodations and rationing.

On the 24th May about 24,000 workers from Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ)—mostly young female garment workers—walked out and demonstrated against the Rajapakse government’s pension bill. If the pension scheme is introduced they will have to work for at least 10 years first, and will not be entitled to payments until they turn 60. And instead of a lump sum, they will get a small monthly pension, estimated to be only about 1,900 rupees ($US17.27) per month for the low-paid garment workers.

Meeting of the People Tribunal on the 27th and 28th March 2011 to discuss the situation in the Asian garment industry. The talks brought out some recommendations among which was that the UN should include the enforcement of this minimum living wage as one of the "human development indicators" of UN member countries.

Moshrefa Mishu, President of the Garment Workers Unity Forum (GWUF), a trade union of the ready-made garment sector, was illegally arrested on 14 December 2010.

Over 550 tea workers, two-thirds of them women, rallied on the Nowera Nuddy tea estate in West Bengal, India.

I was in Hyde Park doing my usual run, just thinking about my cheap labour project and feeling frustrated about the lack of support. And then I saw Vivienne Westwood!

The mass US student movement, the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), has started a campaign to force Burger King to help - rather than hinder - the fight to increase wages and improve working conditions for tomato pickers in Florida. Here's how you can help...

Trade union living wage struggle among cleaners on the London Tube has won a big victory...

Petition on the 10 Downing Street website in support of a living wage : http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/living-wage-2007/