Garment workers

Labor Power And Strategy: Learning From The Garment Workers

February 16, 2023 Jeffery Hermanson, Labor Notes Strategize! Book Review, Garment workers, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

John Womack Jr.’s new book, Labor Power and Strategy (PM Press, 2023), edited by Peter Olney and Glenn Perusek and with responses from 10 organizers, labor activists, and educators, is a timely consideration of some basic strategic principles. Womack maintains that the primary power that workers have is structural power—that is, power based on their position in the production process. Associational power—developed via collective organizations like unions—derives from this structural power. My view is that whether associational power or structural power is primary is historically contingent, and that no matter which is primary at a given moment, they are closely linked in practice.

A Hotline Garment Workers Can Call When They Face Harassment On The Job

April 19, 2022 Ryan Lenora Brown, In These Times. Organize! Africa, Garment workers, Job Safety, Worker Rights and Jobs

Maseru, Lesotho - When Nthabiseng Moshoeshoe’s supervisor told her he loved her, they were alone in a room where they both worked at a blue jeans factory in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, she says. It was early 2021. She was emptying the garbage. He said she was beautiful, that he wanted to be with her, says Moshoeshoe, who is going by a pseudonym to protect her safety and job security. “Let’s keep this professional,” she remembers telling him back. “I pushed him away gently.” But he didn’t receive the news kindly, she says. From then on, she reports that he made repeated complaints about her performance. She grew worried she would lose her job, and with it the paycheck of $150 a month she relied on as her family’s breadwinner.

Workers’ Rights In Globalised Industry

September 26, 2020 Ben Chacko, Morning Star Online. Create! Garment workers, Labor Unions, Pandemic, Worker Rights

The Covid-19 crisis and the lockdowns imposed as a result hit the garment industry hard, causing order cancellations and job losses in producer countries. What can trade unions do to press brands to shield suppliers from the risk of a sudden loss of income that they pass onto their workers? “This problem emerged early in the pandemic. In April many brands endorsed a call to action, a tripartite initiative led by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with a commitment by brands to pay for finished goods and goods in production.

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