Leicester Garment Workers ---- In the biggest mobilisation of Asianworkers in Leicester since the 70s, garment workers came out in forcefor a rally to start a major struggle for jobs, conditions and pay.Around 500 workers in the garment industry, now unemployed, gathered inLeicester's Spinney Hill Park on Sunday, 1st October to protest theworsening conditions workers are facing amid factory closures in thecity. Thousands of garment workers have been sacked already. Thishappened after campaigners revealed the appalling conditions inLeicester sweatshops, with many workers below minimum wage and work inunsafe and dirty conditions.Global fashion brands like Boohoo are cancelling orders in the UK to getthem made in other countries at half the price, despite making millionsin profits - while workers in Leicester are faced with factory closures,job losses and cuts in hours. They're also demanding money back fromsuppliers on orders, forcing them to produce below cost.Already the mainly women workers are having to do long hours at rates aslittle as £3.50 an hour - and now they've had enough.Suppliers have warned that fashion brands sourcing garments in the cityare demanding price reductions, often on orders of clothing already madeand delivered, which is making businesses unviable. In turn, garmentworkers in Leicester report significant reductions in hours and factoryclosures, increasing pressure on already low paid workers on thefrontline of the cost of living crisis. 40% of children in Leicester areliving in poverty, including those where parents are in work.Garment workers are calling on fashion brands to take urgent measures tosupport the industry in Leicester. They want brands to commit to ordersfrom local suppliers with wages and standards safeguarded in thecontract price, and for a long-term commitment to the area. At therally, women spontaneously spoke from the crowd to express their angerand frustration at the lack of work as well as the discrimination theyface. Women spoke of being given unpaid trial shifts, zeropredictability of the amount of work they'd be offered and the struggleto access services and support without speaking English. Many speakerssaid that as soon as the legal minimum wage was enforced, ordersdwindled and factory closures began. This shouldn't mean that thestruggle for better pay and conditions should be dropped for fear ofredundancies.Globalisation means that fashion bosses look for the cheapest productionof garments worldwide, pushing for ever increasing lowering of pay andconditions. So, every workplace that accepts a lowering of pay andconditions, whether in the UK, China, the sub-continent, or othercountries in the Far East, contributes to this downward spiral. Anystrike for better pay and conditions contradicts the garment bosses'plans, and sends out a message to clothing workers all over the worldnot to give in to this blackmail.Amazon workers go on strike in Germany and ItalyWorkers at Amazon warehouses in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Koblenz andRheinberg in Germany went out on strike for an hour during both morningand afternoon shifts on 10th and 11th October. This coincided withAmazon's Prime Day in Germany, a promotional sales day. Workers demandedthat Amazon join the collective bargaining agreement in the rest ofGerman retail and mail order, and for safer jobs and better compensation. In Italy, one hundred workers at the Amazon warehouse in Castel SanGiovanni went out for a hour on each of the morning and afternoonshifts on October 11th, and struck again on October 17th, in rejectionof Amazon's ludicrous annual pay offer of 1.1%.Sales on Prime Day are higher than average, and these strikes will havehit Amazon's profits. In Germany alone, Prime Days in July brought thema whopping $12.9 billion.https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2023/10/25/workplace-notes-20/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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