World Fair Trade Day in Japan
With all the celebrations for World Fair Trade Day, I haven't been able to come up for a breather for the last two weeks. In the midst of all this the New Statesman and Edge Upstarts awarded me the Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2006. Of course it's not about me, it's about having an amazingly committed and socially entrepreneurial team, and really great customers supporting us. In Japan, 100 events were held in Fair Trade Shops, universities, and in international co-operation centres. We estimate that about 15,000 people attended WFTDay events in Japan, the biggest event being the event in Tokyo Womens Plaza (part of UN University) where just under 500 people attended a Fair Trade Fashion Show and seminars; Fair Trade producers came from Bangladesh and India and we had key progressive company CEOs discussing the spread of Fair Trade and ethical business practices in Japan. And even workshops on block printing with natural dyes!
It was brilliant fun, we had Raihan and Gini from Swallows a handweaving womens' group in Bangladesh, and also Lucas and Nagendra from Asha, a group in India specialising Fair Trade and natural dye blockprint textiles. Nagendra brought all the natural dye materials, and stewed them up in a pan to make the authentic paste, and despite the climate being very different than Pedana (his hot and humid village in Southern India). Hundreds of people were able to experiment using the heavy wooden block print to make seamless and exquisite designs.
Why is Fair Trade important?
Whether it be women on the handlooms in Swallows or the blockprinters in Pedana, by buying a shirt made through this process 10 more people can be employed than if the same shirt was made through a machine process. Nagendra explained to the general public, media and over 100 buyers from Fair Trade shops what this meant to people in his area. We have to start putting people before machines.
Conditions for Workers in Garment Factories
Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
The Multinationals are talking, but, according to Amin of the National Garment Workers Union, they are not doing much. "Companies make their own Codes of Conduct," he says, "which are not based on the local reality, so when monitored they miss the point. These codes are not used for development. What will make a big difference to workers' conditions and pay is a multi-stakeholder approach where garment workers, trade unions, factory owners and the buyers get together to discuss and set improvements together.
"That's one reason why Fair Trade interests me greatly - as the only example of this in practice. Fair Trade Standards have been decided by producers and Fair Trade Organisations together, and people become a focus of trade, not profit alone. Fair Trade can provide businesses with great learning in this area.
"Also, we are beginning to see the benefits of Fair Trade Companies applying pressure on mainstream business to change its harmful practices. Corporate Social Responsibility is an example of this consumer pressure and we have the Fair Trade Movement to thank for that."
As members of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) become increasingly keen to bring in regulation so that they can compete on a level playing field - clearly the time has come for bold steps to be made to clean up the fashion industry.
Personally I would also like to see the Company Bill, which is now in discussion, go through. It aims to make directors criminally liable for their overseas activities - a factory worker's family could, in principle, take to court a company director who contracted a factory which collapsed and killed their daughter.
Roshina's Story
Location - Dhaka, Bangladesh
We are in the slums of Dhaka, where garment workers and their children make up 90% of the population.
Roshina welcomes us into her home, a room 6 by 6 foot. She is heavily pregnant and is on 12 weeks maternity leave from the factory, UNPAID. Her 6 year old son, Rashid (who incidentally shares my brother’s name) sits on her knee smiling. She talks of the hardship of living in these slums on stilts – the area floods during the rains. They share a four burner stove, two toilets and a single cubicle in which to wash your body with one hundred other people. Her room costs her just under half of her salary.
She used to have a salary of 2200 taka per month but is now living of her husbands' truck driving income. Her sister will come and live in the slum and take care of the baby, so she can go back to work, 9 weeks after giving birth.
If only the people who bought the clothes we make, knew of our struggle. Please tell them to buy more so I have more work and pay.
I’ve come with Amin of the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF). Garment workers are made to feel that companies cannot afford to pay a decent wage that allows them to live with some dignity, but we know this is not the case when you look at the huge profits made on the high street by fashion companies.
I start to tell Roshina about our work in Fair Trade to provide work in the rural areas for weavers, tailors, etc.
I would love to return to my village to live in a clean environment with my family, if there was work there.
The NGWF is campaigning for a minimum wage of 3000 taka - nearly twice the average wage, a one day holiday a week and an end to sexual harassment of workers. Nonetheless, the garment industry is a life line to Bangladeshi workers and to Bangladesh’s economy. No one wants kill the goose that lays the golden egg – but workers are very far indeed from making their fair share of the eggs. Amin explains how people struggle to survive, The average wage is 1700 taka per month (approx US$ 20 per month). Living costs are extremely high. And garment workers work between 12 and 14 hours each day and few get two days off every month.
Leaving the slums with a heavy heart at the inhumanity of it all, I visit a garment factory called Millennium Garments Ltd. A very charming factory manager introduces me to the Social Compliance Officer. We pour over their recent social audit, results are not good. It's a work in progress,
he says cheerfully.
He proudly shows me a new floor where a row of three shining white tiled toilets stand ready. Typically, only one of these three toilets has water, (water is used instead of toilet paper in Bangladesh - so it’s really critical!) And they are shared by three hundred people.
Pressure from consumers on fashion companies is finally getting through to subcontractors and the garment factories, but we have a long was to go yet. When I ask the factory manager if he thinks that Bangladesh's' minimum wage of 930 taka per month (which hasn't changed since 1994) is enough to live on, he says: Yes, people share a room and that way people can live without any problems.
I tell him that I have just come from the slums, he starts to look a little unsure of what he has just said…
