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Poverty wages for garment workers in Eastern Europe and Turkey

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  • Shucks
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2010
    • 3104

    Poverty wages for garment workers in Eastern Europe and Turkey


    new report is out by the CLEAN CLOTHES CAMPAIGN on the poverty wages in the eastern european and turkish garment industry, where also many high fashion brands have production. (rick owens, i'm talking to you...)

    here's an excerpt from the executive summary:




    [...]In all the countries researched an immense gap between the legal minimum wage and the estimated minimum living wage was found. This gap tends to be even larger in Europe’s cheap labour countries than in Asia.

    The countries where the legal minimum wage is the lowest in relation to an estimated minimum living wage (below 20%) are Georgia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania and the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey. As of 2013, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania have lower legal minimum wages than China; Moldova and Ukraine have even lower legal minimum wages than Indonesia.

    The take-home wage of garment workers falls far short of a subsistence minimum, let alone a living wage. In all researched countries [...], the lowest found take-home net wages do not even reach 30% of an estimated living wage. From the interviews conducted in this research it became clear: Jobs with such a tremendously low wage create poverty rather than fight it.

    Garment workers are under enormous pressure to stay in their job. Many families depend on the job of the garment worker because this is the only regular income in the household. No matter how bad the situation is the workers have to perform and do everything they can in order not to lose their jobs. Too often workers choose between a minimal income and their health. Their dependency and devotion is being exploited by managers.

    The research found that the situation for women was particularly bad with women ruining their health while being the health-safeguard of the family. Still their work is not recognized and devalued as “unskilled” work as compared to “technical” or “hard” work of men.

    Women also face extreme time-poverty, stress and all too often sexual harassment. All over the region work in the garment industry is infamous for low pay and bad working conditions, it is seen as mere “contribution” to the family income, as supplementary wages. Contrary to this perception a majority of women workers are single mothers or family breadwinners.

    Working in the garment industry contributes to the family’s poverty and social exclusion. A total of three million formal and informal garment workers are affected in the countries researched. Issues contributing to the increased risk of poverty and social exclusions include:

    1) wages set far below subsistence and poverty lines, let alone a minimum living wage;

    2) women being subject to discrimination in pay and treatment;

    3) reliance on the wages earned as main source of income for the family and

    4) having almost no active collective representation in the form of unions or labour support organisations.

    The research found that workers in Georgia (due to an almost complete absence of legal and institutional protection) as well as home-based workers in Bulgaria and migrant workers in the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey face the highest risk of being poor and feeling deprived of any opportunities and influence on their living situation.

    The research also highlights the numerous and varying violations of law and diverse wage theft practices. This indicates that institutions such as the labour inspectorates in the countries turn a blind eye on conditions in the garment industry. They are reported to be understaffed, malfunctioning and sometimes bribed in most countries researched, while in Georgia, a legal workers protection system and institutional mechanisms such as labour inspection and labour court hardly exist or do not exist at all.

    Despite the strong position of the sector as an employer and exporter in the region, the workers remain in poverty and see their basic human rights denied. While the countries depend on the sector, it in turn creates distress and diseases for workers and their families.[...]




    read the full executive summary and/or report HERE:
    Last edited by Shucks; 06-19-2014, 03:36 AM.
  • bukka
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2011
    • 821

    #2
    Thank you for this report Shucks. If we could only make a list of designers using this kind of methods for their production, that would be great.
    Eternity is in love with the productions of time

    Comment

    • apathy!
      Senior Member
      • Jan 2014
      • 393

      #3
      good work.

      I don't think anyone involved (in the buying or selling side) of a luxury industry like fashion is really morally responsible. This is especially bad though.

      Comment

      • Shucks
        Senior Member
        • Aug 2010
        • 3104

        #4
        Originally posted by bukka View Post
        Thank you for this report Shucks. If we could only make a list of designers using this kind of methods for their production, that would be great.
        we can start here?

        the report mentions hugo boss, prada, versace and dolce & gabbana specifically as having production in these countries. i am sure we can find some sz brands there too. time to start checking labels even more carefully. i know dior also has/have had production in romania. unfortunately for me, rick owens have their leather jackets sewn in moldova - apparently one of the WORST PLACES IN THE WORLD as far as poverty wages in garment industry are concerned. and i'm sure the jackets aren't being sewn there for any other reason than cost-minimization. this is a serious problem for me. i won't be able to buy any leather from rick sewn in moldova, from now on. and it's been pretty much the only brand i buy from....



        "Jobs with such a tremendously low wage create poverty rather than fight it."
        Last edited by Shucks; 06-19-2014, 06:12 AM.

        Comment

        • Shucks
          Senior Member
          • Aug 2010
          • 3104

          #5
          the clean clothes campaign is an awesome organization. this is their site:

          www.cleanclothes.org

          they also have an app for checking if a brand pays at least living wages (in other words, wages that it would be possible for a small family to even just barely survive on...) to their workers, or not. you can download it here:

          iphone
          android

          unfortunately, so far it doesn't include those brands we usually discuss on sz...



          Last edited by Shucks; 06-19-2014, 09:00 AM.

          Comment

          • apathy!
            Senior Member
            • Jan 2014
            • 393

            #6
            It seems a little ridiculous to generalise entire countries' wages.

            You'd have to look at things on a factory by factory basis.

            It's pretty sickening if that is the reason that Rick has moved some of his construction to Moldova.

            Comment

            • Shucks
              Senior Member
              • Aug 2010
              • 3104

              #7
              Originally posted by apathy! View Post
              It seems a little ridiculous to generalise entire countries' wages.

              You'd have to look at things on a factory by factory basis.

              It's pretty sickening if that is the reason that Rick has moved some of his construction to Moldova.
              how is it ridiculous to discuss this at a country-by-country level?

              read the report. the problems are systemic. these countries' legislations allow absolutely horrific minimum wage levels far below what is required to even survive on, and some factories do not even pay these slave-level minimum wages!

              government controls of factory conditions are also almost non-existent and unionization is actively blocked.

              that is why these countries are able to attract foreign business. don't kid yourself that you will find any garment factory with conditions and wage levels far above minimum wage in these countries.
              Last edited by Shucks; 06-19-2014, 08:59 AM.

              Comment

              • bukka
                Senior Member
                • Sep 2011
                • 821

                #8
                I agree with Shucks on this, thinking that a factory might not take advantage of the country legislation is deluding yourself.
                Eternity is in love with the productions of time

                Comment

                • apathy!
                  Senior Member
                  • Jan 2014
                  • 393

                  #9
                  You're probably right. It was a slightly naive/ignorant thing to say.

                  I guess it's just a hard pill to swallow that someone like Rick would make a decision like that.


                  I don't know. It's probably just ignorance, but I'd still be interested to know about the individual factories involved. We do know that (for instance in China) working conditions are not universal throughout a country.

                  Comment

                  • LelandJ
                    Banned
                    • Apr 2014
                    • 201

                    #10
                    Aren't there slave-wage shops in Italy employing immigrants too?

                    Unless you're buying clothes from a small label in a first world country like Zam or Harnden, we already knew all the clothes we buy are made by slaves right?

                    On other fashion forums people even brag about mixing in Uniqlo, whose business model couldn't exist without slaves, with their expensive wardrobes.

                    If Rick, or any designer, had the capacity to care, he would feel good about making $90 million a year instead of $120 million to have all his clothes makers make a decent living.

                    Comment

                    • applecrisp
                      Senior Member
                      • Jun 2013
                      • 104

                      #11
                      Two women in my office came from the eastern europe garment industry (sewing/factory work mostly) and they've told some real horror stories. 2-month long "probationary" periods for which they received no pay seemed to be the most oftenly implemented practice.

                      It's awful, all this shit, but unfortunately people want the same items, but they want them to continue to get cheaper every season. They've been trained by places like Walmart, where the only direction pricing can go is lower. Meanwhile all costs are going up every single season. Raw materials. Labor. Freight. Customs and Duties. All of it. And prices to the consumer should follow suit but that simply isn't happening.

                      I'm happy to work for a company that produces some items in the US, and every season I push to place more stuff here. But there's a problem... At some point in time everyone in the USA decided it was 100% necessary to go to college and get a degree and that any sort of manual labor was for simpletons. WRONG. Now a full generation of potential skilled laborers have relatively useless english or communications degrees and are unemployed, and there's a lack of skilled sewers that would be assets in our factories here in the US, so there's just not enough capacity to put more stuff into our US factory. And since these english and communications majors are unemployed and have all types of student loan debts they can only afford to buy clothes at Walmart or maybe Target if they want to splurge.

                      And, even still, a majority of our products are made elsewhere (Mexico, Central America, Asia) because it's cheaper and our consumer wants "value" for their hard earned dollar.

                      TL,DR: It's all fucked and there's no end in sight. It's very worrisome.

                      Comment

                      • apathy!
                        Senior Member
                        • Jan 2014
                        • 393

                        #12
                        Originally posted by applecrisp View Post

                        TL,DR: It's all fucked and there's no end in sight. It's very worrisome.
                        I remember people laughing and talking shit about someone at my hgih school who dropped out to do plumbing.


                        such a ridiculous mindset.

                        Comment

                        • Lohikaarme
                          Senior Member
                          • Jul 2013
                          • 624

                          #13
                          It's fairly important to go on a factory-by-factory basis. There are many factories in the USA which create wage-slaves. Can we generalize a place like Moldova to be bad? Sure, but we also can't be caught up on "made in Italy" or "made in USA" to be any better... there's only a higher probability that the conditions are better.

                          Comment

                          • Uppvakningur
                            Junior Member
                            • Nov 2013
                            • 18

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Lohikaarme View Post
                            Can we generalize a place like Moldova to be bad?
                            I'm not sure what you are trying to say with the above. The statistics about eastern european wages in the garment industry relative to subsistence levels are not 'generalizations' but factual data representing what is actually happening there. Yes, there are terrible examples of abuse and exploitation everywhere. The difference is that certain places have these scenarios constitute the everyday norm, and that is why production moves there.

                            Comment

                            • LelandJ
                              Banned
                              • Apr 2014
                              • 201

                              #15
                              Originally posted by Uppvakningur View Post
                              I'm not sure what you are trying to say with the above.
                              Probably a poor attempt to skirt reality.

                              Comment

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