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Dharaviin the heart of Mumbai is home to an estimated 1 million people and of the biggest slum economies in the world. With 86% of India’s total workforce working in the informal sector, this papers sheds light on the working and living conditions of a section of this invisible workforce as well as their collective struggles and organizing strategies for a more decent life.

The empirical findings suggest that despite massive barriers to organizing, informal garment workers develop innovative strategies to gain victories both vis-à-vis employers and the state by organizing collectively. The entry point are workers’ identities as women and citizens and their struggles around domestic violence, harassment housing and public services.

For many workers the trade union membership card gains importance as the first written proof of identity and the support of the collective serves as a protection against violence at home and in the community. In the absence of legal protection, this paper finds that trade union organizing is indispensable for combating rights violations and building bargaining power for increasing income.It also shows tha social protection schemes, where they cover informal garment workers, are only effective if workers organize collectively and pressure the state for effective access.

The paper shows how trade unions as collective organizations of informal economy workers can be key agents to support the effective delivery of state services and contribute to the transitioning of workers from informal to more protected employment. 

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With a focus on three recent IFAs in three economic sectors, the present working paper is a contribution to the growing body of knowledge on international framework agreements. It complements existing and ongoing research on national and cross-border social dialogue and international framework agreements by other international and regional organizations and by the ILO itself, including but not limited to research conducted for the report for the recurrent discussion on social dialogue at the International Labour Conference in 2018 and the report for the Meeting of Experts on cross-border social dialogue that is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2018. This working paper thus forms part of the ILO programme of action (2017-21) and the companion roadmap that the Governing Body agreed on in March 2017 in follow-up to the International Labour Conference’s Conclusions on decent work in global supply chains.

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There are an estimated 1200 garment factories in Bangalore employing approximately five hundred thousand garment workers. The majority of this workforce is comprised of women garment workers. Exploitative working conditions in garment factories prevent women workers from making any improvements in their lives via their work. Moreover, women workers leave factories at a young age in order to meet the needs and demands of social reproduction.

This study depicts the post-work life of garment workers in Bangalore. The findings show that most former women garment workers take up informal work to sustain their livelihoods. The precarious nature of employment in garment factories leaves women workers with very little savings, thereby reducing women’s bargaining position and their agency to transition into a decent post-industrial life. This important piece of research sheds light on the “industrial afterlife” of former garment workers in Bangalore, which more often than not is a life of debt and informal work. 

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Im November 2013 versprach H&M öffentlich, bis 2018 in allen ‘Gold’- und ‘Platin’-Fabriken seiner ‘strategischen und bevorzugten Lieferanten’ Vergütungsstrukturen zu schaffen, die die Bezahlung von „fairen Existenzlöhnen“ für 850.000 Angestellten ermöglichen.

Die Fünf-Jahres-Frist, in der H&M seine Zusage umsetzen wollte, läuft nun ab. Deshalb führte die Clean Clothes Campaign Recherchen durch um zu überprüfen, wie viel die Arbeiter*innen in einigen dieser Zulieferbetriebe verdienen und wie nah dieser Verdienst einem existenzsichernden Lohn kommt.

Das erschütternde Ergebnis: Keine*r der interviewten Arbeiter*innen verdient ansatzweise einen existenzsichernden Lohn.

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Existenzsichernde Löhne sind ein zentrales Element menschenwürdiger Arbeit. In den Ländern des Globalen Südens allerdings kann ein großer Teil der Beschäftigten vom hart erarbeiteten Lohn nicht menschenwürdig leben. Dies gilt auch für die Beschäftigten der Textil- und Bekleidungsindustrie, die zwar in der Regel auf dem Niveau staatlicher Mindestlöhne entlohnt werden. Diese Mindestlöhne reichen aber meist nur dann zum Überleben, wenn sie durch zahllose Überstunden aufgestockt oder durch ein zweites Einkommen in der Familie ergänzt werden. Am Beispiel von Indonesien, einer der zehn größten Exportnationen für Bekleidung weltweit, wird SÜDWIND in mehreren Fact Sheets und einer Studie der Frage nachgehen, welche Wege dort von eben diesen Mindestlöhnen zu existenzsichernden Löhnen führen können. Wir beginnen mit der Frage, wie und in welcher Höhe in Indonesien die Mindestlöhne festgelegt werden.

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