Industry: 'Don't Let the Crisis go to Waste'

Speaking on the economic recession, the General Secretary of the Global Union representing textile and garment workers yesterday decried a financial system in which a worker in Bangladesh’s garment industry would have to work 118,000 years to earn the annual bonus that Merrill Lynch’s former CEO paid to himself even as the company was being sold to the Bank of America.

“Something has gone terribly wrong with our world”, said Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation at the launch at the European Parliament of the book "Glokers - People, places and ideas about globalised labour" by Silvana Cappuccio.

“Just after announcing a Euro 21 billion loss last year, Merrill Lynch’s CEO set aside Euro 3 billion in bonuses for senior staff including a staggering Euro 27 million for himself.

“This was done while Merrill Lynch was being sold to Bank of America which itself then posted losses of Euro 31 billion and whose own CEO paid himself Euro 19.5 million last year.

“Shortly after being baled out by the US government to the tune of Euro 35 billion, Bank of America hosted a meeting to co-ordinate opposition to proposals to make trade union recognition easier in the United States!

“What hypocrites?

“The CEO of Home Depot told the meeting that it would be the end of civilization as we know it if US companies had to deal with Unions.

“Yes, this was the same Home Depot that paid its former CEO Euro 195 million when it fired him after only 11 months in the job!

“The end of civilization! What civilization?

“Today, more than 2 million workers, mainly women, slave in Bangladesh’s garment industry, sometimes 14 to 16 hours a day for less than Euro 19 a month – Euro 230 a year.

“One of these garment workers would have to work 118,000 years to earn the annual bonus of Merrill Lynch’s former CEO!

“Put another way, the pay packages the CEOs of Merrill Lynch and Bank of America paid themselves would require a month and a half of work by every one of Bangladesh’s two million garment workers.

“Given their long hours and poverty level wages it isn’t surprising that many of these workers frequently collapse at their sewing machines from a combination of exhaustion and malnutrition.

“Such exploitation is the outcome of 20 years of unfettered globalization, liberalization and deregulation. The impact on workers has been disastrous. In the last 10 years real wages in the textile, clothing and footwear industries have fallen by 25% while working hours have increased by 25%.

“No wonder brands and retailers like Wal-Mart are able to announce annual profits of more than Euro10 billion from this slavery. And many leading retailers like Tesco and Marks and Spencer are using the global recession to try to wring further price cuts from their suppliers, price cuts that will be paid by workers in the form of wage reductions, longer working hours and poorer working conditions.

“Not content with the current floor level wages the industry continues to seek more for less and now relies increasingly on a growing army of migrant workers even more vulnerable to exploitation. Former textile workers in Romania are flooding Western Europe in search of domestic work because they can’t afford to live on the wages paid in local industry. Their places are, in turn, taken by migrant workers brought in from China and paid even less.

“Wages everywhere in the sector are appalling. And not just in the least developed countries. In Bulgaria a shoe worker now has to work 6.25 hours to buy a kilo of beef, 2.5 hours to buy a liter of cooking oil and 1.5 hours to buy a kilo of sugar. So, more than 10 hours work a day and the rent isn’t even covered.

“Government’s responding to the global recession today talk about the need for financial repair. What we urgently need is social repair - jobs that pay a living wage for a standard work week, protection from injury and abuse and the right of every worker to join a union and to bargain with their employer for decent work.

“Someone said the other day, “Never let a crisis go to waste”. We’ve had enough of uncontrolled globalization, deregulation and free for all exploitation. We’ve lived the experience of abandoning manufacturing in favor of dependence on banking and financial services. We’re now suffering the consequences.

“Economists say we should be searching for an intellectual compass as the crisis deepens. Forget the intellectual! We should be establishing a moral and social compass where decent work will be at the heart of action to lead the way out of recession. And that means not letting this crisis go to waste but instead use it to demand a new economic and social terrain as the strategy for recovery and beyond.

“How do we get there?

- “Ignore the pleas of those who created this mess to “keep governments out of our hair” and instead strengthen their role in setting economic, financial and social standards;
- “Increase and better target the numerous stimulus packages now being rolled out putting emphasis on the retention and creation of decent jobs rather than tax cuts for the rich and bonuses for the casino cowboys of the banking world;
- “Promote manufacturing industry as a key and essential element of all national economies;
- “Reject wage cuts and worsening conditions as measures that will only further drive recessionary pressures;
- “Insist on the payment of a living wage to every worker as a key stimulus for increasing consumption and driving recovery;
- “Put education and training, particularly training for green jobs at the heart of strategic planning for recovery;
- “Demand a central role for workers and trade unions at all levels in tackling the crisis. The influence of unions in the crafting of Germany’s measures to slow and reverse the recession has given those measures a distinctly social flavor aimed at avoiding the destruction of jobs and providing a springboard to take advantage of the very first signs of recovery.

“It is now very clear that the route to the future cannot be ‘business as usual’”, concluded Mr. Kearney. “Unregulated globalization and market forces have put in jeopardy the future of 20 million workers in the textile, garment and shoe industries, families, their communities and countries. We cannot go on like this! We cannot waste the current crisis but must use it to drive real change where decent work providing a living wage will be the cornerstone of the global economy”.