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16 June, 2012Textile, Garment and Leather workers' union from across the globe are meeting in Copenhagen to share experiences about the long struggle for a living wage in their industry.
From Africa to Asia and Latin America the Living Wage has become a global issue and central to the Decent Work Agenda, Jyrki Raina, the in-coming general secretary of IndustriALL explained.
Poverty wages have a devastating impact on workers, in Cambodia thousands of malnourished workers have fainted in the last 2 years and in Bangladesh workers are being forced to survive on a dollar a day.
The two-day conference will evaluate the global campaign to date and map out a strategy to defend low-paid textile and garment workers by building a global living wage campaign.
"Achieving a living wage for textile and garment workers depends on many factors not least the actions of governments, multinationals and agencies such as the ILO.
"How then can IndustriALL engage with such bodies to ensure that payment of a living wage remains high on the political agenda?
"Your unions have successfully publicized the poverty wages paid to workers in the textile, garment and leather sectors. I am hoping to hear now how the new IndustriALL’s can build on this work and help to strengthen this aspect of the campaign?" Jyrki Raina said in the lead up to the two-day Living Wage conference being held in Denmark involving 130 delegates.