We don’t support low wages says Ethiopian labour minister12 July, 2019Low wages in the textile and garment sector of less than US$30 per month are being widely condemned by trade unions in Ethiopia. Now the government is also calling for minimum living wages.
Ethiopian textile unions campaign to end poverty wages 10 May, 2018Wages as low as 600 Ethiopian Birr per month (US$20) continue to haunt workers in Ethiopia’s textile and garment sector. Salaries are not enough for workers, over 90 per cent women, to pay for transport, food and housing, or to support a family. These workers are part of Ethiopia's working poor, while making clothes for brands from Europe, the US and Asia including H&M, Tchibo, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein.
Ethiopia: workers strike for a union in Hawassa industrial park26 March, 2019With no commitment towards addressing their grievances, thousands of textile and garment workers at Ethiopia’s biggest industrial park, Hawassa, went on strike 13-15 March demanding that the employers act on sexual harassment, improve health and safety and increase wages.
Job losses wreck livelihoods in Ethiopia’s garment industry 6 September, 2023The Industrial Federation of Textile Leather and Garment Workers Union (IFTLGWU), which lost over 20,000 members due to massive job losses, says the retrenchments are causing untold suffering and increasing poverty amongst the garment workers.
Cost-of-living crisis hurdle for organizing in Ethiopia 15 February, 2024IndustriALL Global Union affiliated unions organizing in Ethiopia's automotive, chemical, electronics, energy, mining, pulp and paper, petroleum, and textile and garment sectors met in Addis Ababa on 13 February to discuss how to strengthen their recruitment and organizing strategies to boost membership amidst a dire cost-of-living crisis.
Ethiopia: towards a common collective bargaining strategy28 November, 2019Unions meeting at a collective bargaining strategy workshop concluded that bargaining together, they could achieve better wages and working conditions.
Living wages a major demand in Africa22 October, 2014Campaigns are being developed in several African countries to push for living wages.
Facing the living wage challenge in Ethiopia14 April, 2016For Ethiopian unions, the achievement of living wages for their members is a key goal if the country’s development objectives are to be met, including becoming a middle-income country. Yet the mechanisms that unions could use to achieve this goal, namely systems for establishing a minimum wage or conducting industry bargaining, have yet to be developed in Ethiopia.
ILO issues recommendations to Russia and Belarus22 November, 2012The International Labour Organization's Committee on Freedom of Association issued recommendations to Russia and Belarus on cases 2758 and 2090 initiated on the basis of complaints submitted by national unions with the support of IndustriALL Global Union.
Ethiopia: Meeting stirs debate on living wages23 May, 2018A meeting on organizing the international supply chain in the textile and garment sector has kick-started much-needed debate on wages and been met with approval from unions.
