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Monday 8 June 2020

According to the United Nations, half a billion people, or 8% of the world's population, are at risk of falling into poverty as a result of the economic fallout from the VIDOC pandemic.19 The UN estimates that half a billion people, or 8% of the world's population, are at risk of falling into poverty as a result of the economic fallout from the VIDOC pandemic.19 "With a fall in per capita income expected in more than 170 countries, people without social protection will be the most severely affected," warned Olivier De Schutter, the new UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. This issue particularly affects workers in the textile sector, whose low wages and widespread repression of the right to freedom of association mean that they are already living in precarious situations and the economic fallout of the pandemic will have serious consequences. "Workers in the garment sector live from day to day. If they lose their jobs, it is their monthly salary that will be lost and with it the ability to feed their families. "says Kalpona Akter, President of the Bangladesh Textile Workers' Federation.

Media reports and first-hand information gathered by the international Clean Clothes Campaign network show that many factories are closing or in danger of closing. These closures are due to a halt in the supply of raw materials from China, a reduction in orders, particularly due to the closure of stores, especially in Europe, and initiatives taken by governments for public health reasons. This is affecting a number of countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Albania and Central American countries, where current orders from textile factories worldwide have fallen by an average of 41%. In Bangladesh, which is highly dependent on the industry (80% of export earnings), this equates to a minimum loss of $3.1 billion, leaving the sector in chaos and the workers, once again, bearing the brunt. Clothing workers fear the very real threat of famine as much as they fear infection. While a few factories, where overcrowded conditions are the norm, are reopening their doors, very few measures have been put in place to protect workers from VIDOC-19. Since April, the refusal of some brands to pay their orders in full and unpaid wages have led to daily protests.

None of this is new, but recent events reveal the depth of the power imbalance, and how, even in the face of an unprecedented global health emergency, shareholder profits continue to trump the lives of those who make our garments. The crisis at COVID-19 is destroying the livelihoods of millions of people in the garment industry and makes it even more necessary to support struggles for a living wage, social protection, freedom of organization and factory safety.

A symbol of the excesses of globalisation and delocalisation, the textile industry has grown up focusing on maximising margins and speeding up collections, putting pressure on factory workers while largely ignoring the social and environmental costs. For the moment, voluntary initiatives are taking place where laws are lacking. There are few reliable and effective mechanisms available to workers, and the only thing that will really protect them will be binding legislation with decisive repercussions for brands that do not comply. No one should have to rely on voluntary initiatives for the protection of human rights.

This pandemic has changed the world and none of us can accurately predict what it will look like in a month or a year from now. Hopefully one of the changes will be a global understanding that exploitative practices should not be the basis of our collective future. "Extreme poverty is not due to insufficient income or to the fault of the individuals or families who suffer it. It is the result of choices made by States that perpetuate situations of poverty and social exclusion," said De Schutter.

 

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Ana Luisa Teixeira
Coordinatrice programme « Plaidons Responsable »

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