A Lesson for Minnie Driver in International Trade
Minnie's visit to a cooperative exposes difficult world of women garment workers.
|
| "We have the power to ask if the products we buy have been ethically made." Minnie Driver learns to make a T-Shirt at the Solidarity Cooperative in Bangkok, Thailand. |
The world-renowned actress Minnie Driver got an eye-opening introduction to the difficulties of garment workers in Thailand during a visit to the Solidarity Cooperative factory in Bangkok. Workers there taught her to sew a t-shirt, which she found quite difficult. "At the factory they made me sew on the sleeves, finish the main body, put on the pocket, clip off, iron it, fold it, pack it. The whole process is highly skilled and I couldn't even sew on a pocket properly—I was so embarrassed."
The challenging work at the Solidarity Cooperative is tempered by the humane work conditions: the worker-owned cooperative won't force people to work until 2AM as some factories do, and is committed to paying a decent wage and sharing profits.
But this is an unusual case. Pressure from retailers seeking the lowest prices and the fastest service are pushing the costs of international trade down onto vulnerable women workers, who in many factories are paid as little as $1.50 a day and forced to work long hours to meet production demands. The working conditions are grim: they get few bathroom breaks, and women are fired if ill or pregnant. Many countries discourage labor unions, and workers are threatened and sacked if they try to organize. "I'm not a global economist but you just need some humanity to understand that this isn't fair," Ms. Driver said during her visit to Asia, which included stops in Cambodia, where there are 230,000 mostly female garment workers earning an average of $45 a month.
These unfair labor practices are undermining the potential of international trade to help poor people work their own way out of poverty. Jobs like sewing clothes and growing fruits and vegetables and flowers could provide the income, security, and support women need to lift them and their families out of poverty. Instead, women workers are being denied their fair share of the benefits of international trade.
Oxfam's Make Trade Fair Campaign is calling on retailers and suppliers of clothes and food to address the impact of their business practices, and respect worker rights to join unions and bargain collectively, and eliminate discrimination against women workers.
This week the Make Trade Fair Campaign released a report, Trading Away Our Rights, that details the unjust trade practices that victimize women workers and recommends better policies and business practices.
Consumers interested in pressuring companies and governments to improve their policies and help workers get better treatment can go www.maketradefair.com and sign on to the Big Noise, Oxfam's global petition. Nothing will change until people everywhere insist on better rules that unlock the potential of trade to help poor people everywhere. As Driver puts it, "As a consuming public we have the power to ask if the products we buy have been ethically made. We also have the power en masse to insist that they be ethically made."
Learn More
Learn more about the Make Trade Fair Campaign
Visit HungerBanquet.org to learn more about hunger and poverty
Get Involved
Sign up for Oxfam's eCommunity
Join the Big Noise at maketradefair.com
Other Notable Supporters of the Make Trade Fair Campaign