WELCOME TO THE ARCHIVE (1994-2014) OF THE MAQUILA SOLIDARITY NETWORK. For current information on our ongoing work on the living wage, women's labour rights, freedom of association, corporate accountability and Bangladesh fire and safety, please visit our new website, launched in October, 2015: www.maquilasolidarity.org
December 19, 2014
December 19, 2014,
In this, our last issue of the Wire, we share end-of-year updates on some of the campaigns MSN has been involved in over this past year. We also want to take the opportunity to extend an enormous thank you to our collaborators, allies, donors and friends with whom we have worked over these past two decades. At the end of this year, we are retiring MSN's public educational and campaigning work.
As we near the end of 2014, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh reports that it has completed safety inspections in 1,100 apparel factories covered by the Accord, and more than 500 corrective action plans have been approved to date. The inspections are overseen by Brad Loewen, a fire inspection engineer formerly employed by the City of Winnipeg, Canada.
On November 24, the second anniversary of the Tazreen factory fire in Bangladesh, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and the Global Union IndustriALL announced that they had reached agreement with the European retailer C&A on a system for delivering long-term compensation to the families of the 120 workers killed and the 300 workers seriously injured.
In response to increased pressure from Cambodian independent unions, their international supporters, and even some major apparel brands, on November 12, the Cambodian government announced it will be raising the minimum wage for garment workers from US$100 to $128 a month on January 1, 2015.
After many setbacks, Colectivo Raiz, MSN’s partner in Aguascalientes, Mexico, is making some progress toward remediation of long-standing worker rights violations at a Levi’s supplier factory in that city, though a number of issues remain unresolved.
On November 18-21, members of the MSN team travelled to Hong Kong to participate in the Clean Clothes Campaign’s 2014 Global Forum on Strategies and Structure for the international labour rights movement.
MSN has updated its 2010 Freedom of Association in Mexico Tool Kit to take into account recent changes made in Mexico’s Federal Labour Law. The Tool Kit sets out how brands can strengthen their FOA policies, auditing procedures and corrective action plans, as well as communication with vendors, suppliers and licensees on those policies and expectations.
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