Hundreds of thousands of workers are employed in Tamil Nadu’s garment industry - making clothes for the global high street. Many of them are young women from poor rural villages, hoping to earn a decent living to support themselves and their families.
After years of campaigning by garment workers and their unions, in December last year the Tamil Nadu Government announced an increase in the minimum wage payable from Rs. 4000 to Rs. 7000 per month. While this should have been a time to celebrate for workers, employers have hit back. They are mounting a legal challenge and are trying to block this long-overdue increase in their workers wages.
The Garment and Fashion Workers Union (GAWFU) is taking a caravan campaign from village to village along the Chennai-Madurnathagam route meeting workers and campaigning for the wage increase to be implemented.
The time has come to ensure that workers come together to fight for implementation of the new wage. GAFWU’s caravan will travel to villages and neighbourhoods where workers live and talk about the urgent need to unite and fight back!