| Bienvenido | El Congreso | Norrköping | Documentos | Prensa | Sobre la FITTVC |
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For The Press
Wednesday June 21, 2000 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE That's why 'organising the informal sector' is one of the issues on the agenda of the upcoming 8th World Congress of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF). The session will examine trade union initiatives in the informal sector, such as the work carried out by its Indian affiliate the Self-Employed Women's Association. SEWA has turned on its head the old idea that the informal sector is impossible to organise, by developing new and innovative methods of organising and protecting some of India's poorest women. SEWA is represented at the Congress by its 36-year old General Secretary, Reema Nanavaty and its legal coordinator, Manali Shah. What is the key to SEWA's success ? "Perhaps it is to see our members not just as exploited workers who need to be protected, but as active people who, if given the right support, can take the leadership in developing a fairer system", says Reema Nanavaty. SEWA was established nearly thirty years ago to fight for the rights of women in the informal sector who worked as headloaders, blockprinters, bidi rollers, hawkers and vendors, weavers, potters, garment makers, and the like. "The government at first refused to register the union, on the grounds that it had no identifiable employer and so the workers would have nobody to negotiate with", recalls Nanavaty. "But we argued that a union is not necessarily against an employer, but for the unity of workers". Today, SEWA has a membership of 162,000. These workers are are poor, illiterate and vulnerable. They have virtually no any assets or working capital. But they make a significant contribution to India's economy, with the self-employed contributing as much as 64% to the country's Gross Domestic Product. As a union, SEWA has organised home-based workers to demand higher rates and better conditions. But the union soon found that getting laws passed was not enough. Getting the laws implemented usually involved long and bitter struggles which their members, because of their vulnerability and lack of bargaining power, could not sustain. So the union's emphasis shifted to the adoption of alternatives, such as cooperatives. Explains Nanavaty: "Chindi workers were the first to organise themselves into cooperatives in order to buy cloth and market their goods collectively. Chindi is a fabric sewn from waste cloth left over from the production of textiles in large mills. Traditionally, women received this cloth from traders and sewed it into pillow covers, quilts and blankets. They were paid piece rates for this work. When some of the women began to organise to demand higher piece rates, the traders refused to give them any work at all. It was then that SEWA organised the women into a cooperative so that they could buy leftover cloth directly from the factories themselves. The traders had tried to convince the women that if they paid higher piece rates they would be forced out of business. The cooperative, however, paid higher rates from the start and still made a profit, thus demonstrating that fair wages and profitability are not mutually exclusive. As a result, private traders are now offering the same rates to their workers". She adds: "For these women, coming together in a cooperative marks the first time in their lives they have actually owned something of their own and had decision-making power over it. Perhaps some of their proudest moments have been when they have been able to open their own shop in the same location as their former employers". "Access to credit is a big issues for our members. In the past they had to turn to the moneylenders in times of crisis, often getting into life-long debt as a result. So we set up our own bank, and even though most of the loans are unsecured, we encourage all our members to own their own tools, maintain a savings account in their own name, and if possible to have their home registered in their own name. Our members call it 'the village well', a place to come together and talk with other women about their work". A special session on 'organisng the informal sector' will be held on Wednesday June 28 2000 at 11:00 at the Louis De Geer Congress Centre in Norrköping, Sweden. Congress sessions are open to the press. Further information on the ITGLWF 8th World Congress is available at www.itglwf.org. For more information, contact: Reema Nanavaty, c/o ITGLWF Congress Secretariat: 46 11 15.50.68 (from 22/6/00)
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Bienvenido | El Congreso | Norrköping | Documentos | Prensa | Sobre la FITTVC |