Garment workers takes stand against sweatshop conditions
26 Jul '05
2 min read
Workers at an Indonesian garment factory producing for chains such as Gap, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein have recently been on strike over excessive work-rate and hours. This agency report suggests that the strike may have been successful.
Indonesian Workers Protest 'Ill-Treatment' at US Designer Brand Factory
More than 2,000 Indonesian workers have staged a strike in a garment factory that produces famous US designer brands to protest ill-treatment and unpaid overtime fees, a labor activist said Wednesday.
At least 2,500 workers of Katexindo Citra Mandiri, had been on strike since May 14, said Dita Indah Sari, of the National Front for Indonesian Workers Struggle group.
Katexindo is an Indonesian-owned garment factory licensed to produce clothing for several famous US designer brands, including Gap, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein.
Sari said the factory had forced the workers, mostly women and members of her labor group, to work for more than eight hours a day.
The factory had also "forcefully" made the workers increase output from 65 items per hour each to 85 while rejecting overtime demands, she alleged.
However, an official at Katexindo said that the strike had been resolved Wednesday and production had resumed at the factory, which pays workers a government-regulated minimum wage of 711,000 rupiah (75 dollars) per month.
Labor disputes are quite common in Indonesia where about 40 million people are jobless or underemployed out of a population of 212 million - the world's fourth largest.
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