Women Garment Factory Workers - The Distance Travelled And The Road Ahead

The UNOPS-managed Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT) in partnership with ILO and IOM remain committed to supporting projects that invest in the resilience of these women despite the changing political, social and economic landscape.

Pre-COVID-19 the garment sector employed 700,000 workers, 80% of whom were women

In the past few years the garment manufacturing sector has become a significant source of employment for women in Myanmar; a critical contribution in a country where women are 30% less likely than men to be in the labour force. Women in the sector are largely internal migrants and played an active role in Myanmar’s transition from a rural to urban economy. Work in garment, textile and footwear factories can, however, be fraught with challenges. Many internal migrants take out significant loans to facilitate their migration, working conditions within garment factories remain largely unregulated and wages can be relatively low for long, often excessive hours.  Even so, the increasing external focus on Myanmar’s garment sector attracted efforts to improve ethical business practices and at the same time, the UN agencies includingILO, IOM, the UNOPS-managed LIFT and other partners have worked to address workplace harassment and discrimination and strengthen worker empowerment and labour organising initiatives.

COVID-19 had a significant impact on the garment industry

COVID-19 resulted in supply chain disruptions and cancellations of orders that culminated in a significant slow down of the garment sector in 2020 - at that point worth around US $4.6billion. A reported 75% decline in orders meant that many garment workers lost their jobs. This heightened the vulnerability of garment workers in some of Myanmar's most vulnerable communities in peri-urban areas,  already characterised by poor nutrition, hygiene and housing, with one survey finding over a quarter of women garment workers to be undernourished. COVID-19 related loss of livelihoods exacerbated the challenges in accessing nutritious foods and many households resorted to taking on unsustainable levels of debt to support themselves. During this time the UNOPS-managed Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT) in partnership with ILO and partners worked to support factories to shift production to masks, and continued providing skills development training for garment sector workers to improve their employment options through and post-pandemic as well as providing direct support to garment factory workers.  

Women’s labour organizing in the garment sector has been on the rise

In spite of the multiple challenges facing women garment factory workers, their labour organizing has been on the rise, making them one of the most organized groups of workers in the country. Myanmar only started allowing workers to legally organize in 2012 and since then unions have been established from the ground up, with women’s labour organizing in the garment sector taking a significant role.  In the past two years alone, garment workers have taken to the streets in their thousands to demand better pay, protest the unlawful firing of union leaders, and to challenge COVID-related lay-offs. LIFT and partners including ILO have supported this strengthened labour rights movement as a critical part of a decent work environment, partnering with civil society, labour rights activists and unions to provide support to workers to resolve collective labour disputes and strengthening the peer networking of garment workers.

Women garment workers played a key role resisting the coup

On 1 February, the military coup saw thousands of Myanmar citizens taking to the streets as part of a national civil disobedience movement (CDM). Women garment factory workers were at the front and centre of this resistance, using the skills developed in organizing workers, whilst leveraging the attention of international fashion brands. The CDM has been met by the military with brutal and deadly force with the death toll currently reaching 782 lives lost, a tragic example is the shooting of a women garment factory worker, who had led a group of workers to a factory to claim for unpaid wages following the coup. The military intervened and after shooting her, proceeded to arrest the remaining 70 workers and kill five further people when shooting into the crowd. Violence and instability has also resulted in factories being set alight and several large brands sourcing from Myanmar announcing that they would stop all further orders.

As the military cracks down on dissenting voices, workers call on brands to come to their aid

The military response to the CDM and worker resistance has been an unforgiving and relenting crackdown on dissenting voices, with authorities heavily targeting worker organizations and labour rights activists in their attempt to suppress the growing power of the labour movement. This has included the rendering of multiple labour unions as illegal and the arbitrary arrest and detention of countless labour activists and union leaders. It is estimated that 3,700 people are in detention and that women make up 40% of those arrested. There are now multiple documented reports of women being beaten, tortured and sexually assaulted in detention. Despite this, women garment factory workers continue to call on international brands to hold the factories to account for worker rights and unpaid wages, and to make clear that any halt in orders is due to opposition to the military coup, and not logistical issues.

The strength of the resistance obscures the desperation of the reality

The further shock to livelihoods as a result of the coup has rendered households in peri-urban areas unable to meet their basic needs. Accumulation of new debt is rising as half of the factories and business in the area are not operational. Reports indicate that as many as 70% of internal migrants who had lost their jobs left the cities and returned to their rural homelands, many to Rakhine and Ayeyarwady. Yet many of these rural homes are already in conflict-affected areas reliant on remittances from workers in employment in the cities and overseas. Banking challenges have compounded the loss of remittance from internal migrants, with rural households also facing the difficulties accessing remittances from overseas.The reduction in income in remittance reliant households has meant that home communities have little to offer those who return. LIFT and its partners, including ILO and IOM have adjusted programming to meet the emergency needs of those who remain in peri-urban spaces with IOM additionally undertaking assessments of increased mobility while providing  support to those increasingly vulnerable migrants on the move. Through UNOPS-managed LIFT-funded activities, partners provided cash and food assistance as well as psychosocial support where possible, reaching more than 5,000 individuals to date and ensuring that migrant women are included in the targeting, specifically those who are head of their household, pregnant or single mothers.

A vulnerable migrant population face decreasing migration options

With limited employment opportunities in rural homelands, and with families reliant on them for money, women garment factory workers along with other internal migrant workers are on the move again. Some are returning to the cities to seek work in the few factories that remain operational. For those who succeed, continued curfews have put a limitation on available working hours and wages. In the absence of opportunities in the cities, many are looking to neighbouring countries for opportunities. Reports from IOM indicate that thousands have crossed the border into Thailand and India. In the face of a significant COVID-19 wave, however, the opportunities to enter these countries and access the labour market are increasingly limited. Indeed, indications are that both Thailand and India will likely take a hostile approach to migrants and refugees seeking to escape the Myanmar coup. The result being that there is a population of women garment factory workers and other vulnerable migrant workers, who are faced with limited options in an increasingly volatile situation.

LIFT is engaging partners from the UN family and civil society to provide continued support to migrants and other vulnerable workers

In addition to adjusting its project work to ensure that there is an emergency response to the immediate needs of households, LIFT recognises that there is a critical need to maintain the space for interventions that support the employment, employability and labour rights of women and men migrants and other vulnerable workers. LIFT continues to work with the UN sister agencies and partners to identify ways to provide information, training and support services to migrant workers and to ensure protection of  vulnerable workers who are at risk of, or have been subject to violence, forced labour or trafficking. This includes access to legal assistance, shelter and support and advice on safe migration and the risks of trafficking.

More must be done to protect labour rights

Myanmar’s women garment sector workers have already demonstrated strength, creativity and resilience in the actions they have taken to support their families, workers, communities and country. There is no doubt they will continue to demonstrate these qualities as the situation unfolds. It is imperative that they are supported in their role as breadwinners and as labour rights activists and that donors and international brands call on Myanmar to protect labour rights, cease violence, and end arbitrary arrests and detention.

[May ‘21] DWLM Brief: Situation of Women Garment Factory Workers