Calling for Living Wage Action Day on 25 September
Since we live and work in an unjust and unfair world, for most workers on this planet a living wage is an unattainable dream. The world we live in is controlled by multinational corporations and only in such a world it is possible that under the same brand one person earns more than 2 million euros per month, while the other person is forced to barely survive on 175 euros monthly. This ratio is the difference between the earnings of a CEO and what a seamstress receive monthly while working towards the profits of the same company!
As clearly unfair as this divide is, when workers in Cambodia, Bangladesh or Bosnia and Herzegovina ask for wage increase, the answer is that it will threaten company profits and that they are demanding the impossible. Reality is that multinationals can afford to pay a living wage to all workers along their supply chain, and still remain profitable. Instead, they prefer the profit of the few.
This way of doing business keeps a good part of the planet on the brink of starvation and it is not only unfair, but also unsustainable. Under the public pressure, many companies today emphasise sustainability and commitment to a just transition as a trademark, totally ignoring that a living wage is the basic precondition of a just transition as a vital factor for any just socio-economic development. They are advertising sustainability, and perpetuating exploitation. They are forcing workers to accept poverty, while we all know that a living wage for all workers in this world is possible!
More importantly, workers are simply requesting what they have earned and what they rightfully deserve. This is acknowledging the value of work and the essential role workers play in society. The right to a living wage is a human right, as it is written in the Universal declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence of human dignity.” There is no dignity on poverty wages! There is no progress in uncertainty!
As long as workers' earnings are less than a living wage, we remain committed to the fair redistribution of wealth. Workers in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe receive only a quarter of what they would need for a decent life.
Clean Clothes Campaign is calling on organisations, trade unions and all individuals who believe that the living wage for all is necessary and possible to join us in commemorating the Living Wage Action day on 25 September.