**Hello, friend!! I am wearing dresses every day of December for my second year as a Dressember advocate! We’re a community of volunteers who take on the challenge to wear dresses and ties to raise awareness and funds for the end of human trafficking. Below is my Advent Devotional I researched and wrote to go along with my campaign. You can find my Dressember page here.**
Approach: Thank you for landing on this page! Welcome. I encourage to you find a printed Bible or have a web search available, silence anything that may distract you, and take 3 deep breathes. (Pause) Below you’ll be entering into a discussion on home-based work in the garment industry. Where is home for you? What kind of work do you do in your home? Do you know anything about home-based workers?)
Love – Advent Week 4
What is home-based work in the garment industry?
In week 1, we looked at the big picture of human trafficking and a big perspective on hope. In week 2, we looked at the meaning of forced labor in the garment industry and the peace we should pursue instead of our fast-consuming habits. We learned that rest leads remembrance; Sabbath cultivates thanksgiving. In week 3, we discussed the exploitative nature of empires versus the relational nature of the Kingdom of God with some practical suggestions for practices around shopping that will help us cultivate sustainable joy. In week 4, we are going to have an introduction to home-based workers and look at love for the home.
Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a global network empowering the working poor, especially women in the informal economy, to have rights, protection, and a voice (WIEGO). WIEGO describes two types of garment workers: contract labourers and home-based workers. Contract labour is typically large factories usually interested in hiring young, single women. If a woman becomes pregnant, she may lose her job. Then, her other option is home-based work. Home-based workers are most often women that need to earn an income, but also have major domestic and child-care responsibilities. Some women, like many Muslim women in Ahmedabad, India, are not allowed to work outside their homes (WIEGO). These women and many others are paid on a piece-rate basis (an amount per completed item of clothing) and work from their own homes.
In 1999, 60% of garment production was in homes in Asia and Latin America (WIEGO). It is possible that some of the clothes you own were made in someone’s home. The work is “irregular and insecure,” “[lacking] formal recognition” for the workers (Labour Behind the Label). Because brands select their manufacturers from the cheapest bidders, the manufacturers are not guaranteed work with any brand. Many home-based workers find themselves in seasonal layoffs when a brand does not choose their manufacturer. The “wages are often about one third or one quarter of the legal minimum,” with “no social security or employment rights” (LBL). In 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand, a self-employed garment worker made US$28 for seven-hour days, but a home-based garment worker made US$9 for nine-hour days. Home-based workers also have to cover many of the costs of production: the workplace, equipment, and utilities (WIEGO). Issues can include not being able to take bulk orders because there is no room in the home to store the products or the raw materials needed; using manual sewing machines because of unreliable electricity; and transporting orders to the home and back to the manufacturer. In 2012 in Ahmedabad, those that relied on public transportation spend US$7 per month on transportation of their US$42 per month, working over 23 hours a week (WIEGO). These workers can virtually be made invisible, unrecognized as working women. Because of their invisibility, it is “difficult for homeworkers to find out who is responsible for their pay and conditions” (LBL). Isolated in their homes, they are invisible to governments and retailers. Both home-based work and contract labor is found around the world, from Toronto to Bangkok.
(Pause) Take 2 deep breathes. Thank you for reading more about the challenges for some of the women that work in the garment industry. It is hard to know what the challenges were for the hands behind the clothes you specifically own. We’ll look at a tool to help with that in devotional 5. Have you ever heard of home-based workers? Consider the challenges you would have if you were not recognized as a working person though you were working many hours. (Pause)
I invite you to read on when you are ready.
Open a Bible or web search to Psalm 84. Read through the chapter, aloud if you can.
Many of us have now experienced working or learning from home in 2020. Zoom calls, emails, needing to upgrade the WiFi router, creating spaces without clutter to work, converting all surfaces into desks, connecting to with family and friends through video call platforms. For me, I know I don’t mind being near a solid supply of snacks and now Christmas cookies while I work!
How might Psalm 84 expand your idea of home?
Who can find their home in the Lord’s dwelling place?
What does it look like to make a place home for you?
Today, I ask you to join me in praying for the homes where women tirelessly work to provide an income for their families and use their spaces to make our garments.
Our gracious and loving Lord, we thank you for the ways you have abundantly provided for us. On our hearts today are the home-based workers, like those in Ahmedabad, India, Bangkok, Thailand, and Lahore, Pakistan. We thank for their skills and the provision of their homes to do work when little work is available. We trust that you see them, and you know their names. We confess that we do not often take time to thank you for the abundance you have given us. You give abundance to all, and we do not praise you enough for it. Loving Lord, we thank you for work that WIEGO has done, is doing, and will do in helping women gain recognition and rights as workers. Bless their global network. Bless our homes. In your Loving-Kindness you see our homes. May we love these women not only in our words, but also in our actions. Teach us to advocate for all those you love.
Amen.
I encourage you to choose a verse about home that stood out to you in Psalm 84 and read it 3 times aloud.
In Love,
Sources Above:
“About Us.” WIEGO. WEIGO. Accessed November 30, 2020. https://www.wiego.org/about-us.
“Garment Workers.” WIEGO. WIEGO. Accessed November 30, 2020. https://www.wiego.org/garment-workers.
“Homeworkers.” Labour Behind the Label. Labour Behind the Label. Accessed December 3, 2020. https://labourbehindthelabel.org/our-work/homeworkers/.
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[…] practical suggestions for practices around shopping that will help us cultivate sustainable joy. In week 4, we had an introduction to home-based workers and prayed for homes. In this final devotional […]
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