The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) is a Canadian labour and women's rights organization with offices in Toronto and Mexico City. MSN supports the efforts of workers in global supply chains to win improved wages

Living wage

In public policy, a living wage is the minimum hourly income necessary for a worker to meet basic needs . These needs include shelter and other incidentals such as clothing and nutrition...

 and decent working conditions

Decent work

Decent work is the availability of employment in conditions of freedom, equity, human security and dignity.According to the International Labour Organization ILO, Decent Work involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social...

, and a better quality of life for themselves and their families.



The organization gets its name from the maquiladoras

Maquiladora

A maquiladora or maquila is a concept often referred to as an operation that involves manufacturing in a country that is not the client's and as such has an interesting duty or tariff treatment...

° in developing countries where garments are manufactured.



Since 1994, MSN has been working in solidarity with grassroots women's and labour rights organizations in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 and Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

, to strengthen their capacity of to challenge the negative impacts of globalization

Globalization

Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

 on workers in the global garment industry.



MSN promotes fair labour practices and respect for labour and women's rights through several interconnected strategies, including:

• Strengthening Southern Voices: MSN works with Southern partners to strengthen their capacity to document worker rights abuses and effectively engage with and pressure companies and government to respect worker rights
  Labor rights
  Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to do with labor relations between workers and their employers, usually obtained under labor and employment law. In general, these rights' debates have to do with negotiating workers' pay, benefits, and safe...
  
  .
  

• Engagement: MSN works with individual companies such as Nike, Gap and Levis and multi-stakeholder groups such as the Fair Labour Association
  Fair Labor Association
  The Fair Labor Association , a non-profit labor rights organization, is a multi-stakeholder initiative bringing together companies, colleges and universities, and civil society organizations to improve working conditions worldwide by promoting adherence to international and national labor laws...
  
  , at the international level to identify and promote industry-wide solutions to systemic problems and to promote both voluntary and regulatory approaches to reverse the "race to the bottom."
  

• Advocacy: MSN facilitates dialogue between southern groups and international brands in order to use push the brands to find solutions to problems in their supplier factories.
  

• Campaigning: MSN promotes solidarity with workers in global supply chains struggling to win improved wages and working conditions.

Notes


°The word “maquiladora,” or maquila for short, comes from the Spanish word for milling. Maquiladoras are assembly-for-export factories, first established along the Mexico/US border in the mid-1960s. Today maquilas are found throughout Mexico and Central America. They are generally located in free trade zones or industrial parks, and are often associated with low wages, poor working conditions and labour rights violations.


References


Maquila Solidarity Website: http://en.maquilasolidarity.org/About_MSN


External links


Official site of the Maquila Solidarity Network