☆ Update April 13th 2025: Crowdfunding adjusted after earthquake
☆ 08M2025 – Overview of all activities
☆ 08M2025 – Call: Feminist Day of Struggle (incl. list of all brands)

Crowdfunding adjusted after earthquake

We have good news and bad news.
The bad news are, that the effects of the earthquake are devastating and even now, more than two weeks after the catastrophe happened, nobody knows the exact extent. Officially 3700 dead have been found so far, but estimates by local organizations tend to be in the five-digit range. Not only because of the high numbers of victims, the earthquake was such a devastating event: many buildings in and around Mandalay, the second biggest city in Myanmar, and Sagaing were destroyed, as well as bridges and streets. The whole infrastructure broke down while the military junta keeps attacking with airstrikes.
Many people live on the streets and heavy rain and strong winds make the situation for them even worse. Civilians and international aid organizations report that the streets smell of the dead and relief convoys cannot reach affected areas. The humanitarian crisis in Myanmar reached a new peak and there is a high risk of epidemics if the bodies cannot be buried properly. Therefore we, together with our local partners, decided to extend our fundraiser: we now aim for at least 20 000 Euros. Period products worth 10 000 Euros will be distributed and for at least another 10 000 Euros our friends of the labour union FGWM will distribute care packages. The packages will be given out to workers in factories in the industrial area in Yangon whose families live in severely affected areas.

But now the good news: as we reported in our last update, we reached out to brands like H&M, Zara and Hunkemöller on March 8th regarding the situation inside the factories. And one factory that is producing for Hunkemöller already reacted: the toilets are cleaned more often, there is enough soap and period products available at the factory clinic now. We got an email by the managing director of the factory with pictures and also the workers on the ground confirmed the positive changes. That is a huge success and we demand the other factories and brands that we reached out to follow suit! We will not give up!

So thank you all for your support – without it this would not have been possible!

Solidarity is our weapon!
Dare to fight, dare to win!

Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments: info@fgwm-solidarity.org.

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08M2025 – Overview of activities

Based on the call for March 8th (see below), various demonstrations were held in front of branches of H&M, New Yorker, Zara, Hunkemöller and many others. Letters to store managers with the demands of factory workers were also handed over in many cities. At the same time, workers in some factories used the day to communicate the demands listed in the appeal.

This increased pressure on factory management from both inside and outside. And the pressure is working. H&M has responded by email and correspondence is still ongoing. And just one week later, Hunkemöller had an investigation carried out at the factory, where they source their underwear from, whereupon significant improvements were implemented. Among other things, sanitary pads are now available free of charge for workers at the clinic on the factory premises and conditions of the sanitary facilities have been improved. More than 1,000 people work in the factory, so this is a great success!

You can find an overview of the various actions at globalmayday.net.

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Call: International Day of Feminist Struggle – Menstrual products for all who need them!

Imagine you’re in pain, you’re bleeding, but you cannot leave work. You do not only risk consequences – you physically cannot leave the premises without the permission of your boss.
That is the reality for thousands of female workers at garment factories in South and South East Asia. Especially in Myanmar, the situation got even worse within the past four years, since the military forcibly took power, (re)installing a dictatorship. Even when the female workers are on their period they have to work overtime, six days a week and without proper sanitary facilities. In addition, the prices for menstrual pads have been rising so high, that most workers cannot afford them anymore. The toilets aren’t clean, there’s trash all over the place, the lights aren’t working properly and the workers use left over fabric from the garment factories as pads, often resulting in infections and allergies.
Not just in Myanmar – affected people all over the world have to pay for their own menstrual products and need to perform like anyone else on their jobs while suffering from pain and bleeding. Some are worse off than others as pain is always individual, and the various factors that lead to pain affect each person differently and vary from day to day.
In some countries, like South Korea, Taiwan and Zambia, some form of a right to menstrual leave was introduced already. Also, in Spain a similar regulation was just passed in 2023. Looking at these examples, there is no excuse for other countries not to follow suit!

Our demands are directed at the factory owners as well as the clothing brands, which mainly profit from the exploitation inside the factories. They must ensure that the required conditions are met in the factories they source from!

The factory unions on the ground affiliated to FGWM confirm that production is currently taking place for the following brands:

1. Sinsay (owned by LPP S.A. based in Gdansk, Poland. The company owns five distinct fashion brands: Reserved, House, Cropp, Mohito and Sinsay.)
2. SHISKY (owned by DRIVE Ltd based in Nagoya, Japan)
3. BREIZH OCEAN (based in Saint-Vigor-le-Grand, France)
4. ONLY & VERO MODA (both belong to the company BESTSELLER based in Brande, Denmark)
5. SOULCAL & CO (owned by the retail, sport and intellectual property group Frasers Group plc based in Shirebrook, UK)
6. H & M (owned by H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB based in Stockholm, Sweden)
7. ENCUENTRO (Encuentro Fashion Group based in Barcelona, Tenerife and Shanghai)
8. ZARA & Bershka (both owned by the multinational fashion design, manufacturing, and retailing group Inditex based in Arteixo, Spain)
9. SIOEN (Sioen Industries based in Ardooie, Belgium)
10. FB SISTER (belongs to the retailer New Yorker – New Yorker Group Services International GmbH & Co.KG – based in Braunschweig, Germany)
11. LA Vie En Rose (owned by Boutique La Vie en Rose Inc. based in Montreal, Canada)
12. Hunkemöller (Hunkemöller International B.V. based in Hilversum, Netherlands and Worcestershire, UK)
13. My Specials (belongs to Women’Secret based in Madrid, Spain)
14. FieldCore (owned by Workman Co., Ltd. based in Shiba-cho, Japan)
15. Etam (Etam Groupe based in Paris, France)
16. LC Waikiki (ready-to-wear fashion company based in Istanbul, Turkey)
17. Wilson (owned by Amer Sports based in Helsinki, Finland)
18. BH Bikes (Beistegui Hermanos S.A. based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain)

We are an alliance of workers organised in grassroot labour and factory unions, such as the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM), as well as the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The FGWM consists of seven (factory) unions, mostly in the garment sector. Due to the repression by the military dicatorship, the FGWM depends on international solidarity, to keep up their union activities.

We take March 8th 2025, the International Day of Feminist Struggle, as an opportunity to organise some specific support for factory workers in Mynamar. Everyone can join this effort and participate by contributing to this fundraising. Activists of the FGWM will distribute menstrual products to around 5000 people working at (garment) factories, which will support them for several months.

This fundraising is being organised by FGWM, members of grassroot unions of the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) as well as the working group Asia of the International Confederation of Labour (ICL).

Do consider to support our fundraising on gofundme.com! We aim to collect 15 000 Euros by May 11th 2025. In case you don’t like to use gofundme (also because of the high fees), you are welcome to support the efforts by transfering your contribution to the FAU Hamburg bank account. Every cent collected, will be used to support the factory workers.

Account name: AS FAU Hamburg
IBAN: DE43 4306 0967 2070 7898 00
BIC: GENODEM1GLS
Bank name: GLS Bank
Purpose: 8M FGWM solidarity

The fundraising is part of a broader effort to push for better sanitary facilities, free distribution of menstrual products inside the factories and the right for female workers to take days off work during their period. Factory owners and the involved brands are targetted to increase the pressure.

Feel free to contact us: info@fgwm-solidarity.org

Solidarity against Patriarchy!
#FGWMsolidarity