What?

This week, garment workers share with #OpenDiaries what the Garment Worker Diaries survey means to them. 99% of respondents reported that they liked participating in the survey, citing that they learned how to better keep track of their finances and that they felt heard and acknowledged because of it, among other reasons. When asked how important they felt that sharing stories of their experiences and working conditions was, 94% of respondents said at least slightly important.

You can find the full slideshow here and you can discover more #OpenDiaries posts here.

If you have a question for the garment workers, there are three ways to ask it: 1) direct message us 2) write in the post comments, or 3) send an email to questions@workerdiaries.org.

Note: the quotes in the posts are not from the workers in the photos, but from different workers.

This week’s Garment Worker Diaries blog is an update on the project in Bangladesh through the end of 2022. December of that year marked 33 straight months of data collection in Bangladesh, beginning with the onset of COVID-19 in April 2020. Throughout that time period, garment workers kept showing up at their factories, sometimes working as much as 295 hours per month.

We did not include as many core questions in our weekly surveys in the fall of 2022, but in turn we were also able to ask garment workers more special (one-time) questions. In the coming weeks and months we look forward to sharing some of those special questions results with you in our #OpenDiaries series, which you can find posted across all of our social media platforms, as well as on our website’s designated #OpenDiaries page.

As always, you can send any questions you have for MFO, SANEM, the workers or about the project to questions@workerdiaries.org.

Beginning in mid-2022 we began using data from the Garment Worker Diaries study in Bangladesh to help us calculate the wage a garment worker living there would have to earn to lead a decent life. This living wage range refers not only to the physical, mental and social nourishment a decent wage provides, but also to the fact that the wage calculation itself could be compared to a living, breathing phenomenon.

In this week’s Garment Worker Diaries blog, we discuss why we believe a living wage range needs to be updated from time to time, and for the calculations used to determine that range to also be subject to update and refinement when necessary. Despite the clothing itself, wages are one of the most tangible products of garment workers’ labor, and something they actually get to take home with them. Wages are a part of workers’ daily lives, and those wages’ ability to sustain life in a decent manner should never be taken for granted.

As always, you can send any questions you have for MFO, SANEM, the workers or about the project to questions@workerdiaries.org.

In this week’s Garment Worker Diaries blog we discuss the answers to questions workers in Bangladesh answered for us regarding dangers in the workplace, both occupational and interpersonal. The answers suggest there are opportunities to improve workers’ confidence regarding how to properly respond to certain workplace accidents, and also in the way workers and management communicate about such safety issues. And regarding certain kinds of abusive interactions between workers, it is important to note that women were somewhat more likely to report an abusive encounter than men and to report that such encounters occur more frequently. Men were also far more likely than women to be identified as the person committing the abuse.

As always, you can send any questions you have for MFO, SANEM, the workers or about the project to questions@workerdiaries.org.