ON the 75th day of their strike, young women garment workers in Sri Lanka held a banner emblazoned, “Solidarity from the Sumithra strike to the Asda strike! United struggle across the Asda supply chain!”
In their video message, one woman addresses Asda retail workers going on strike over 5,000 miles away in England, in the shops where the clothes they make are sold. Smiling, she says, “You are not alone.”
Having braved months of their local bosses’ strikebreaking tactics, they sought to strengthen their fellow workers’ courage against their global bosses. In a heartfelt response, GMB national officer Nadine Houghton responded: “GMB’s Asda members fully support your struggle, and we will offer whatever solidarity we can.”
These two strikes at either end of Asda’s supply chain are historic: workers have organised and held their ground against intimidation from bosses while supporting each other across the globe — teaching us an essential lesson about the power of global solidarity.
On February 10 2024, 121 workers at the Sumithra Hasalaka factory in central Sri Lanka began a 75-day continuous strike with the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union (FTZ Union), demanding a long-promised wage increase.
Workers at Sumithra are paid an average wage below £3 per day — a poverty wage. Just one kilogram of rice would eat up nearly a quarter of this. Many of the workers are the primary breadwinners for their families, so these wages condemn whole families to hunger and malnutrition.
Three of Sumithra’s factories produce garments for global corporations, including Asda, Marks and Spencer, Superdry, Dillard’s and Tom Tailor. During the strike, workers who crossed the picket line created clothes for Asda, securing profits to match the £1 billion it made last year. Asda is co-owned by private equity firm TDR Capital and the billionaire Issa brothers, who in 2023 had to rebut claims of price-gouging during Britain’s inflation crisis.
At 75 days, this highly organised strike at Sumithra is one of the longest in the history of the Sri Lankan garment sector. The Asda strike is similarly significant, as the first British strike among Asda shop workers.
