Hermenigilda Comia, a 46-year-old mother of three who sews sleeves to T-shirts in a factory outside Manila, has never been to a Wal-Mart store but she talks about the world's biggest retailer as if it were her next-door neighbour.

Ms Comia and more than 200 of her colleagues at Chong Won Fashion, which makes T-shirts for the US retailer, went on strike last September to press the company's Korean owner to negotiate a labour agreement with the union.