Secrets of The High Street

By Sarah Dean

As the official Olympic Torch travels across the globe a campaign launched by Play Fair seeks respect for workers rights in the production of Olympics licensed products.

The international campaign, played out through the internet site "Catch the Flame" where an electronic relay race takes place, aims to bring public attention to the need for the Olympics to 'play fair' when it comes to production of their merchandise.

The 2008 Play Fair campaign has been fuelled by the recent uncovering of gross violations of workers rights in four Chinese factories making products under license to the Beijing Olympics.

Esther de Haan, coordinator of the Clean Clothes Campaign, one of the organizations coordinating the Play Fair campaign, said: “By joining this alternative torch relay, people around the world can send a clear message that for the Olympics to really be fair, working conditions for those who produce Olympic goods have to be fair as well.”   
          

                                               Image: www.playfair2008.org ©
 

The electronic flame can be passed on via text message, Bluetooth or email.

Play Fair 2008 has been in contact with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) about the issues of sweatshop labour, International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary, Guy Ryder, said:

"While discussions with the IOC were constructive and we remain hopeful that the world’s peak sporting body is prepared to take concrete action to put an end to maltreatment of workers who make the products which bring important revenue to the Olympics, there has been little if any actual progress."

 
Visitors to the "Catch the Flame" website are able to show their support for the Play Fair campaign’s objectives for fair labour standards in Olympics production. With the 2008 Olympics being held in China, international attention has focused on a range of human rights issues in China and related concerns such as press freedom. While Play Fair’s work has documented serious violations in Olympics production inside China, the problem is not limited to China, and previous Play Fair studies have documented workers’ rights violations in sports merchandise production in a range of other countries.

By Sarah Dean                                           In a consumer society, it is easy to feel distanced from where your belongings come from. This is what inspired Fred Pearce, an environment consultant and leading contributor to New Scientist magazine, to take on the challenge of an around the world trip to discover the origins of his everyday possessions in his latest book: Confessions of an Eco Sinner.

The freelance writer on environmental, developmental and demographic issues who has reported from fifty-four countries over the past fifteen years tells an intensely thought provoking story in his latest book.  

Pearce travels from the market at the end of his own street to the ends of the earth to investigate his ecological and social footprint and discover the real story behind where his belongings have come from. That's everything from the cotton in his shirt to the prawns in his curry.  

The journey takes him to African rainforests, central Asian deserts to Bangladeshi sweatshops and Chinese computer factories. 

Whilst in Australia, once the world’s third largest exporter of cotton until 2006 when a water drought stopped growth, Pearce learnt that: “No grower knew for sure where his cotton ended up, and no retailer knew where their cotton originated.”    

The owner of an Australian cotton farm suspected his cotton was sent to Indonesia to be spun, knitted and weaved but could not be sure. Marks and Spencer’s chief cotton buyer Graham Burden similarly was unaware of where his cotton originated.  

Pearce’s book contains lots of interesting little facts that we, as consumers, should all really be aware of. For example the international trade of cotton is concentrated in the hands of only a few companies: Dreyfus, Cargill and Dunavant in the U.S, Reinhart in Switzerland, Plexus in Liverpool, England and Chinatext in China, the newest of the bunch.  

These companies hold a monopoly over the 2.5 million tons of cotton produced globally every year. This is the equivalent of fifteen new T-shirts for everyone on the planet. 

Did you know: Homo-sapiens’s collectively spend more than a trillion pounds a year buying clothes? And every year Britain’s spend £800 each on clothes. Yet very few of us give thought to where our money is going, it certainly isn’t to the people that make our clothes for hours on end in sweatshops.  

These people are just grateful that, as Pearce says: “no automated processes have yet been found to replace the work of human hands and sewing machines”. Otherwise they could not even earn the pittance that they do, obviously this is not true in all cases.

For the cotton workers in Uzbekistan (one of the seven largest suppliers of cotton) where by state compulsion they must go picking.  

 But the book is not all doom and gloom: Pearce says that the experience left him with “some optimism about humanity and the huge potential we have to run our world.”  

This book touches on eco related issues that I hadn't seen anywhere else, the message of it is, be aware of all the costs that go into subsidising our western way of life and ask yourself if you are prepared to pay them, because ultimately what ever you/we pay, our children will be paying an awful lot more.

By Sarah Dean

International Women’s Day yesterday marked the 100^th anniversary of the liberation of female sweatshop workers in New York.  

On 8^th March 1908 thousands of women left their jobs in the sweatshops of New York City's Lower East Side and took to the streets to demand their rights as women and as workers.  

The Workers Solidarity Alliance, a North American political activist group, released a statement saying:  

“We honor these women, as well as the countless others in every corner of the world, who, generation after generation, rise up against inequality, oppression and domination.

We salute their struggles and the sacrifices they made.

Still, the dream of freedom, equality and peace for all people is far from reality. Every day, women continue to confront sexism in their personal relationships as well as sexual harassment and violence on the job, in the streets, and at home. Millions of women workers are still ruthlessly exploited.”     

By Mandy Biles

The organisation, Fairtrade Fortnight, have gained a lot of support for its cause, creating clothes jewellery and accessories.

The scheme helps producers in developing countries, by making sure that the farmers receive a fair wage for their labour, and are working in healthy and safe environments.

Oxfam have begun to sell jewellery and accessories from the Fairtrade range which have been extremely popular and they will soon be selling Fairtrade Fortnight clothes.

The area manager of Oxfam, South Street, Exeter said: "It's that double-good feeling becasue you feel good wearing the jewellery and also know you're doing some good in the world." 

"The styles keep with trends as well - we're trying to keep them with High Street fashion. The pieces range from £1.99 to about £30 for precious- stone ones, so the range should appeal to all”.

Other shops that have seen the popularity of the Fairtrade items is Marks and Spencer’s, which has sold more than three million Fairtrade cotton garments.
By buying clothes from the Fairtrade Fortnight range it offers shoppers a guilt free enjoyable shopping experience.  Monsoon, Accessorize, Debenhams, Next, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Topshop all offer a range of Fairtrade items.

By Sarah Dean

In the past year fashion has been affected by a certain movement in which it is now deemed ‘cool to care’. The media, fashion industry (all be it not all of it) and consumers have become slightly more concerned about who makes their clothes and how those who stitch together their low price jeans are treated.

 Businesses and retailers have also caught on to the fact that it pays to be ethical; while the costs for companies doing nothing get ever higher.

Take a look at American Apparel, the largest t-shirt manufacturer in America. Founder and former chief executive Dov Charney does not outsource his manufacturing to cheap third world country workers but instead has his factory in LA. Where he pays his workers on average $12/hr (over twice the federal minimum) and provides them with subsidized health insurance, meals and parking. By subsidizing workers and their families health insurance it costs his firm $4m-5m a year but that hasn’t deterred him for looking for further ways to help his loyal workers who are offered full time job security, unlike the usual seasonal work offered to garment workers. This puts companies like Gap to shame who still outsource 83% of its production to Asia.       

 However lets not praise Charney too much as he is currently going through a sexual harassment and termination lawsuit filed by a female worker. Mary Nelson claimed Charney often referred to women as “sluts.” He testified, however, that “some of us love sluts. ... It could be also an endearing term.” So a model employee of a multinational clothing company for us to illustrate to you is still yet to be found.

By Sarah Dean
Members of the Student Activist Project from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) visited the Garment District in downtown Los Angeles and found some shocking home truths.
They also toured the Garment Workers Centre to gain insight into the lives of sweatshop workers.
The centre was opened in 2001 as a place for exploited garment workers. It aims to empower the workers and facilitate change. It impacts the daily life of the workers by offering services such as childcare, workshops on health and safety, and a counsellor who offers mental health support. The centre also helps workers obtain wages owed to them.
                                                                           Director of the centre, Kimi Lee said: “Companies will listen to consumers. Consumers need to care where clothes are made and how workers are treated.”
There are an estimated 90,000 garment workers in Los Angeles. Many workers that Lee has helped at the centre earn $3 to $4 per hour, much less than California’s minimum wage of $8. Some garment workers Lee has spoken to received ‘IOU’ slips and some are paid strictly in cash.
The students saw small workshops and factories firsthand, but most of the students simply saw empty rooms where workers may work during weekdays. The buildings where workrooms were found had dark, narrow stairways, dirty floors and poor lighting. Workrooms were generally on the uppermost floors of buildings, far from the public eye.
Tina Reggio, a facilitator of the student-led group, said she hoped to enlighten the students that joined her on the field trip.
“It’s really eye-opening to see it before your own eyes,” said Reggio, a second-year international developmental studies student. “Once you see it, you can’t ignore it.”

Interview By: Mandy Biles and Sarah Dean

What made you want to open this shop?

I wanted to create an actual retail space on the high street that sold 100% fair trade products.  At the moment fair trade fashion has taken a back seat, so I wanted to create a shop where people can come and try things on and know that they have been produced ethically.  So I set up the shop here in Camden passage, Islington.

Where do you get all your products from?

We buy from different designers who hold ethical policies. Fifteen different designers at the moment who are all fair trade and have other ethical things on top of that, some of the bags are vegan, and some of them use organic cotton and others use reclaimed fabric.

Do you think there is anything that the government could do to combat sweatshops?

I’m not necessarily sure the government could do anything about it.  I would say that it was more the responsibility of retailers to be resourcing more ethically. The government could put pressure on governments from developing countries to try and assure that the factories in these countries are adhering to certain standards. I would say that it was the responsibility of both governments to work together.

Do you think high street stores such as Topshop should provide more ethical clothing?

I would like to see them implementing it across their entire range.  It’s good that Topshop are selling some fair trade items but it doesn’t say much for the other stuff in their shop. It suggests that the other isn’t. I think that fair trade should just be a standard, a norm for all shops.  Big companies like Arcadia don’t even need to increase the prices of their fair trade products because they have such big buying power it doesn’t cost that much more, they could probably swallow a little bit of the cost.

So what sort of customers do you get coming into your shop? Are they predominately young/old? Or is it very varied?

We get some young people; it’s quite across the board.  It does tend to be mainly 25+, we get quite a few students who are interested but aren’t necessarily able to afford some of it.  It’s a whole range of people.  We get some people who just buy because they like the clothes and it’s a bonus that it’s ethical, whereas some do come here because the specifically want to shop ethically.

Dress: Alchem1st Aglaea Dress, Price £50

For any enquiries about the shop, phone Penny Cooke on: 0207 359 0955

By Sarah Dean 
Our recent visit to London Fashion Weekend inspired us to investigate the opinions of high class fashion designers on those high street stores who manufacture their clothes in sweat shops. We wondered: is designer clothing produced any more ethically?
I mean you’d certainly expect it to be when the average price tag is around £500. And do designers even care about how their clothes are produced?
Well, disappointingly one interview with a designer led us to the simple answer of, well, no. Of course I don’t want to generalise and say no high class fashion designers care about the workers who produce their labels clothes which allow them luxurious lifestyles.

 However, my interview with one particular designer (if you could even call it that) known for having a celebrity following including Alexa Chung and June Sarpong, left me with little hope in the morals of the fashion world and a clear view that its inhabitants have poor manners.

 Asked on what she thought about the way in which many clothes are unethically produced she replied abruptly: “We are just here (meaning at the Fashion Weekend) to sell clothes.” Obviously the industry has worn away her conscious and left her concerned with one only matter – shifting her overpriced stock.    

 ‘Now now’ I hear you say ‘don’t be so rude’ but you see a journalist on a mission, all be it a very ethical one, does not take kindly to being spoken to as though I was a bit of dirt on the bottom of her Jimmy Choo’s. The ‘oh so clever’ designer kindly reminded me “we are not high street” when I mentioned the name of our website. Hmm did I really look that stupid? Well anyway I probed on trying to get some kind of informative answer from her.

When asked on where the company’s clothes were produced she replied “India”. I began to get suspicious as her eyes started to wonder and her demeanour became shifty, what was she hiding from me? It was obvious I was getting into dangerous waters and she wasn’t going to open up to me, especially when there were clothes hungry customers swarming around her stall. So I asked one more question: “Well are your clothes ethically produced?” Stupid question, of course she said yes.          

By Sarah Dean 

Teen sweatshop workers in the Philippines have seen a small justice this week as two businessmen were arrested and charged with violating the Antitrafficking of Persons Act of 2003 and for employing minors without a permit.

16 teenagers were rescued from a sweatshop in Cubao, Quezon City in Manila. Police said the teenagers were allegedly maltreated by their employers.

The Chinese-Filipino businessmen, reportedly brothers, belonged to a prominent political clan.   

The factory which packaged rubber shoes was raided and minors were found working in awful conditions.

A 19-year-old informant was one of those who allegedly suffered inhuman working conditions in the shop. The complainant worked there for more than three years until she was able to run away six months ago.

The workers were allegedly locked up inside their rooms, apparently to prevent them from escaping. Victims were underpaid and forced to work more than 12 hours a day with no payment for overtime work.

By Mandy Biles 

BBC Three will soon to be launching a new programme to educate people in where their clothes have come from.

“Making the clothes I wear” shows six high street fashion fans the reality of where their clothes have come from, and that a lot happens before they appear crease free and hanging in the shop windows.

By taking part in “Making the clothes I wear” the six fashion fans will be travelling to developing countries and work in some of the factories where their clothes are made, even at times sleeping next to their machine and trying to live on the wages that the workers receive.

BBC Three will also provide further information offering a complete users’ guide to this complex topic which will include an interactive, video-rich website and content on mobile devices.

By Sarah Dean 

Anti sweatshop organisation No Sweat this week held their third annual student action week with anti-sweatshop speakers touring university campuses across the globe; including campuses in New Zealand, Paris and England.

 Universities and colleges came together to campaign against the wrongful abuse of sweatshop workers by organising mass meetings, mini-pickets, film showings and fashion shows.

 This year’s student action week from 11^th-18^th February paid particular attention to fast food chains and their exploitive labour prices. Many workers chose to picket outside Starbucks stores in demand of better pay after the success of workers at KFC and Pizza Hut in New Zealand in 2005. Thousands of mainly young fast food workers waged an innovative campaign called Supersize My Pay and won a wage increase.

 It seems such a campaign is now needed for workers of large high-street stores. Because in England we have a minimum wage which must be abided to by law not much attention is given to how much shop workers are paid. But when you look at the hours and hard work and overtime young workers do each week it seems only fair that they are paid a wage that equates to their amount of labour rather than one an out of touch government invented.

 Currently 18-21 year olds must legally be paid ٢.60 an hour whilst 16-17 year olds can be paid as little as ١.40 an hour.

 Simon Labonte, 19, a full time student, currently works at Primark in London to support his studies. It seems Primark keeps their prices so low for customers not only by using sweatshops in Asia to produce their cheap goods but also by paying their workers a tiny wage in comparison to the effort it takes to work in a shop which is always busy.

 If you’ve ever been to Primark you’ll feel for its workers after they relentlessly fold and pick up abandoned clothes and shoes from the floor only for some one else to come along and throw them back on the floor. I suppose that’s what happens when people have little respect for your store but simply take advantage of its cheap prices.

 Speaking of his pay at Primark, Simon said: “I’m on ٣.41, it’s the lowest they can pay me. For me to get a decent wage at the end of the month I’ve got to do a lot of overtime, which I don’t really have time to do. It doesn’t feel worth it, the first chance at a higher paid job and I’m gone”.   

By Sarah Dean

As further changes emerge for garment workers and people gradually start to appreciate the workers struggles and hard labor which goes into their cheap clothes we should look back and see how the clothing industry got into the unethical state it is in today….

 Sweatshops are work environments that possess three major characteristics—long hours, low pay, and unsafe or unhealthy working conditions.

One of the earliest examples of a sweatshop was in the crude textile mills of Ecuador. Spanish conquerors put the native population to work in sweatshop conditions in the manufacture of cloth, rough garments, and assorted textile goods.

The use of the term is more recently traced to working conditions in England's emerging manufacturing industries, where women and children sweated in jobs performed under horrid conditions-the work being monotonous, the hours long, and the pay miserably low. The British government established a Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Sweating System in 1889, thus publicly exposing the conditions for the first time.

With massive immigration into the United States, especially beginning in the late 1880s, sweatshops then became common in American cities on the east coast.

Southern and eastern European immigrants were easy prey for manufacturers who paid low wages and provided poor working conditions in factories. In many instances, the newly arrived immigrants were glad to have these sweating jobs at any wage, no matter how low. The situation in many of the new industries was ripe for sweatshops to develop. Social and economic conditions in most cities produced a large population from which to find workers willing to accept any wage and management systems that neglected the workers, thus removing any consideration of the human factor in manufacturing. Generally, workers lacked access to the kind of knowledge and resources that would enable them to overcome the impossible working conditions, while governments, both local and national, were unwilling to intervene on their behalf. Other characteristics of sweatshops included overcrowding, lack of sanitary conditions, no worker breaks or relief, demands to complete a task within a limited period of time, and-as important to the continuance of the sweatshop-the total lack of job security.

But now we are in the 21^st century and minimum wage laws exist it is a crying shame that people are still working in these conditions. Governments in our opinion are still not doing enough to intervene on the behalf of workers who can see no way out of the appalling sweatshops.    

Governments in the developed world have attempted the problem of sweatshops. In America In May 1999, a Los Angeles court issued subpoenas to seventeen U.S. firms-including The Gap, Wal-Mart, Sears, Tommy Hilfiger, Jones Apparel Group, and Warnaco-seeking over one billion dollars in damages over apparel goods reportedly manufactured in Siapan sweatshops. In February 1999, U.S. garment firms announced support of another one billion dollar suit against sweat-shop factories in the Mariana Islands.

However, the governments of many developing nations are reluctant to enforce strong worker-protection laws. They view cheap labor as one of the major assets they can offer to attract investment by multinational companies, which creates jobs and provides capital for development. These governments argue that all of the major developed nations limited worker rights early in their economic histories, and that they should be allowed to do so as well, with the goal of eventually achieving the prosperity that would enable them to eliminate sweatshops. They also claim that sweatshops often provide the best wages and working conditions available to workers in the developing world, who might otherwise be condemned to prostitution, begging, or subsistence farming.