Anti-poverty bands made with forced labour, Oxfam says

international | worker & community struggles and protests | other press

Monday May 30, 2005 16:52

by redjade

oops...

"We were stupid," said Dominic Nutt at Christian Aid. "We didn't check it out, Cafod didn't check it out, and Oxfam didn't check it out."

Created with Chinese Forced Labour at Tat Shing Rubber Manufacturing Company

Anti-poverty bands made with forced labour, Oxfam says
30 May 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=642659

White wristbands sold by the Make Poverty History coalition were made in Chinese factories accused of using forced labour, it has been disclosed.

The fashionable white wristbands, worn by celebrities and politicians, including Tony Blair, were made for a coalition of charities as the symbol of its 2005 campaign to end extreme poverty.

Oxfam, Christian Aid and Cafod are among those charities selling the wristbands, made in rubber and fabric, for £1 each, of which 70p goes to the organisations.

But reports on two factories making the bands found the working conditions violated Chinese law and the standards of the Ethical Trading Initiative, which promotes better international working practices. "We were stupid," said Dominic Nutt at Christian Aid. "We didn't check it out, Cafod didn't check it out, and Oxfam didn't check it out."

At one of the factories, the Tat Shing Rubber Manufacturing Company in Shenzen, employees were working a seven-day week for less than the minimum wage, with no annual leave, no right to freedom of association, and poor health and safety provisions, one report said.

At the Fuzhou Xing Chun Trade Company, workers were being paid below the minimum wage and having pay deducted for disciplinary reasons, the other report said. About three million bands have been sold since the campaign began in January, almost two million of them in the UK. Most of the bands are fabric and not made in the two factories, which produced silicon versions.

[....]

Mr Nutt said: "We made mistakes. Oxfam had ... thought it had been done and we all took that in good faith. There is a good reason for that - Oxfam has very high standards."

Alison Fenney, the director of advocacy and communications at Cafod, said the charities were now working with both factories to improve labour standards. "If we were to just get up and leave, the workers' position would not change."

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http://www.makepovertyhistory.org
http://www.makepovertyhistory-ni.org/

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Oxfam Press Release - 30 May 2005
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/press/releases/mph_pr07.htm
'We will continue to focus all our efforts on the fight to overcome poverty and injustice, and to ensure that our own supply chains are consistent with that aim.'

Tat Shing Rubber Manufacturing Company
http://my.alibaba.com/trade/pm/company/profile/10121375.html

Google Cache of Tat Shing Rubber website (taken down?)
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:gIw753SWrpwJ:www.tsrubber.com/
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:gIw753SWrpwJ:www.tsrubber.com/aboutus.html

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Comments (3 of 3)

Geldof

by hmmmm.

Tue May 31, 2005 12:55

has told the Daily Telegraph that he wants a million to march, (and buy the record) (just like Bono) during the G8 in scotland "against poverty".
I suppose if anything goes wrong, we can blame him.
WHAT IS IT WITH IRISH POP MUSICIANS?
why is, it that they feel the need to associate themselves with "good causes"?
Is it guilt? Is it part of the deal/ contract they sign?

ILO releases major new study on forced labour

Mon May 30, 2005 17:53

At least 12.3 million people are trapped in forced labour around the world, the International Labour Office (ILO) said in a new study released today. ILO Director-General Juan Somavia called forced labour "a social evil which has no place in the modern world".

The new report, entitled "A global alliance against forced labour" (Note 1), says that nearly 10 million people are exploited through forced labour in the private economy, rather than imposed directly by states. Of these, the study estimates a minimum of 2.4 million to be victims of human trafficking.

[....]

The new study confirms that forced labour is a major global problem which is present in all regions and in all types of economy. Of the overall total, some 9.5 million forced labourers are in Asia, which is the region with the highest number; 1.3 million in Latin America and the Caribbean; 660,000 in sub-Saharan Africa; 260,000 in the Middle East and North Africa; 360,000 in industrialized countries; and 210,000 in transition countries.

Forced economic exploitation in such sectors as agriculture, construction, brick-making and informal sweatshop manufacturing is more or less evenly divided between the sexes. However, forced commercial sexual exploitation entraps almost entirely women and girls. In addition, children aged less than 18 years bear a heavy burden, comprising 40 to 50 per cent of all forced labour victims.

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2005/22.htm

- - -

The ILO report, entitled
"A global alliance against forced labour"
(.pdf format)
http://www.ilo.org/dyn/declaris/DECLARATIONWEB.DOWNLOAD_BLOB?Var_DocumentID=5059

UNICEF on Child labour

Mon May 30, 2005 17:48

An estimated 246 million children are engaged in child labour. Of those, almost three-quarters (171 million) work in hazardous situations or conditions, such as working in mines, working with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture or working with dangerous machinery.

[....]

Regional estimates indicate that:
* The Asian and Pacific regions harbour the largest number of child workers in the five to 14 age group, 127.3 million in total. (19 per cent of children work in the region.)
* Sub-Saharan Africa has an estimated 48 million child workers. Almost one child in three (29 per cent) below the age of 15 works.
* Latin America and the Caribbean have approximately 17.4 million child workers. (16 per cent of children work in the region).
* Fifteen per cent of children work in the Middle East and North Africa.
* Approximately 2.5 million children are working in industrialized and transition economies.

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Anti-poverty bands made with forced labour, Oxfam says

Comments (3 of 3)