The Devil Wears Primark: Another dose of reality TV sweatshops
Hot on the heals of BBC3′s ‘Blood Sweat and T-Shirts‘, comes Channel 4′s ‘The Devil Wears Primark‘, which is being broadcast on Sunday June 1st at 9.00pm. Like ‘Blood Sweat and T-Shirts’ the shows concerns the working conditions of Indian workers making clothes for Britain’s low cost fashion industry. These include poor health and safety, [...]
A New Deal for Agency Workers’ Rights
The government have this week revealed a new deal between businesses and trade unions which is to give agency and temporary workers employment parity with permanent workers after 12 weeks at work. The measures should come in to force during the next session of Parliament, provided the government is able to ensure that agency workers [...]
Scotland’s Fairtrade aspirations in question after labour standards scandal
We were intrigued to read today that Scotland’s aspirations to become the first Fairtrade country, have received a major blow. An investigation by BBC Scotland has revealed that five firms supplying Scottish local authorities have been accused of serious labour rights abuses.As part of Scotland’s aspiration to become the first Fairtrade nation, the country has [...]
Migrant Workers in the UK… Silent Exploitation?
A recent Guardian leader raised the issue of ‘unheard workers’ in the UK who are suffering under abhorrent conditions working for agencies in industries such as agriculture and food packing. The leader states that, in direct contrast to the issues of foreign sweatshops and labour standards in the garment industry, the issues in our own [...]
Blood Sweat and T-Shirts: coming face to face with child labour
Last night we saw the final instalment of Blood Sweat and T-shirts, the BBC3 reality TV show about the garment industry in India. We have been fairly critical of the show in previous weeks since it has seemed to focus on the Brit’s shock at their living conditions, but last night’s episode managed to present [...]
Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts, and Squabbling
The eagerly awaited third episode of BBC3′s Blood, Sweat, and T-Shirts aired last night yet disappointingly, the focus of the show was on a blocked toilet and group in-fighting when the six British ‘workers’ were transported to pick cotton in rural India. In our opinion, the 3rd episode focussed too heavily on this at the [...]
Radiohead collaborates with MTV on anti-sweatshop video
Radiohead have teamed up with MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) to produce a music video to raise awareness of child labour and human trafficking. The song ‘All I Need’ from the ‘In Rainbows‘ album is used as a backing track on a video featuring two stories, shown simultaneously; one of a boy from the [...]
The Sweatshop Game? Targeting Young and Ethical Consumers
We have stumbled across this serious, but curiously addictive, Sweatshop Sim game, which has been commissioned by NOW, Nottingham’s Arts Festival and designed by New Pollution .You are a factory worker, tasked with making shoes on a production line. The website blurb invites you to: ‘enter the world of the sweatshop and become a factory [...]