Dispatches Channel 4 08 Nov 2010

puppy cat

Anyone watch this last night?

Bascially shed some light on the so called ethical trading policies that the likes of New Look, Peacocks (UK store), etc have "signed up" to, and the fact that it counts for nothing in a lot of situations.

Sweat shops in Leicester, paying £2.50 an hour for 14 hour days, no health and safety, no nothing for the poor sods working in the them.

Then the lovely clothes get shipped off to the stores and it's mugs like us who buy them, possibly thinking they're ethically made, possibly not bothered one way or the other.

What's the point in stores advertising that they're signed up to ethical trading if they're not going to check their own sub contractors and their sub contractors etc etc.

It just made me very sad and also very angry.

So if we can't trust stores that say they're part of ethical trading, then what do we do? Where do we buy clothing safe in the knowledge that nobody has been exploited?

Not sure if there any answers actually.

Just my little rant for the day, and wondering what the fashionistas here think.

Chuchoter

Sweatshops offend our western sensibilities, but their workers are much better off than other people in their own country.

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2008/Powellsweatshops.html

Giselle

crayolastereo wrote: »

Sweatshops offend our western sensibilities, but their workers are much better off than other people in their own country.

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2008/Powellsweatshops.html

That does not make expoliting poor immigrant workers, paying them less, and refusing to recognise their employment rights, acceptable.


It offends us for a reason, and the reason is that it is totally offensive.

Whatever about developing countries, here in the West we should pay more than lip service to rights and equality.

puppy cat

crayolastereo wrote: »

Sweatshops offend our western sensibilities, but their workers are much better off than other people in their own country.

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2008/Powellsweatshops.html

yep, totally agree, sweatshops offend "our" western sensibilities.

however, since when is a person in Leicester, which is in the UK, better off earning £2.50 an hour working their butts off than people in the rest of the UK? Earning less than 50% minimum wage, with absolutely no rights, no health and safety?? I'm not talking about the typical "sweatshop" scenario in, say, Pakistan, Malaysia etc, I'm talking about the UK, for all I know it's going on in Carlow, Dublin city centre, Cork!

the point i was trying to make in my OP was this, initially we trusted that when the likes of Penneys/Primark, New Look etc informed the consumer that they had signed up to ethical trading and working standards, we trusted them, and now it turns out it's a total sham, so what do we, the consumer, do now?

where do we go? where do we shop? what do we do to voice our concern/outrage/disgust??

It's a disgrace, I'm outraged, and I want to know what to do to voice my opinion to the right people, not just say "oh well I won't ever shop in those stores mentioned above again"

fillefatale

it's a catch 22, for those people to be paid more money the stores would have to raise the prices of their clothes and people aren't going to pay anymore than the prices they are now. Because fashion is so disposable and the high street aims to keep up with the catwalks each season. So they're aiming to meet demand and they're just going to do it cheaply, by making cheap clothes, that end up in landfills and/or india for ragging in a years time.

however, i didn't watch this programme and didn't know this was going on in the uk! unbelievable.

Chuchoter

Right sorry, reread the original post, did not realize we were talking about someone in Leicester

Villette

fillefatale wrote: »

it's a catch 22, for those people to be paid more money the stores would have to raise the prices of their clothes and people aren't going to pay anymore than the prices they are now. Because fashion is so disposable and the high street aims to keep up with the catwalks each season. So they're aiming to meet demand and they're just going to do it cheaply, by making cheap clothes, that end up in landfills and/or india for ragging in a years time.

however, i didn't watch this programme and didn't know this was going on in the uk! unbelievable.

That's one way to look at it.......but there is something like a 70% mark-up on clothes. For example, I worked for a multinational cheapy fashion store and I know that the clothes literally cost cents to make as the material is so cheap and the workers get paid pittance, yet they make billions every year and their profits continue to rise every year. Is it too much to say that maybe these companies could make a bit less for their elite shareholders and actually treat the people who do the hard work humanely??
Also you might say that the workers at least have a job but that's not good enough.
I'm not saying I'm a saint or that we should all try to change the world but I don't like buying in places like Pennies and H&M and I think we should question things more instead of living in blissful ignorance. Big companies are responsible for checking the factories that they contract with. I thought the Dispatches was a real eye opener as I certainly didn't know that conditions like that could exist in the UK.

Sapsorrow

The answer for me is to shop in charity shops, you get new clothes at great prices and the money goes to helping impoverished people etc, 100% guilt-free indulgence simple as! Otherwise I buy from vintage sellers in which case I am recycling and helping individuals/businesses make a living in the process. It's really not that hard to look good and be ethical at the same time.

fillefatale

Sapsorrow wrote: »

The answer for me is to shop in charity shops, you get new clothes at great prices and the money goes to helping impoverished people etc, 100% guilt-free indulgence simple as! Otherwise I buy from vintage sellers in which case I am recycling and helping individuals/businesses make a living in the process. It's really not that hard to look good and be ethical at the same time.

Unfortunately a lot of people turn their noses up at 'second hand' clothes. I wish more retailers would take a more ethical stance and improve their trading practices.