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."

-- --

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

-- --

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