Sometime last year, Bangaladeshi garment workers went on strike because they were severely underpaid. Child labourers also joined the demonstrators but here's how they ended up on the streets.
As an Asian kid being raised by a Tigress of a mom, caning is not that foreign to me. But noone deserve to be beaten up like an animal. Heck, animals don't deserve that either.
'Many of the rioting workers are employed by plants which make ready-to-wear garments for sale in western high street stores.
"We worked for them," shouted one striking worker. "They are doing business and making money, but not paying us."
An estimated three million workers, mostly women, are employed in the Bangladeshi garments industry. The lower paid workers earn a minimum monthly salary of 1,660 taka, equivalent to less than £18. They have demanded an increase to 5,000 taka. Owners said last week they could pay no more than 3,000 taka a month.'
It's difficult to differentiate the companies who are making an effort from those who are paying lip service, or worse, being serial offenders. This website is a good place to start. I know it's extremely difficult to resist pieces from Topshop, or H&M because they're that cheap. I'm guilty as charged. But we've got to start somewhere so that fashion brands will wake up and change their business strategies to a more sustainable one.
2 comments:
Those photos show something terrible regardless of the context. I was operating under the assumption, or probably delusion, that true designers were avoiding this. Example: Dolce & Gabbana do (or at least did) much of their main-line production at their own factory in Italy - presumably not a sweatshop. Now that D&G has "merged" into the main-line, who really knows what is made where. I hope its safe to have faith in Rick Owens/Olmar and Mirta. This post inspires an even greater appreciation of the previous one on Aoi Kotsuhiroi.
Thanks for sharing this info, as you say yourself, it's important to start somewhere, and being aware of what is going on is already something. Cheers for this post.
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