My petition is here: (2019 – link non longer works) Please, join me in speaking up for a group of people who otherwise have no voice.
Unregulated factories are known as sweatshops. In sweatshops, torturous working conditions continue. Workers (mainly women and children) work 12+ hour days for as little as £20 per month, and are routinely subjected to violence, sexual and verbal abuse, toxic chemicals and dangerous machinery. They are likely to have no proper toilet facilities, no access to ventilation or water, no power to negotiate better working conditions and no alternative employment.
If those unregulated factories paid their workers double the current rate per garment, it would only constitute a rise in overall cost to you and me of around 2%, so a £10 garment would cost £10.20 instead. We could still buy affordable clothes, and the people who make them could afford food, housing, education for their children, and even a little disposable income.
See designer and ethical fashion advocate Katharine Hamnett and journalist Tansy Hoskins discussing how little has changed since the Rana Plaza collapse on BBC Breakfast.
In a separate interview, following the screening on ITV of Fashion Factories Undercover, Ms Hamnett described fashion as “a stinking business” and said our clothing is “covered in blood”.
It seems absurd to me that we can tell whether the chickens that laid our eggs are freerange or caged, but we cannot tell if our clothing is made in sweatshops.
I want to know if the clothes I buy for myself and my children has come at a huge personal cost to another woman (or man) and her children on the other side of the world. I want clothing clearly labelled.
I am writing to ask you to add your name to my petition and to share it with your friends. It doesn’t matter if you’re not in Europe, your signature will still make a difference.
It would be amazing to get a big, public conversation started about the people who make our clothes. It would be amazing to have your support to make sure that they are safe and fairly paid.
x Kate
Originally published on diamondsanddaisychains.com