Ethical wristbands made using 'slave labour'

The Sunday Telegraph ^ | May 29, 2005 | David Harrison

[MadIvan]

Wristbands sold to raise money for a campaign against world poverty are made in Chinese sweatshops in "slave labour" conditions, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Worthy cause: hundreds of thousands of the £1 wristbands have been sold in Britain

The "shocking" conditions are disclosed in confidential "ethical audits" of factories that make the ultra-fashionable white wristbands for the Make Poverty History campaign, started by a coalition of more than 400 charities.

Bob Geldof, who last week confirmed a follow-up to the 1985 Live Aid concert - to coincide with the G8 summit in July - called for action when this newspaper broke the news to him.

"The charities should pull out of deals with those companies immediately or set a firm deadline for improvements and pull out if the improvements are not met," he said. One senior official with a British charity last night described the labour abuses as "deeply shocking".

He accused Oxfam, Christian Aid, Cafod and others of "rank hypocrisy" for buying from sweatshops while campaigning for "fair and ethical trade".

Ultra-fashionable: pop stars and politicians wear the wristbands

He said: "This is appalling. It goes against everything we stand for. If we are criticising big companies for trading unethically then we have to be whiter than white."

Hundreds of thousands of wristbands, made in fabric or silicon, have been sold in Britain, with pop stars, footballers and politicians, including Tony Blair, seen wearing them. They cost £1, of which 70p goes to the charities.

The audit reports obtained by The Sunday Telegraph show, however, that Chinese factories making the silicon versions fall woefully short of the "ethical standards".

A report on the Tat Shing Rubber Manufacturing Company in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, dated April 12, 2005, accuses it of using "forced labour" by taking "financial deposits" from new employees in violation of Chinese law and the Ethical Trading Initiative set up to promote international standards for working conditions.

The audit uncovered a list of "weaknesses" including poor health and safety provision, long hours, a seven-day week, workers cheated out of pay, inadequate insurance, no annual leave and no right to freedom of association.

An audit at the Fuzhou Xing Chun Trade Company in Fujian province found workers paid at below the local minimum hourly wage of 2.39 yuan (just under 16p) and some as little as 1.39 yuan (9p).

Overtime was worked beyond the legal limit and not paid for properly, there was no paid annual leave, and no guarantee of a day off each week. Workers had pay deducted for disciplinary reasons, in breach of Chinese law.

The audits have sparked a row between some charities involved. Christian Aid, which has bought more than 500,000 wristbands from Tat Shing, claims that Oxfam failed to tell other charities that it had decided to stop ordering from the Shenzhen company.

A spokesman said: "Oxfam placed an order and told us the Chinese company was ethically OK. We accepted that and ordered wristbands in good faith.

"If Oxfam had concerns about ethical standards they did not pass them on for a considerable time."

Oxfam said it informed its coalition partners of its decision in January, but a spokesman said: "We could have perhaps put it in writing to make it absolutely clear. We bought an initial 10,000 wristbands from the Shenzhen company in November. We now see that purchasing this before we had seen a full audit was a mistake."

It turned instead to the Fujian factory for 1.5 million wristbands but only, it said, after assurances that problems were being tackled.

Christian Aid and Cafod continue to order from the Shenzhen firm as part of a "constructive engagement" policy: working with companies to help them to improve.

"There are already signs that conditions are improving, although there is still some way to go," a Christian Aid spokesman said.

Cafod, which has bought 120,000 wristbands from the factory, said: "We realise there is a problem but we have taken action to minimise it. Our understanding was that Oxfam had carried out an ethical audit of the company and we acted in good faith. We would prefer this not to have happened but we believe that conditions at the factory will improve".

Richard Curtis, the British screenwriter and co-founder of Comic Relief, said: "I don't want to comment about this. I am very concerned about the G8 summit and getting as many people as possible to be passionate about the war against poverty so that we can achieve a massive breakthrough."

Louis Kennedy, a British fair trade marketing company which sourced the wristbands for Oxfam and arranged audits of the Shenzhen company, said that the reference to forced labour related to "deposits" paid for uniforms and tools and "as far as Louis Kennedy is aware, [the factory] did not prevent workers leaving to seek alternative employment".

Louis Kennedy was "disappointed" that there were problems at the factory but believed it right to continue to use it because improvements have been made.

The audit included a "corrective and protective action plan", with three- and six-month deadlines.

Mel Beaulieu, a director of Sandbag, a Berkshire-based marketing company which deals with the Fujian factory, said that production of the silicon bands did not begin until three weeks after the audit when the factory agreed to a "continuous improvement plan".

[MadIvan]

Sorry, I'm too busy laughing to come up with a reply to this at the moment. :)

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[Paleo Conservative]

I just got a red one from my blood bank for donating a pint.

[oolatec]

The Lance Armstrong ones (LIVEStrong) are also made in China...

[1FASTGLOCK45]

In other news.... Americans discover their country is overrun by illegal aliens, working for minumum wage and doing jobs americans don't want to do.

[endthematrix]

My wife likes British humor (why, I have no clue) and was watching that Fat Vicar Of Dibley show. They featured the "Make Poverty History" campaign. No point here except that I dislike British humor...oh, and they did knock Tony Blair.

[endthematrix]

If the wristbands cost £1, of which 70p goes to the charities, wouldn't be in the best interest of raising money, for charities to purchase them at the lowest cost possible and attempt to sell them at the highest?

[MadIvan]

Yes, but the people who are behind this campaign are the same types who frown on the kinds of practices we're seeing here. The celebrities and leftie charities have been shown up as hypocrites.

Regards, Ivan

[SoDak]

Geldof and his ilk will only be happy when we're all working in sweat shops, nice and equal.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

As if ANYTHING coming from China wasn't produced with virtual-slave labor, isn't average worker pay about 85 cents/day?

[SoDak]

But, I still don't like mondays.

[MadIvan]

I think part of the point is that these are below average conditions, even for China.

Regards, Ivan

[Cacique]

Slave labor in China? I am shocked I tell you. I would have never suspected. Such a nice country with such nice leaders.

[King Prout]

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

schadenfreude's a cast-iron b****, ain't it?

[King Prout]

put your coffee down first.
swallow.
then read.

too schadenfreude

[onyx]

My sides are hurting... I am literally doubled over in laughter.

Get over here BigSky and read this!

Thanks for the ping, king.

[BigSkyFreeper]

OMG! LOL! The height of hypocrisy!!

[Jet Jaguar]

Nod.

[King Prout]

anytime, onyx :)

[King Prout]

oh, damn... forgot to give MHKing a JustDamn headsup!

care to do the honors?

[King Prout]

ya just gotta laugh at them.

[endthematrix]

...another brick in the wall...

[BigSkyFreeper]

One for your "Just Damn" files mhking!!

[WestVirginiaRebel]

"I am shocked to find out that there is gambling going on in this establishment!"

[bad company]

Wristbands sold to raise money for a campaign against world poverty are made in Chinese sweatshops in "slave labour" conditions, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

I made it that far and had to stop. After the chuckles died down, I made popcorn and koolade. I wanted to enjoy this properly.

Buy you know, selling cheap crap to rich liberals is one way to build an economy, so technically the wristbands are ending poverty the old fashioned way.

[onyx]

Yeah, I was too busy laughing to view it your way. Right on! And at their expense too! All the richer...lol.

[nopardons]

ROTFLMSOPIMP

[bikerman]

Yes but it makes the idiots who wear them warm and fuzzy all over.

[Seeing More Clearly Now]

Surprise, surprise. These posturing types pretend they have an exclusive on caring. Making big bucks for themselves, usually.

[tiamat]

Oh wow.

Thanks for the coffee warning.

[saneright]

These wristbands look an awful lot like the "fight poverty wristbands" that were being sold for $1 each at the U2 concert I attended last Saturday. I almost brought one (this is after drinking 2 glasses of wine which is an extraordinary amount of alcohol for me) but my date talked me out of it. Basically she laughed at my suggestion and that was enough to slap me back into reality.

I wonder what Bono's reaction will be if indeed the wristbands he and the band are selling are manufactured in the same marxist slave labor camps?

I love U2's music and I believe Bono's heart is in the right place but from time to time I question his judgment. He's a typical center-left European politically.

[tiamat]

Just damn?

[BBell]

Tell me why?

[Tijeras_Slim]

Some gink a work was trying to get everyone to wear those idiot Lance wristbands. I just showed him my Rolex and said "its a Live Well wrist band." That really twisted his shorts.

[Amelia]

The "Support Our Troops" wristbands in the U.S. are also made in China.

[Desdemona]

What did they expect when the darn things are 10 cents at the wholesale level? And that includes shipping from China.

[Desdemona]

I wonder what Bono's reaction will be if indeed the wristbands he and the band are selling are manufactured in the same marxist slave labor camps?

They are all made in the same places. ALL of them. Every color of the rainbow. I've seen them for all sorts of charities, including the one for which I work.

I don't get why this is such a big shock.

[Old Professer]

The gods of unintended consequences laugh along with you.

[Kozak]

Wear two of these One Marine. One Army. No better cause http://www.americansnipers.org/

[4mycountry]

Seems like everyone wears those bracelets. I had no idea they were so popular, but apparently they're the new trend. I have two of them, but I've seen others wearing five or six at a time.

[4mycountry]

BTW, one of mine is Christian (it says Live for Him), and the other is for Camp Summit .

[B Knotts]

This one's a keeper. Thanks for posting!

[hinckley buzzard]

"This is appalling. It goes against everything we stand for. If we are criticising big companies for trading unethically then we have to be whiter than white."

poor Geldof. He sounds like he is really trying to do the right thing by his own lights, but reality keeps tripping him up.

[saneright]

I am not the least bit surprised that these wristbands are manufactured in China. Hell, is there anything that isn't made in China anymore?

I believe those of us on the political right find this humorous because of all the hypocrisy of many of the persons involved in these causes. They earn tons of cash, which I don't have a problem with, jet set around the globe and lecture us all on how selfish we are. I am not attacking Bob Geldorf exclusively. As a matter of fact I do remember him going after Bill Clinton and calling him out as a fraud. Geldorf claims Clinton promised boatloads of cash to I believe fight Aids in Africa. Clinton made the pronouncement, showed up for the photo op but never delivered on the money. Surprised?
If the same thing happened but the persons involved with the cause (whatever it may be) were on the political right the howling and lecturing from the left would be non stop.

I will give Bono credit. He has works with W in an attempt to fight poverty in Africa. Also, During the 2004 presidential campaign he refused to comment on who his preference would be to win the presidency. He stated that as non US citizen he had no right to interject himself into the campaign.

[ut1992]

That's funny. I caught that show last night on our local PBS station. I came across it channel surfing. I used to really like that show when I lived in Europe and watched the BBC on a daily basis (except for BBC News..ugh). I've also caught it a few times here in the US, but the episodes were from the mid-'90s which were really hilarious.....I enjoy British humor.

However, last nights episode was from 2004/05; I thought the show had ended. I could only stand a few minutes of the "Make Poverty History" crap and had to change channels.

[PzGr43]

>Yes, but the people who are behind this campaign are the >same types who frown on the kinds of practices we're >seeing here. The celebrities and leftie charities have >been shown up as hypocrites.
>

This is Eco-Marxism / anti-capitalism in a nutshell.

The whole thing "Using Third World labor is exploitation" them is is about the political agenda of the liberals, not about Third World workers and their conditions.

Thus: A wrist band which summarizes their position to perfection:

A message(on the wristband) which only has currency in their own political sphere ("allowing the right to use Third World labor allows the expansion of the Military-Industrial Imperialist mechanism of oppression) coupled with the reality of producing such a message/wristband (that they don't give a flying fandango about workers' conditions in the Third World - only about their own politics).

[Owl558]

"The celebrities and leftie charities have been shown up as hypocrites."

Oh no, this can't be true. Amnesty International said the US is the gulag of the world with nary a peep about China.

[Yehuda]

"Mel Beaulieu, a director of Sandbag, a Berkshire-based marketing company which deals with the Fujian factory,"

Terrific name for marketing company!,(:>)