Now it’s the 30p-an-hour ‘slave labour’ Corbyn T-shirt
Will they never learn? After we expose the 62p and 49p an hour Labour T-shirts...
SO MUCH FOR WORKERS’ RIGHTS, JEREMY We have to think about the cheap clothes that we buy on the high streets… and the appalling working conditions behind all that. JEREMY CORBYN IN 2014 ‘I have to sew 3,000 T-shirts a day’
Rana Plaza factory collapsed. And Jeremy Corbyn appears to be well aware of the problem. In 2014, during a debate about Bangladesh in Parliament, the Labour leader said: ‘I have attended meetings with the International Labour Organisation and trade unions from this country, and Bangladesh about the abominable working conditions and safety of buildings. ‘We have to think about the cheap clothes we buy on the high streets of this country, and indeed of the US and the rest of Europe, and the appalling working conditions behind all that.’ And he acknowledged the ‘substantial’ Bangladeshi community in his Islington North constituency, adding: ‘I have had close relationships with them and with the wider Bangladesh community for all the time I have been an MP.
‘Sadly, many of the very poorest in Bangladesh live in disgraceful and appalling conditions.’
Workers at the Gildan factory said that junior machine operators, who sew thousands of shirts a day, earn a basic salary of 6,500 taka each month – around £63. For this, they work 48 hours over six days – equivalent to 30p an hour. However, most top this up by working overtime.
Senior sewing machine operators take home 7,600 taka (around £74) each month, or 36p an hour. The current minimum monthly wage for a garment worker in Bangladesh is 5,300 taka (around £51) – one of the lowest in the world.
Bangladesh’s average monthly income is 9,621 taka (£93).
However, workers’ rights campaign group, the AWAJ Foundation, said even that is not enough and that the country’s living wage – the amount needed to cover a person’s basic needs – is 11,750 taka a month (around £114).
The workers can earn a living wage but must do so by meeting targets, such as sewing up to 5,000 garments a day and working two hours overtime a day, six days a week. Kulsum, 20, a junior sewing machine operator who has worked at the company since she was 13, said her basic monthly pay was 6,500 taka, which she supplements with two hours overtime every day.
‘I live with three sisters, two brothers and my parents in a shack with just two small rooms,’ she said.
‘We are very poor and that is why I had to start working at such a young age. It is a small amount of money and I have to borrow from people to pay for basic things.’ Fatema, 35, a junior sewing machine operator who lives in a slum in a two-room shack with her two sons, husband and in-laws, said: ‘The work is very hard and we are not allowed any toilet breaks.
‘Often we live on just rice because we have no money. I have to sew 3,000 T-shirts a day to get a meaningful bonus and it leaves me exhausted. I have pains in my back.
‘If my children get sick then I have to sacrifice food to pay their medical bills and all my clothes have holes in them.’
In his Parliamentary speech, Corbyn claimed that the best way to bring about health and safety at Bangladesh factories was to support union organisation. However, there is no union at the Gildan factory, although workers do have representation on factory committees.
It is believed that Momentum buys the shirts for £2.77 each and sells them to countries including Australia and America. It has three varieties of shirt, including the ‘superhero design’ by artist Angry Dan, who according to the Momentum website ‘created these T-shirts as a way to mock the media’s exaggerated portrayal of Corbyn supporters’.
On the pressure group’s website, Momentum volunteers are photographed wearing the T-shirts, including Beth Foster-Ogg, 19, from Hackney, East London, who acts as a PA to founder, Jon Lansman.
Momentum claims it believes in supporting workers’ rights but Nazma Akter, a former child factory worker and founder of the 37,000-member AWAJ Foundation, believes the group should carry out better checks on factories it uses.
She said: ‘This is slave labour and the politician should know this because he is the leader of the Labour Party.
‘What conditions does he expect for workers when the T-shirts are so cheap? The factory will say it is audited and complies to minimum standards, but the living conditions for these people are terrible, some of the worst in the world.
‘They spend their youth working and then voluntarily give up work at 45 because they have no more energy and work to the bone.
‘These older workers have made a big contribution to your country because you get cheap goods, but our workers are hungry. They become sick. They are getting the minimum wage as per legal requirements but they are not getting a living wage. They are giving their blood and sweat for these cheap T-shirts.’
A spokesman for Gildan would not confirm rates of pay for ‘competitive reasons’, but said that staff receive free meals and there is an on-site medical clinic. He added that since buying the factory five years ago, Gildan has implemented a policy of not hiring workers under 18.
‘Our current rates are significantly higher than the industry minimum wage in Bangladesh,’ he said.
‘We have implemented virtually all of the standard Gildan compensation and benefits programmes and social compliance practices.
‘Our facilities are all equipped with air circulation systems designed to reduce the airborne lint within the facilities and we have systems in place to regularly monitor air quality. All employees have access to complimentary personal protection equipment, including ear plugs, lint masks and eye wear.
‘Employees are able to take bathroom breaks and water breaks as required. The base production targets established are realistic for each employee in the facility and allow the employees to access bonuses for exceeding anticipated production volumes. This facility, as with all Gildan facilities and third party contractors, is governed by our Code of Conduct which includes a clearly defined provision on “Freedom of Association”.
‘The employees within our Bangladesh facility have representation on several committees that provide guidance for the operations of the facility.’
A spokesman for Momentum said last night that it had cancelled its orders with 3rd Rail, claiming it had been ‘misled’ by the company.
He added: ‘Momentum is dedicated to championing rights at work both at home and overseas; we want every worker to be in a trade union, and to enjoy the full protections that the International Labour Organisation recommends as minimum standards. We will refuse to work with any supplier who does not uphold these standards.’
3rd Rail and Mr Corbyn last night both declined to comment.
IF we required proof that once all-conquering Scottish Labour was in a real existential crisis, it came in May when Ruth Davidson’s Tories knocked the party into a humiliating third place in the Holyrood election. We had become used to the SNP’s dominance of our politics and had grown accustomed to Labour underperforming. But, still, defeat by the Conservatives marked a new low.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, bright, energetic, and affable though she may be, simply couldn’t find an answer to either the Nationalists’ pretence of radicalism or the Tories’ fierce defence of the Union.
Miss Davidson – now a star of UK politics – led her party past Labour to become the main opposition at Holyrood with a combination of personal charm and the unequivocal rejection of a second referendum on Scottish independence. The country had rejected it in September 2014 and, as far as the Tory leader was concerned, it was time for the Nationalists to keep their promise that this had been a once-in-a-generation event.
Miss Dugdale, on the other hand, had been less than clear on the Union. Yes, she campaigned for a No vote and, yes, support for the UK remained the policy of her party – but she seemed uncertain. The low point came a month before the Holyrood election when she said it was possible she would support a Yes vote in a second referendum if it would protect Scotland’s place in the European Union.
The remarks were quickly ‘clarified’. She was a staunch supporter of the UK and her party was opposed to another referendum – but the damage had been done. Miss Dugdale looked weak on the Union. For a substantial number of No voters, this meant supporting the Tories was the only answer.
THE question of independence, having caused the Scottish Labour leader such trouble before the election, is back to haunt her. The hypothetical circumstances Miss Dugdale suggested might lead her to back the break-up of the UK are now a reality. The UK voted to leave the EU, while a majority of Scots voted to remain.
Pleasingly for those who believe Scotland is stronger in partnership with England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the Scottish Labour leader has made her position clear: she is against a second independence referendum and her party would vote against one.
Unfortunately for Miss Dugdale, her deputy Alex Rowley is not exactly ‘on board’. Last week, he said he would not oppose a second referendum. He had, he told a journalist, lost count of the number of people who had asked him if he’d get behind another vote on the future of the UK.
Predictably, the Nationalists seized on these remarks. A press release from MSP Linda Fabiani described Mr Rowley’s remarks as ‘welcome’. He was, she said, ‘absolutely right to point out that any such referendum would be a completely different prospect from the 2014 referendum’. The UK Scots had voted to remain part of two years ago no longer exists following the Brexit vote.
You might think Mr Rowley has played into the hands of the SNP – and you would be right. But his position illustrates not just division in Labour over independence but the extent of the ever-widening split between the leader and her deputy.
Miss Dugdale, in line with the majority of her Westminster colleagues, called on UK leader Jeremy Corbyn to quit. She believes, not unreasonably, that, having lost the confidence of his MPs, he should step down.
Mr Rowley then demonstrated the loyalty for which he is famed by writing to every member of the Scottish Labour Party, urging all to get behind Mr Corbyn.
It is possible to read this one of two ways: either Mr Rowley truly believes Mr Corbyn is a credible politician on course to become Prime Minister or he sees an opportunity to get one over on his boss. I suppose it could be both. But for all Mr Rowley’s flaws as a political thinker – and they are many – I struggle to accept he reckons Mr Corbyn to be anything other than hopeless. So, of course, Miss Dugdale has fought back with what we are obliged to call a ‘thinly veiled’ slap down.
ASCOTTISH Labour spokesman reiterated that the party is committed to vote against a second independence referendum in the lifetime of this parliament. All Labour MSPs were elected on a manifesto pledge to oppose a second referendum and all are expected to support that position.
Lest Mr Rowley is in any doubt, a source close to Miss Dugdale says a vote on a second independence referendum would be whipped and all Labour members would be obliged to toe the line.
Labour’s continuing failure to settle on a convincing position on the future of the United Kingdom is, of course, smashing news for the Scottish Tory Party, which has firmly established itself as the pre-eminent pro-UK group at Holyrood.
A call from the Conservatives this weekend for Scottish Labour to ‘unite again’ with them in opposing the SNP’s new push for independence has more than a little mischief behind it. Sure, the Tories would be happy to see as many MSPs as possible united in opposition to the SNP’s plans for a second referendum, But really, what they are doing is drawing attention to Labour’s division over the matter.
Miss Davidson, having established herself as the voice of the Union in Scotland, is keen to maintain her position.
Scottish Labour has struggled, since its first Holyrood election defeat in 2007, to come up with a convincing response to the SNP. While Labour fails to do that, the Scottish Tories will benefit.
Miss Dugdale has had some wobbles on matters constitutional; but she has, finally, woken up to the need for Labour to provide serious opposition to Nationalism. Doing so required her acceptance that Labour voters lost to the SNP are gone for a long time, perhaps for ever.
But if she can find a way of stopping her own deputy working against her, perhaps Scottish Labour has life in it yet.
This is, of course, smashing news for the Scottish Tories