Wristband effort called 'unethical'

[Mucca]

I found this article in the newspaper today..

Wristband effort called 'unethical'

The Province - May 29, 2005
LONDON -- Wristbands sold to raise money for a campaign against world poverty are made in Chinese sweatshops in "slave labour'' conditions.

The shocking conditions and disclosed in confidential "ethical audits" of factories that make the 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 summet in July -- called for action when he was told.

"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," Geldof said.

One senior official with a British charity last night described the labour abuses as "deeply shocking."

Hundreds of thousands of wristbands, made in fabric or silicon, have been sold in Britain, with pop stars, soccer players and politicians, including Tony BLiar, seen wearing them.

Each wristband costs one pound, or $2.30 CDN of which 33 cents or 70 pence goes to the charities.

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

- The Sunday Telegraph

 

[U2Girl1978]

Ugh...that's really sad.

 

[Keocmb]

Ruh roh.

 

[~BrightestStar~]

.......this is really sad.

 

[tiny dancer]

 

[verte76]

That's depressing.

 

[VicksSs]

erally really bad...

 

[u2bonogirl]

BLiar

 

[theblazer]

That's very funny how all these people so concerned with the subject matter didn't even check in to see where these things were made. Show's how much people just pay lip-service but don't really give a damn.

 

[Mucca]

BLiar

Sorry, that's just a typo.

 

[Techie2000]

Is this the same supplier that produces the ONE campaign bands? I know there are many suppliers of these located in various parts of the world, including the US...

 

[caragriff]

Is this the same supplier that produces the ONE campaign bands? I know there are many suppliers of these located in various parts of the world, including the US...

my one campaign bands do say "made in china".
this article paints a bad picture for sure.
let's see what develops.
hopefully this article is not accurate.
seems hard to believe.
calling it irony is a bit heartless, but........

 

[MattFromNYC]

so, what, you're gonna start thinking bad things about the people who run the One Campaign or Bono or someone now?

who found out about this first? the charity itself or someone else did before them and now they're taking action after finding out? i'm not saying anyone already knew about it before.

 

[Mucca]

It's unclear as to who found out first but I'd hope that now that it's out that they would do something about it. Don't get me wrong but I still support the One Campaign. It's just sad that the wristbands are being made in sweatshops. Like Caragriff said, hopefully the article is inaccurate.

 

[Schmeg]

Wow, that's depressing if it's accurate...

 

[MattFromNYC]

maybe its being run by the evil Kathie Lee Gifford. since we all know she loves children's sweatshops.

 

[Jamila]

This article should only help people realize that the REAL issue isn't about the white band, it should be about what each of us can do to support legislation in our countries to help get assistance to Africa and the world's poorest people.

The white band or now the white ONE t-shirts are only symbols of what our REAL EFFORTS SHOULD BE - putting pressure on our governments to fulfill their promises to Africa.

I think someone at this newspaper is trying to put down the efforts of the whiteband movement to help end extreme poverty by trying to cast dispersions on the making of the white band.

But I don't support sweatshops.

THE GOAL IS SOUL....

 

[redkat]

That's really sad. I guess whenever something costs as little as a dollar we should wonder. I was just going to order some too. Are some being made in places that aren't sweatshops??

 

[neutral]

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".

Maybe I'm reading it wrong but it sounds like they're at least trying to fix it?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...9.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/05/29/ixportal.html

 

[starsgoblue]

Has this been confirmed as fact yet?

 

[Liesje]

Well, if the first article is true and as bad as it sounds, I'm pretty glad I never found a ONE band after all! Kinda negates the credibility of the ONE campaign....

 

[thrillme]

Is it just the One bands, or maybe most of them, even the Livestrong ones, come from sweat shops?

I see those bands for other things too, makes you wonder.

 

[Mucca]

my one campaign bands do say "made in china".

Mine don't and neither does my Make poverty history one.

Anyone else have "made in china" on theirs?

 

[miss becky]

Mine don't and neither does my Make poverty history one.

Anyone else have "made in china" on theirs?

My ONE band does not say that, but I wear a purple HOPE bracelet for American Cancer Society, and that does say Made in China.

How awful. I sincerely hope this isn't true.

 

[digsy]

Sorry, that's just a typo.

an appropriate one at that....

 

[digsy]

hmm, i'm gonna throw myself into the fire here and ask if anyone has read Jeffrey Sachs "The End Of Poverty" book?

Right in the beginning he discusses "sweat shops" in particular those in India. His opinion is that while conditions in sweat shops are appalling, many of the woman who work in them are better off than if they didnt. it gives them a greater sense of independence and puts woman in the workplace where they can now earn for themselves and take their own individual step upwards out of poverty. the effect on further generations is astounding with woman who are working normally having less children than those who don't work which means greater opportunity for the children they do have.
in fact, many of the first generation of sweat shop workers are now able to provide their own children with an education that they didnt have before which puts those children one step ahead on the poverty ladder and in a better position than their parents. It's a kind of chain reaction that improves in time.
One of the big obstacles in overcoming extreme poverty is a lack of gender equality and enabling woman to work, be it in sweat shops or elsewhwere, kick starts a change in the economy which can help pull a country out of its poverty through the generation to generation changes i just mentioned.

What Sachs says, which i now agree with, is that we shouldnt be fighting to shut down sweat shops but working harder to make sufficient changes within them so that these woman are no longer subjected to sexual harrassment, slave wages, appalling conditions etc because ultimately the work they do in the sweatshops is a very good thing for both themselves and the country employing them thats trying to pull itself out of poverty.

now obviously these "rules" can get bent slightly - it's a different ball game with children and its different country to country - but as a general practice, the pro's and cons of sweat shop work are very misunderstood.

right, you can all flame me now

 

[starsgoblue]

Digsy, I'm nearly finished with reading Sach's book. The term 'sweatshop' really does have a certain negative reaction too it. But the truth of the matter is if the shops are completley shut down that would do a lot more harm for women, children and the community. So I do agree with you after reading and thinking about Sach's opinions and comparisions to modern countries own 'Industrial Revolutions'....the shops need to change some conditions certainly, that's not even a argument with me, but I understand what your saying about how badly these opurttunitties need to be in place and the need for development is there...

I am still curious to see if this particular incident has been confirmed as fact and what exactly the situation is.

 

[digsy]

Digsy, I'm nearly finished with reading Sach's book. The term 'sweatshop' really does have a certain negative reaction too it. But the truth of the matter is if the shops are completley shut down that would do a lot more harm for women, children and the community. So I do agree with you after reading and thinking about Sach's opinions and comparisions to modern countries own 'Industrial Revolutions'....the shops need to change some conditions certainly, that's not even a argument with me, but I understand what your saying about how badly these opurttunitties need to be in place and the need for development is there...

I am still curious to see if this particular incident has been confirmed as fact and what exactly the situation is.

exactly, shutting them down or taking them away would do far more harm then good. there's no argument that the conidtions are far from acceptable but instead of all putting all our anger at the fact that these shops exist in trying to stop them we should be putting effort into improving them.

as for the Make Poverty History bands being made in sweat shops - while i understand a lot of peoples view in sweathops being the root of all evil, i find it almost ironic that the complaints over the production of an anti-poverty campaign product are aimed at a practice that in fact generally helps improve poverty.

once again, i'm not necessarily saying this is the case here and for all we know this story could also be a bunch of bull, i'm just putting my case/opinion forward regarding the use of sweatshops in general.

 

[BAW]

Mine don't and neither does my Make poverty history one.

Anyone else have "made in china" on theirs?

Yes, the 20 ONE bands I bought are stamped "made in China"

 

[Liesje]

I haven't yet read Sachs' book, but as a Third World Development minor, I've taken my share of econ and business management classes. I agree w/ Sachs (and you guys digsy and stars). "Sweatshops" or factories are not a problem in and of themselves. I'm not opposed to outsourcing, but I am opposed to blatant exploitation. Many companies that outsource pay foreign employess less than half of the American minimum wage. They could STILL pay under the American minimum wage even if they doubled their foreign wages and the workers would be much better off. Often these workers are supporting huge families with poor health and living conditions so these people are way worse off than your average American factory worker and yet their making less than half as much. Companies also like to outsource b/c they can skimp on benefits in other countries. There are an honest few who pay their foreign workers decent wages, still below the American minimum, but better than most, and also include benefit packages like we have in the US.