What does Sweatshop Free mean?
Within the electronic industry, there are thousands of adults and children who work long hours in factories and get very little in return.
Not only are the factories often damp, dusty and mouldy, but the workers are forced to stand while working for up to 16 hours a day.
They get no sick pay, maternity pay or any other benefits which employers are required to give their staff.
Children as young as 10 years old are found working in sweatshops for 7 days a week, getting paid the equivalent of around 32 cents per hour.
In countries such as Bangladesh, the hourly rate decreases to approximately 13 cents per hour, even for experienced workers.
These factories, which are often kept in terrible conditions, are known as sweatshops.
Sweatshop Free means that the brand is coercion-free, and offer fair compensation for the workers who manufacture their products. We support these Sweatshop Free brands!
There have been discussions with the university on ‘Sweatshop free’ as we want to ensure all electronic hardware is sourced responsibly. Ray and Margaret agree in principle.
Sweatshop-free campaign moving along nicely, currently working with AKLC partners to enable this campaign to continue to move forward, Chirs Dow (VP) has had two meetings with them and is looking forward to see ongoing changes as a result of his efforts.
Recently Chirs has also met with People and Planet to give an update on his latest progress on Sweatshop Free Campaign and how Divestment was completed. People and Planet have been amazed by the work we have done and achieved in such a small space of time.
Chirs has now been in contacted with Electronics Watch Director as P&P told them about Chris' work and he had asked to speak to Chris and offered support to the campaign.