7p an hour protest targets Primark
27 October 2009
NEWS PEG: Thursday, 12 November 2009 Primark opens its new London store
Storm over 'sweatshops' faces new store
Primark opens its new London store next month amid claims that Britain's leading cheap fashion retailer is expanding by exploiting overseas garment workers.
The Wood Green store launches on 12 November as a charity warns that people making Primark clothes earn as little as 7p an hour.
War on Want plans to protest when Primark opens its doors at the Mall, known as Shopping City, in the High Road. It compares Bangladeshi workers' poverty pay for up to 80-hour weeks with the retailer's 21 per cent sales growth in the 16 weeks to 20 June and 10 per cent rise in profits to £122 million during the six months ending in February. The charity also contrasts the store's 75,000 square feet of space on two floors with the tiny 100 square feet slum homes Primark garment workers share with four or five family members.
War on Want is targeting the Wood Green opening to step up the biggest-ever call for British government action to stop fashion retailers exploiting overseas workers. Thousands of people have already signed up to the Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops campaign for 50,000 names demanding that UK prime minister Gordon Brown regulates the industry.
The push is also endorsed by television star Jo Wood, pop singer Little Boots, actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Ashley Jensen and clothes designer Betty Jackson. Among other backers are TV personality Tony Robinson, actor-playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah, comedians Jo Brand and Francesca Martinez and gardener Bob Flowerdew.
Supportive public figures include Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of Unite, the UK's largest trade union, Mary Turner, president of the GMB union, Queen's Counsel Michael Mansfield, the leading human rights lawyer, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, journalist John Pilger and cartoonist Martin Rowson.
War on Want campaigner Seb Klier said: "By the end of the year Primark will have grown to almost 200 stores in five countries. But for many Bangladeshis producing its clothes their grim living standards are falling even lower as costs rise. It is high time Brown introduced regulation to stop this abuse."
According to War on Want research, workers making clothes for Primark in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka received on average only £19.16 (2280 taka) a month, under half a living wage. Some employees were paid only the minimum wage, £13.97 (1663 taka) a month, far less than the £44.82 (5333 taka) needed to escape dire hardship. The vast majority of employees live in small, crowded shacks, many of which lack plumbing and adequate washing facilities.Though forced overtime is illegal in Bangladesh, employees said they were made to toil extra hours, often unpaid. Workers complained that in the fast fashion rush to produce the latest styles, many of them suffered verbal and physical abuse as they struggled to meet unrealistic targets. Yet the Dhaka workers said none of their factories was unionised.
Lina earns just £16 (1850 taka) a month, toiling 12 hours a day producing clothes for Primark.
"It is not enough," she said. "I can only afford to live in one room with my husband, two-year-old boy and mother-in-law."
Ifat, who also works toils in a Primark factory, said: "I can't feed my children three meals a day."
NOTE TO EDITORS: The War on Want protest will take place from 9.00-10.00 am outside Primark's new store at Unit 57, The Mall, 159 High Road, Wood Green, London N22 6YQ
CONTACT: Paul Collins, War on Want media office (+44) (0)20 7549 0584 or (+44) (0)7983 550728
