EMERGENCY APPEAL
GARMENT WORKER SOLIDARITY FUND
COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the garment sector in Bangladesh, a country ill-prepared for the consequences of this pandemic. Western brands refusal to pay their suppliers has caused hundreds of thousands of garment workers to face destitution.
Over this period No Sweat has been supporting our partners, Oporajeo, in providing support to their community. After ensuring our orders were paid for in advance we worked with Oporajeo to try and mitigate the impact of this crisis. Together we:
- Ensured the safety and well being of Oporajeo’s garment workers through paid furlough and covid safety measures.
- Established a food parcel programme during the lockdown delivering thousands of meals.
- Fundraised over £5,000 to support the food parcel programme.
As Oporajeo and No Sweat move with the rest of the world into the new normal we continue to fundraise for our Garment Worker Solidarity Fund to support workers fighting for their rights around the world.
About Us
NO SWEAT: WHO WE ARE
Sweatshop labour is modern, global capitalism stripped bare. From the small, backstreet sweatshop to some of the biggest corporations in the world – child labour, forced overtime, poverty wages, unsafe conditions, harassment of women workers and intimidation of trade unionists are commonplace.
No Sweat is a grassroots campaign that builds solidarity among workers’ worldwide. We look to global social justice movements and to the international workers’ movement to build common, united, campaigning action against workplace exploitation and the sweatshop bosses.
No Sweat stands for workers’ solidarity.
WE ARE FOR:
- A Living Wage
- Safe Working Conditions
- Independent Trade Unions
All workers, in every country, deserve and need these rights. In order to enforce these rights, they need to be free to organise – the stronger the union, the safer the workplace!
WE AIM TO:
- Make solidarity with sweatshop workers and their organisations.
- Publicise, expose and help stamp out sweatshop employment.
- Fund independent unions around the world in their struggle for justice.
‘The T-shirt Project’
No Sweat T-shirt & Garments
We are taking the fight inside the garment industry. Our brand of No Sweat T-shirts, hoodies and tote bags are made in a worker-owned factory in Bangladesh called Oporajeo, set up by the survivors of Rana Plaza. The conditions they have established provides an example of how the garment industry should be run.
The workers at Oporajeo earn wages high above the minimum, plus a benefits package that provides them with a higher standard of living, but most importantly of all, the workers have democratic control over their workplace.
Our garments are sold wholesale as well as retail so bands, unions, and campaign groups can use them for their own merchandise and help build an alternative to the sweatshop system. All the profits are put back into our campaign work, with 5% of the gross from each sale being out into a designate solidarity fund to support sweatshop workers around the world. We affectionately refer to this as ‘The T-shirt Project’.
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