Visteon, Metropolis & Trend Victims: On Saturday 4th April 2009 I went to protest in help of the Visteon manufacturing facility occupation in Enfield, got here again the the Metropolis however missed a protest over the police homicide of newsvendor Ian Tomlinson after which photographed a trend present protest on Oxford Road in opposition to the slave-like labour of staff in Bangladesh producing low-cost garments for Primark.
Solidarity at Visteon Enfield
I wrote a couple of days in the past in regards to the Visteon pensions scandal the place former Ford staff who had been transferred to elements producer Visteon, ‘An Enterprise of Ford Motor Firm‘, in 2000 had misplaced as much as half of their pensions when Visteon went into administration on thirty first March 2009 when directors KPMG instantly closed the corporate down.
Along with staff on the Visteon Belfast web site, the employees at Visteon Enfield had occupied their factories and had been refusing to depart till Visteon and Ford made good on the agency guarantees made in 2000 they’d that they might obtain the identical pensions and redundancy preparations they’d loved beforehand.
Staff in Belfast had occupied their manufacturing facility instantly after a 5 minute assembly had informed them they’d misplaced their jobs and that they’d an hour to take any private possessions and depart work instantly – with out pay. Enfield staff occupied their manufacturing facility the next day.
KPMG’s response was to go to the courts and safe a court docket order for repossession, whereas Ford merely denied all accountability within the matter (although 5 years later had been ultimately pressured by Unite to pay some compensation.)
I went to the manufacturing facility at Ponders Finish, Enfield together with a number of hundred different commerce unionists and others for a rally outdoors the plant to point out our help for his or her case. A lot of those that spoke on the rally had organised collections for the occupiers of their workplaces, reporting unanimous help for the dismissed staff, and others had additionally introduced sensible help – sleeping baggage, meals and cash – to allow the occupation to proceed.
Extra at Solidarity at Visteon Enfield
Metropolis Stroll – Financial institution and Bishopsgate.
I used to be later than I had hoped by the point my prepare from Ponders Finish reached Liverpool Road and had missed the rally at Financial institution in reminiscence of the information vendor Ian Tomlinson who died of a coronary heart assault minutes after being attacked and violently pushed to the bottom in an unprovoked assault by a riot policeman, dieing from a coronary heart assault minutes after. The homicide had been captured on video by an onlooker and The Guardian had printed the video – nonetheless on their site.
After the rally the protesters had marched away – and I might see and listen to a police helicopter following them on the way in which in direction of Bethnal Inexperienced. I didn’t have time to try to meet up with them, however wandered via a few of the streets within the Metropolis, together with some that Tomlinson had wandered via as he tried to make his approach dwelling via the realm the place police had been kettling and attacking the April 1st Monetary Fools Day G20Meltdown protesters. On 4th April these streets had been empty.
Extra photos at Metropolis Stroll.
Primark – Trend on the Low-cost from Sweatshops
Battle on Need and No Sweat had been drawing consideration to Primark taking advantage of promoting garments made by sweated labour in Bangladesh with a ‘trend present’ outdoors the corporate’s flagship Oxford Road retailer.
Fashions used the pavement as a catwalk, strolling in chains “to symbolise the slave labour situations of the Bangladeshi staff who make the cut-price fashions on sale at Primark. Staff who make the garments earn as little as 7p an hour and work as much as 80 hours per week.”
The Primark retailer opened right here in 2007 and flourished because the recession made individuals flip to cheaper suppliers with their income within the yr to September 2008 up by up by 17% at £233 million.
Notices within the retailer home windows claimed they “care in regards to the situations of the employees who make their garments, however the reviews by Battle on Need tells a really completely different story. These garments are solely low-cost as a result of those that make them get poverty pay, work lengthy hours and get sacked in the event that they attempt to organise or ask for enhancements of their harmful and unhealthy working situations.”
Though the hyperlinks on the My London Diary publish at the moment are outdated, Battle on Need are nonetheless campaigning for garment staff all over the world together with in Bangladesh, as are No Sweat.
In 2009 I commented:
Primark and others might nonetheless have an ethical and fairly worthwhile enterprise in the event that they restrained their greed and ensured that the employees who make their garments labored in affordable situations and acquired a residing wage – which in Bangladesh is simply round £45 a month. However that’s over 3 times what staff making garments for Primark are presently paid.
Primark’s income proceed to rise, and though it claims it has “improved working situations and carried out moral initiatives, reviews and investigations counsel that employee exploitation in its provide chain, together with points like low wages and unsafe working situations, sadly nonetheless persists” in line with Google’s Generative AI.
Extra at Primark – Trend from Sweatshops.
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Tags: Bangladesh, catwalk, chains, low-cost trend, Metropolis, Metropolis of London, Enfield, trend, trend present, Ford, garment staff, Ian Tomlinson, KPMG, London, London Images, fashions, fashions in chains, No Sweat, Oxford St, pensions, pensions scandal, peter Marshall, police, police homicide, Ponders Finish, Primark, protest, slave labout, solidarity, sweated labour, sweatshops, Visteon, Visteon Enfield, Battle on Need
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