Today we gather to celebrate the holyhardware campaign and Australia place in ensuring Christian goods are not made in exploitative conditions. We do here outside a key player in Christian Retail who like us does not want christian products made in slave labour conditions. Surely the practice of our faith should not enslave the poor!
Amazing Grace was written by John Newton a repentant former slave ship captain who became a priest. Newton was also the mentor to William Wilberforce, the great crusader for the British abolition of slavery. You can find books and the movie about the life and faith of these Christian activists in Christian and normal stores.
In late November (2007) the US National Labor Committee (NLC) released a report, Today Workers Bear the Cross, exposing the Association for Christian Retail (ACR) for selling crosses manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop. Here is a case study & some facts.
“The products had to be finished by the 25th [of April] and all of the workers in our department had been working until three o’clock in the morning. We had been working non-stop for just about 16.5 hours. We were making crucifixes…. At 8 am, the morning of the 26th, it seemed as if our heads had just hit the pillows before out coworkers began to call for us to get up and get back to work again. The manager arranged for me to load the boxes for shipment. I, along with everybody else, was busy moving things into the truck. In total, we had close to 300 boxes of crucifixes and other things as well. Everything was so heavy; each box was about 20kg! We were so tired. My shoulders, legs and waist went weak. While we were moving the boxes of crucifixes, one of my coworkers suddenly cried out: “Jesus, take pity on me! I’m going to die of exhaustion.””
The NLC report found that crucifixes are being made at the Junxingye Factory in Dongguan, China, and the conditions were as follows;
▪Factory employed 300 – 400 women as young as 15
▪Employees forced to work regular 14 to 15.5 hour shifts a day, seven days a week
▪When an order is due a shift can be extended up to 25 hours
▪All overtime in the factory is mandatory and anyone who does not carry out the required overtime loses a full day’s wages
▪It is common for workers in the factory to work over 100 hours a week, which includes 51 hours of overtime
▪Workers in the factory are paid as little as 30 cents an hour, just over half the legal minimum wage in China. After fees deducted for room and board, the workers pay can drop to just 11 cents an hour
▪Workers in the factory are housed in primitive dorm rooms sleeping on narrow double-level metal bunk beds that line the walls. There is no other furniture
▪The workers get no paid sick leave, no paid maternity leave, no paid holidays and no health insurance, all of which are required under Chinese labour laws.
▪Anyone who gets sick and misses work in the factory loses two-and-a-half days pay for each day they miss
▪Workers fear they may be handling toxic chemicals, paints and solvents, whose fumes sting their eyes and skin contact causes rashes, but the factory management refuses to provide even the names of the chemicals, let alone their potential health hazards.
The report states that the ACR has no code of conduct for their members, and no factory monitoring program.
A bible reading from James 5:4
“Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.”
These cries have found the ear of of God and the Church we are part of the response that it should not be so.
In July 2009 The National Council of Churches in Australia officially affirmed the statement “A Fair Trade in Christian Goods” and encouraged its use alongside the “Christian Goods Standard”.
Yesterday (Friday 4/12/2009) Word made public it’s global purchasing policy including it commitment to “not use compulsory or involuntary labour, slavery or debt bondage”. Also, Word has begun dialogue with the Justice and international mission (JIM) unit to work towards ensuring standards are implemented. The JIM unit is the lead group working on this campaign for the wider church.
I have presented Word’s CEO Craig Moulton with the shirt affirming our shared value that “People are not Equal to Money”
The HolyHardware Campaign to end exploitative condition for christian product policies have been adopted a pickup up in the US. Now with the key retail partners, advocates and churches support - Australian can now lead the way in the next steps of global action. Ensuring the standards are mpliment by wholesaler and the factories. Thank you to all willing to engage this issue thus far both here now, who have joined with us on past actions and the very many who are signed up as part of the campaign. Thankyou
Let us pray in silence for our part in allowing slave labour and our part in ending it.
The Prohet Micah said. “What does God require of You? Do Justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. “ Micah 6:8
UPDATE: GOODNEWS! WORD HAS JOINED THE CONVERSATION!!!!
This morning Word updated its public purchasing policy and this afternoon they begun dialogue with the JIM unit.
So now you can join me tomorrow for a celebration of where we have got to in the holy hardware campaign. Maybe present Word with a thank you gift. Please come and thank them with me, hear the story and pray for those still exploited by our faith product industry.
This is good news because we now have both key players in the Christian retail sector helping find ways we can better the conditions of working people who make products for Christians.
Age
Keen to join me in a little Abolitionist Anti-Sweatshop Caroling and public liturgy? Good book it in, email me and turn up
Have you ever thought about the conditions in which products are made?
Then join us in a little Abolitionist Anti-Sweatshop Caroling and public liturgy? Outside Word Bookstore Head Office.
When: DEC 5 11:30am-12:30pm
Where: 11-13 Moncrief Road
Nunawading
We are asking that they join into the conversation on slave labour and Christian products.
Why? Slave Labour 4 Christian Products is a Sin.
Yes! I totally am up for a little holy mischief! Who do I tell that I am in?
All your friends to help spread the word and of course Age (age@morepraxis.org.au)
A 2007 report found that employees in China at one factory involved in making crosses were forced to work regular 14 to 15.5 hour shifts a day, seven days a week. They were paid as little as 30 cents an hour, just over half the legal minimum wage in China. (US National Labour Committee (NLC), Today Workers Bear the Cross).
“The products had to be finished by the 25th [of April] and all of the workers in our department had been working until three o’clock in the morning. We had been working non-stop for just about 16.5 hours. We were making crucifixes…. At 8 am, the morning of the 26th, it seemed as if our heads had just hit the pillows before out coworkers began to call for us to get up and get back to work again. The manager arranged for me to load the boxes for shipment. I, along with everybody else, was busy moving things into the truck. In total, we had close to 300 boxes of crucifixes and other things as well. Everything was so heavy; each box was about 20kg! We were so tired. My shoulders, legs and waist went weak. While we were moving the boxes of crucifixes, one of my coworkers suddenly cried out: “Jesus, take pity on me! I’m going to die of exhaustion.””
In late November 2007 the US National Labor Committee (NLC) released a report, Today Workers Bear the Cross, exposing members of the Association for Christian Retail (ACR) for selling crosses manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop. http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=479
Word Bookstores Pty Ltd is a high-profile and successful Christian retailer involved in the selling of a range of products made in China where there are documentedcases of gross disregard for the fundamental human dignity of working people.
Why Word Bookstores?
Word Bookstores is one of the biggest Christian retailers in Australia. With its roots in the old evangelistic ministry called Gospel Film Ministry Ltd (founded in Sydney), we want to remind Word that heeding the Gospel means supporting working people to be treated with dignity. We don’t think that all the gift items that Word sells are made in sweatshops, but we are concerned that items (particularly those made in China) could very well be. So we are calling on a key player in the Christian retail sector to get behind our campaign to find ways we can better the conditions of working people who make products for Christians.
The Justice & International Mission Unit of the Uniting Church in Australia has repeatedly tried to contact this company to start a dialogue about these issues; but there has been no response.
The JIM Unit contacted the VCC and the Victorian Heads of Churches. This broad group of Christian denominations expressed strong appreciation for the work done on this topic. In November 2008, the Heads of Churches gathered agreed with the document `A fair trade in Christian Goods’ and officially endorsed the accompanying ‘Christian Goods Standard’.
As we all know, a majority of Australians want action on climate change. But some politicians and business groups are acting like dinosaurs by continuing to block important climate change laws.
These laws will help Australia cut greenhouse gasses and create up to a million jobs in our new clean energy and existing traditional industries. In short, they are laws to create a cleaner environment and a stronger economy.
In November, this small group of dinosaurs in parliament are planning to vote against climate change laws for a second time.
I want to take this opportunity to talk to you about what else we can do and how we need your help for strong action on climate change
We have talked with many people across Australia about ramping up our activities by joining together with other community activists. It is clear we need to take our message to the suburbs, towns and regions to ensure all MPs and particularly Senators understand that Australians want these climate laws passed.
Between now and the end of November, we will be holding activities in conjunction with unions and local Trades and Labour Councils, taking our message to the streets in the same way we did in the Your Rights at Work campaign.
It will be simple and fun and designed to be educative.
Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy Milk goes global as Canada, Australia and New Zealand take Fairtrade further into mainstream
25 Aug 2009
Canada, Australia and New Zealand commit to certifying Cadbury Dairy Milk as Fairtrade by early 2010
Combined with Britain and Ireland, the five markets will quadruple Fairtrade benefits for cocoa farmers under Fairtrade terms
Today, Cadbury extends its commitment to Fairtrade by confirming that three more markets are to receive Fairtrade certification for the flagship Cadbury Dairy Milk brand by early 2010. This move in Canada, Australia and New Zealand will bring the independent FAIRTRADE Mark into millions more homes in five of Cadbury’s key chocolate markets.
Sacked Geelong Council workers are the meat in the sandwich
29 July 2009
By ASU-Victorian Authorities & Services Branch
Australian Services Union Victorian Branch Assistant Secretary Igor Grattan has announced that the Union will do whatever it takes to get unfairly sacked members Mick Van Beek and Peter Anderson their jobs back at the City of Greater Geelong’s Drysdale depot.
Van Beek and Anderson were unjustly sacked after the pair filled in two pot holes hazardous to elderly patrons of the Leopold Sportsman Club last November during their lunch break, receiving two free steak sandwiches at management’s insistence a week later.
This is incredible! Earlier this month, we asked the Amnesty community to claim justice for survivors of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery system by sending a butterfly to our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.
As of this morning, 4,664 unique butterflies are winging their way to the Prime Minister and thousands more have been amplified around the world on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
With this extraordinary show of support, we’re well on the way to achieving our target of 10,000 butterflies and another step towards to the Government motion we’re looking for. So, if you haven’t yet created your butterfly, please do so right away and help us reach our target:
Up to 200,000 women and girls endured repeated rapes and beatings in ‘comfort stations’ throughout the Asia Pacific, including Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines and many of the Pacific Islands during World War II. Following decades of denials and dodging responsibility, the remaining survivors are still waiting for an official apology from the Japanese Government.
With your help we’re striving to change this – by petitioning Kevin Rudd to pass a motion to call the Japanese Government to account. Shamefully, we’re one of the few Allied nations yet to step up and do what’s right.
By taking this one simple act, you’re part of Australia’s biggest effort yet to resolve a generations-old issue. Your unique butterfly – the survivors’ chosen symbol of hope - is a cry for justice and a powerful gesture of solidarity for the survivors of one of the darkest episodes in human history.
It’s now or never. Thank you for standing up and reaching out.
Hannah, Athena, Seb, Louise and the rest of the campaign team
Amnesty International Australia
PS: Thank you to those who’ve already created a butterfly and contributed to putting a butterfly in the sky above Parliament House. We raised all the funds we needed, and the stunt will happen on 11 August, weather permitting. Thanks to your generosity we’re now looking to redouble our efforts in the run up to 15 August (the anniversary of the end of WWII) to keep this issue high on the agenda for our politicians.
Koorong has agreed to meet with the Justice and International Mission Unit and discuss how to move forward constructively on ensuring ethical standards are maintained in the production of goods sold at Koorong.
Action against devotional items made under gross exploitation
Have you ever thought about the conditions in which products are made?
Are you concerned that some Christian stores are selling devotional items under gross exploitation?
A recent report found that employees in China at one factory involved in making crosses were forced to work regular 14 to 15.5 hour shifts a day, seven days a week. They were paid as little as 30 cents an hour, just over half the legal minimum wage in China. (US National Labour Committee (NLC), Today Workers Bear the Cross).
Just Act is organizing an action in holy week to highlight the exploitation that is happening in the industry. Currently Word and Koorong (see top and comment for update) bookshops have no public policy concerned about work standards, even while they profit from sales of books and DVD’s on the theme of abolishing slavery.
Just Act are calling on them to ensure that items like crosses, bible covers and children’s Christian toys are not made under slave like conditions.
Please join us on Easter Saturday (11th April) to show your protest to this situation. (Postponed till later keep watching)
Hi guys, just a few clicks to to stand in solidarity with the workers of the Philippines
Within a week after being released from prison, labour lawyer Atty. Remigio D. Saladero Jr., and five other Phillipine labour and human rights activists face another round of trumped-up charges of murder. Thanks to your previous action, Saladero was freed from prison on February 5, 2009. But your continued support is needed to ensure that he remains free.
Take action today.
Write to the Philippine government and Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) to immediately stop the persecution of labour and human rights activists.
I send this email in the hopes that the government of the Philippines and ECOP will:
End the campaign of intimidation against labour leaders and supporters;
Invite the ILO to do a full independent investigation into the human rights violations in the Philippines;
Drop all the criminal charges against and stop persecution of the labour and human rights advocates, activists and organisers included in the “Mindoro case” and the “Garmino case”.
Melbourne city cleaners are celebrating as they get ready to vote up their first-ever union collective agreement.
Cleaners have been campaigning for two-and-a-half years to improve average wages of just $300 a week and shifts as short as two hours.
This agreement gives cleaners the fairer pay, conditions and job security they need to build a bright future.
Support from you, the voices of the community, has helped give our members the strength to stand up day after day and win.
But one major contractor, Pickwick Eski, has not signed the agreement. Pickwick Eski cleaner Kamal Jimi says he is often worried his job is not safe and that he does not have enough money.
Melbourne cleaners are standing together with their Pickwick Eski co-workers to ensure all cleaners get a fair deal.
Just as your support was vital in winning the agreement for cleaners at other major contractors, Pickwick Eski cleaners need your backing.
Support cleaners’ campaign for a fair deal: contact Pickwick Eski CEO Ken Holder or write to the newspapers.
Together we can win a bright future for the people in our communities.
Cleaners need your support, write to the media or contact Ken now.
Ken Holder
Pickwick Eski
Call Ken: 0411 179 044
Send Ken a letter: 3/28 Norfolk Road, South Brisbane QLD 4101
Email Ken: kenholder@pickwickgroup.com.au
Send a letter to the newspapers;
The Age: letters@theage.com.au
Herald Sun: hsletters@heraldsun.com.au
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get together at PRAXIS10>
September 17-19, 2010
A weekend at the lodge with your own tribePRAXIS09
Congratulations! Good News! Just Holy Hardware campaign is getting places in ensuring Christian products are not made in exploitative conditions.
Sacked Geelong Council workers are the meat in the sandwich
10,000 butterflies for ‘comfort’ women?
Hi guys, just a few clicks to 
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