HolyHardware: Goodnews from Word

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)

FaceBook Event here (please only say attending if you are coming - we are counting on you.  Facebook slacktivism will not cut it.)

More>Background info.

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’.

The Sunday AGE ran a small article which highlighted the issue: http://www.theage.com.au/national/slave-trade-in-religious-souvenirs-20081206-6swy.html