main source is a Bangladeshi union organiser and activist. ex-child-worker. president of the Bangladesh Garmen and Industrial Workers’ Federation and executive director of Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity. Kalpona Akter.

~160 million children workers or slaves. approximately 1/10th of all children!!

forced into work due to adult caregivers’ financial instability or inability to work. have to work to look after their family.

lack of education -> don’t know about labour rights, unions, laws &c.

organising. fired and blacklisted -> fulltime labour educator and union organiser.

Union organisers targeted by the state/factor owners. Violence.

Women workers in the factories producing Barbie doll toys are subject to a constant campaign of harrassment and fearmongering.

Peak season (Christmas) up to 10,000 workers. Trough season: 2,000 workers.

Peak periods also peak of gender-based violence. Mattell factories particularly bad, documented for last 30 years. Very high production targets, very low pay. Insane hours. Inadequate protection.

Culture of constant harrassment and hostility means workers are too busy trying to defend themselves and make ends meet to organise.

Barbie’s complex relationship with feminism further complicated by the conditions of the women who manufacture them.

Similar story in lots of other factories. Many factor workers (290million) are migrants from poorer rural areas. Presence of subcontracting insulates stakeholders from harms and leads to worse conditions.

EU bans import of products linked to force labour practices, UK has less strict rules.

Forced labour also happens in the UK. Classic example of nail salons, and agricultural workers are often trafficked or being exploited. Leicester is UK’s center for factory abuses.

Access to toilets is a common problem. Factories restrict time in the bathroom as is not time spent being productive. Intersects with gender (pregnancy and periods) and health (incontinence for various reasons).

Workers are gaslit into thinking there’s no job serucity if they leave.

Language barriers also make it harder to understand your rights, if labour rights material is only distributed in English. Some factory owners preferentially hire women because they are less educated and less likely to know their rights.

Workers made to believe factor owners are ‘doing them a favour’ and paid pittance or placed on zero-hours contracts without their awareness. No job security, no financial security, mental stress &c..

Subcontracting obfuscates everything and makes ethical production much much harder to guarantee.

What to do? Buy ethical, buy used, or best of all don’t buy at all! Agitate for improved workers’ rights and so on.