Welcome back to Leeds RAG. We are so excited to announce our main charities this year. We will be supporting them by raising money through our show and various fundraising events throughout the year. So stay tuned to this blog and our socials to find out about how you can have fun whilst supporting these amazing charities!
Labour Behind the Label
Here at Leeds RAG, we have a very strong sustainability agenda and it is a key consideration across all areas of the show. We chose to work with this amazing charity to align our support to garment workers and ethical manufacturing to give this incredible cause a voice through our show.
Labour behind the Label is a charity organisation that fights for workers’ rights worldwide. They believe in holding brands, as well as the government, accountable for how they treat their employees, and fight to ensure that they find a solution for how they have wronged their workers.
The charity provides support for workers needs and get involved when they believe there is a human rights violation- this could be through helping with job security and ensuring they are paid correctly for their work. Through research and investigation of brand claims they can identify any inconsistencies between brands promises, in regards to workers welfare, and what they actually deliver. This exposes brands that are exploiting workers and raises awareness for these injustices. They hope that this knowledge will encourage solidarity in campaigning with people all over the world to put pressure on exploitative brands to force them to change their ways.
The COVID19 pandemic has turned the world upside down and undoubtedly affected every aspect of our daily lives, but it has also provided an excuse for brands to exploit their workers. Labour behind the Label have been working on a #PayYourWorkers campaign, publicly announcing brands which have not been supporting their garment workers during the pandemic. In particular, the charity asked Primark to ‘Pay UP’, as during the March lockdown they cancelled all previously placed orders which left workers without pay. This was successful and in April Primark did pay for those orders, however this is not enough. Labour behind the Label are still currently campaigning for Primark to publish a commitment to their website, stating that all workers in their supply chain will be paid the legal wage standard.
We are so proud to be working with this admirable charity! Please follow the links below to find out more about their work and how you can help.
Labour behind the Label Website: https://labourbehindthelabel.org/
Labour behind the Label Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/labourbehindthelabel/
Labour behind the Label Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/labourbehindthelabel/
Stay tuned for our next blog to hear about our second amazing charity.
Thank you for reading,
Love,
Leeds RAG