Dear Please Select Company Asda Beneton BHS Burton Coast Diesel Dorothy Perkins Evans French Connection GAP H&M Jigsaw John Lewis Karen Millen La Senza Mango Marks & Spencer Miss Selfridge Monsoon/Accesorize New Look Next Oasis OUTFIT Primark River Island Tesco Top Man Topshop Urban Outfitters Wallis Warehouse Zara ------- Other My favourite shop isn't on here
I love the clothes you make. Very much. So much, I even go to shops and buy them.
I just wanted to check a few things. (tick as many as you like)
What happens to the farmers? When you buy cotton to make the clothes that I buy from you, do you check it hasn't been grown using excessive pesticides and insecticide? On the World Health Organization's website, it says that 250,000 people die every year because of pesticides. And farmers are actually committing suicides by eating pesticides. Cotton production uses more pesticides than any other crop. I do really like wearing nice clothes, but you have to draw the line somewhere. I'd like it if the cotton in the clothes I buy from you is certified organic. And Fairtrade where possible. Can you help?
Do you pay the people making my clothes enough to live on? Some companies only pay the people who make their clothes 20 pounds a month. Or less. For working 16 hours days. These amounts might reflect the minimum wage, but minimum wages in developing countries rarely constitute living wages. How much do people get paid for making my clothes? And how do you make sure that the prices you pay your suppliers take account of the cost of paying their workers a living wage?
Do you know how many of your suppliers are unionised? Maybe you don't make sure that the people who make my clothes are earning a living wage because it's hard to define how much money that is. In that case, it's good if workers can improve their own working conditions, negotiating with their employers to strike an appropriate deal. So they need unions. What do you do to make sure that your suppliers don't persecute the people who make my clothes if they try to form or join unions? And how do you make sure that workers all along the supply chain know their rights?
Will you help me reuse and recycle my clothes? At the moment it's not very easy to recycle clothes, so 1.7 million tonnes of them end up in landfill every year. Maybe you could put collection points for old clothes and shoes in your shops? ( TRAID do them : info@traid.org.uk). That way, I can bring in my old clothes for reuse and recycling when I come to buy new ones from you.
add anything else you'd like to say
I want to spend more money on the very nice clothes that you make. And they are very nice. And I’d like to know that I don’t have to feel guilty about it or anything like that.
Let me know. Will be really good to hear from you.
Very best
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