[Reader-list] [Fwd: Ahhh that's... awful? That's Tetley]

[Patrice Riemens]

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Subject: Ahhh that's... awful? That's Tetley
From:    "Hanna Thomas, SumOfUs.org" <us at sumofus.org>
Date:    Sun, March 2, 2014 16:21

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   Friend,

Recent reports disclose the horrific reality behind the Tetley tea empire
-- workers on plantations in northern India, including children, are paid
less than $3 a day to pick our tea.

They toil from dawn until dusk, often spraying industrial pesticides with
little protection, and going back to run-down homes that are open to rain
and wind -- their only option. Researchers say that overflowing latrines
have created "a network of cesspools" within the living area for
employees and their families.

But the massive corporation that owns Tetley, Tata Global Beverages, is
refusing to take serious action. Instead, it's only committed to a weak,
15 year plan to boost the industry's 'sustainability' -- failing to
acknowledge how bad conditions really are. We need to speak out and tell
Tetley that the plan isn't good enough, and 15 years is too long.

Tell Tetley to comply with labour laws and upgrade the working and living
conditions at its plantations now

In response to reports, the World Bank is launching a full investigation
into what it calls the "potentially significant adverse" environmental and
social impacts on plantations owned by Tata, an Indian conglomerate that
also owns Jaguar Land Rover, operating in more than 80 countries across
six continents.

The World Bank's announcement was followed by the publication of a damning
report by the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School, which visited
17 of 24 Tata plantations during two years of its own investigation.
Senior plantation managers told the researchers not to listen to the
workers because they had "low IQs" and were "like cattle."

These comments reflect the caste system at work on the plantations in
Assam. The tea workers come from two marginalized communities -- Adivasis
(indigenous people) and Dalits (the so-called 'untouchable' caste). They
remain trapped in the lowest employment positions on the plantation, where
they are routinely treated as social inferiors, even though discrimination
against lower castes is illegal in India.

Demand that our tea is free of suffering. Tata, and its subsidiary Tetley,
must improve the lives of its workers now.

Together, we've had major success before against big multinational
companies exploiting workers. After months of pressure from SumOfUs
members, both Australian brand Woolworths and UK chain River Island signed
onto the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, after the
Tazreen and Rana Plaza garment factory collapses -- a huge win for
Bangladeshi garment workers. We can take on Tetley.

Thanks for all that you do,

Hanna, Martin, Kaytee, and the rest of us at SumOfUs.org

SumOfUs is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to
hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new,
sustainable path for our global economy.