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Ethical Trade and Fair Trade

Many transnational companies contract out production to smaller companies; some of which subcontract production of component parts, often to the world’s poorest countries where labour is cheap. The resulting supply chains stretch around the world. Workers at the bottom of these chains work under the worst conditions and get the lowest pay; yet many are contributing to the profits of some of the richest companies in the world.

The TUC campaigns for all workers to get a fair deal. We work with a range of NGOs involved in this area including War on Want, Banana Link, Cafod, Oxfam, Labour Behind the Label, Tourism Concern and the Trade Justice Movement. We are also active in the Ethical Trading Initiative, which puts pressure on companies to observe international labour standards, in particular the fight to organise and bargain collectively.


The most recent documents available on this subject are:

Tell Debenhams and GAP to back Bangladesh safety plan

Over 30 major retailers have signed a significant new union-backed safety accord for Bangladeshi textile workers. However Debenhams and GAP are still holding back from signing. Please help us ask them to change their mind.

20 May 2013
Doubling the wages of a Bangladeshi textile worker would add just 2p to the cost of a t-shirt, says TUC

As the death toll in the Rana Plaza textile factory collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh two weeks ago tops 900, the TUC has today (Friday) published figures which suggest that the reason costs are cut and wages are low in the Bangladesh textile industry ha...

10 May 2013
Implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

The recently adopted UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights represent a strong international consensus on how to tackle the global rise in business-related human rights abuses. To help bring them to life, the TUC has developed a set of re...

24 October 2012
A decent job? DFID fails the TUC's Decent Work test

To mark the World Day for Decent Work, the TUC is releasing 'A decent job?': a report assessing the Department for International Development's (DFID) efforts to secure decent jobs for the world's poor. DFID scores just 25 out of 56 points based on cr...

7 October 2012
Fiji - joint union/fairtrade statement

Fairtrade International and the ITUC, IUF and TUC have adopted a statement on workers' rights in Fiji. This version includes the expulsion of an ILO mission.

PDF version available for download
29 September 2012
TUC briefing: EU-India free trade agreement

Launched in 2007, the ongoing negotiations for an EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) have thrown up a range of worrying issues for Indian and EU workers. This briefing note explains those concerns in more detail.

1 August 2012
Older documents - 39 >



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