The same feminist T-shirts worn by such British power politicos as Labour Party head Ed Miliband and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg — embossed with the slogan “This is what a feminist looks like” — are mass-produced in a sweatshop-like plant by female workers who are paid pennies per day.
The shirts, which are sold by high-end clothing line Whistles in support of women’s activist group The Fawcett Society, go for about $56 a pop, the Daily Mail reported. But the workers — migrant women who were hired off the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius — are paid a paltry 62 pence per hour, which translates into about $1.22 an hour.
While the workers are provided room and board as a perk of the job, the conditions aren’t really in line with the T-shirt slogan, workers say. Roughly 16 are forces to sleep together in one room, the Daily Mail reported.
“We do not see ourselves as feminists,” one of the machinists said, the Daily Mail reported. “We see ourselves as trapped.”
Critics say the workers are being exploited and they’re not even being paid the average rate for the island.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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