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Let's be friendsStudents give Asda a 'fail' over school uniforms
Celeb and local pupils give Asda a 'bad report' for failing to sell Fairtrade school uniforms.
Students give Asda a ‘thumbs down’
Students take ‘bad school report’ into Asda
Stacey Dooley, the campaigning star of BBC3s ‘Blood, Sweat & T-shirts’, supported students from schools across London, in giving a giant mock up ‘bad school report’, to Asda during Fairtrade Fortnight, showing its failure to sell any Fairtrade cotton uniforms. The students demanded that Asda start to sell ethical schoolwear as part of People & Planet’s ‘Wear Fair’ campaign which aims to get all UK schools to adopt Fairtrade cotton uniforms by 2015.
The campaign is targeting Asda, a supermarket rarely out of the headlines for problems with sweatshops. Asda lags behind other major supermarkets - the students said, because of its failure to offer Fairtrade cotton uniforms.
Stacey Dooley supported the student’s Fairtrade Fortnight action and was disappointed she couldn’t join them because of filming commitments. She said:
‘It’s not about boycotting high street chains and running about in unflattering rags… it’s about voicing your opinion as a consumer, telling your favourite stores you’re interested in fairtrade and ethical clothing.’
There is also a growing concern amongst parents that the school uniforms they are buying are contributing to the hunger and hardship faced by cotton producers. Anna Heywood, a mother of two from Newcastle said:
‘I want to ensure that no one has been exploited in making my children’s school uniform but like most parents I haven’t got the time or knowledge to start investigating the supply chain of my daughter’s school jumper or all the different ethical schemes that the high street stores and supermarkets claim to sign up to. The Fairtrade label is the only guarantee that can instantly assure me that the producers are being treated fairly’.
The students handed over the ‘bad school report’ to Asda management. They also handed in photos of 1000 students, who each wrote personal messages demanding that Asda switches its uniforms to Fairtrade cotton.
The action took place during Fairtrade Fortnight, when students across the UK will be asking their schools to switch their own uniforms to Fairtrade cotton. Find out what schools are up to.
