Anyone live in Leicester? The lockdown there has been extended.

I too was in Unison, involved in local negotiations. Nut this is irrelevant to the point I was making.

The tories want to deregulate as far as they possibly can (and with an 80 seat majority the world appears to be their oyster).

The unions have been weakened over the years and anyway, the workers in sweatshops are usually non unionised. They have no-one to stand up for them and the tories really have no interest in them.

IMO the book will remain unthrown.

Urmston that’s very worrying, a thousand tiny businesses all crammed in and earning so little!
What has the council been doing about this, it must have been known about, is the council a Labour run one or Conservative?
They need a rocket up their collective arses.

Urmstongran

Not at all MaizieD. I was a member of UNISON trade union for over 20 years. Paid my subscription out of my salary. Proud to stand up for workers rights. One time in a dispute with the Trust management board I asked our trade union rep to bring in the outside officials. Result! Serious negotiations ensued and a fairer outcome.

This government have a minimum wage policy. Over £10 an hour. These sweat shop bosses know this.

For some reason they think they are untouchable.

So yes, throw the book at them and hit them where it hurts. Their bank accounts.

This needs sending to MP’s in the area.

minimum wage is £8.72 per hour for over 25s.

The workers obviously would be better to band together, join a union, get a shop steward.

However, in the real world, unions are for the larger organisations. These little factories know they have a hold over their workers. They aren’t offering minimum wage because, I’ll bet, most of the workers are cash in hand, under the radar, non English speaking women. Some men will be cash in hand with a top up of Universal Credit. So this situation suits worker and boss. You scratch my back.

The Labour councils must be aware of this flagrant disregard of the law. This isn’t small beer we’re talking about. Someone, somewhere is getting a backhander to look the other way.

I still say, go in hard. Make a few examples and mean business.

Back to the lockdown - all these sweatshops must surely exacerbate the C-19 transfer. We are allowing (as a country) a subset of businesses to thrive, with minimal overheads. Is this actually Leicester or Bangalore? Beggars belief.

Are the people in these factories any more crammed in than pupils will be in September?

BTW Ashfrord, Kent, where the infection rate is nearly as high as Leicester, has a Conservative MP and Conservative council.

Mamardoit

*It's interesting that Ashford in Kent now has the highest rate of infection after Leicester. Speculating here, but could it have anything to do with armies of fruit pickers living in cramped conditions?*

Could it be recent arrivals in small boats? There is work for them in cities like Leicester.

I doubt it!

Does Barrow-in-Furness have hundreds of sweat shops?

growstuff

Are the people in these factories any more crammed in than pupils will be in September?

BTW Ashfrord, Kent, where the infection rate is nearly as high as Leicester, has a Conservative MP and Conservative council.

Ashford in Kent has a Eurostar Terminal along with a large Designer Sales Outlet Shopping Village.

Just been reading up on the Leicester small businesses making garments.They are mainly sweatshops and have hardly closed during the supposed lockdown.
It’s known about alright, and the Labour run council have done zilch about it, other than (in the past) ‘workshops’ and talks.Just google small garment factories in Leicester, it’s all there online.It’s an absolute disgrace.

Lemon All if of us with open minds know why this situation is allowed to continue. It’s the same reason the council turned a blind eye in Rotherham and Rochdale. Didn’t want to rock the boat and risk losing their core voters. The exploitation of people is allowed to continue and the silence is deafening from the liberal left!

Yes, it certainly looks that way ticking☹️

tickingbird

Lemon All if of us with open minds know why this situation is allowed to continue. It’s the same reason the council turned a blind eye in Rotherham and Rochdale. Didn’t want to rock the boat and risk losing their core voters. The exploitation of people is allowed to continue and the silence is deafening from the liberal left!

Please explain what you mean.

Why is there such a high infection rate in Barrow-in-Furness? Is a blind eye being turned to something there too?

Has Barrow-in-Furness been locked down too?

maybe some of the sweatshop workers have
No Recourse to Public Funds
so they would have to go on working, or else not be able to pay rent, buy food, top up energy key, etc.
when stephen timms MP asked PM in a cttee mtg about a couple like this in his area, who were destitute and had NRPF, the PM suggested they apply for universal credit.
it was painful to watch.
don't suppose PM has ever done much ?any constituency case work, as he seemed totally unaware of NRPF.
guess he's always got some eager beaver unpaid volunteer to do it for him, which actually probably gives a better service to constituents.
i've seen that kind of situation in other constituencies.

twitter.com/stephenctimms/status/1265749700281618432?lang=en

i think this is the question i referred to above, re NRPF.

I hear from those who are involved that the outbreak in Barrow inFurness links to a group who visited a region in Italy where covid was active, though that wasn't known at the time of the trip.

As for the sweatshops in Leicester, I'm inclined to agree with those who say go in hard and heavy. It seems likely (indisputable) that employment laws, if nothing else, have been breached in these manufacturing outlets.

It seems likely that there has been widespread fraud and that needs jumping on. If there is modern slavery involved, even more so.

Mamardoit - I was hoping to see your evidence about the factory bosses connected to the "people who run Leicester".

I'm all for shutting down the sweatshops and exposing the collusion of city bigwigs but you shouldn't make assertions if you can't even back them up.

The words in bold from that post were copied from another post earlier in this thread. I just added the second half.

A pity you don’t moderate the other threads Rambling Rose. Plenty of assertions about all sorts of people on some of them. None of them backed up with evidence so I don’t know why you’ve pounced on Marmadoit on this particular thread!

growstuff

tickingbird

Lemon All if of us with open minds know why this situation is allowed to continue. It’s the same reason the council turned a blind eye in Rotherham and Rochdale. Didn’t want to rock the boat and risk losing their core voters. The exploitation of people is allowed to continue and the silence is deafening from the liberal left!

Please explain what you mean.

Probably a covert reference to the Asian community? These were authorities where Asian men groomed mainly white girls.

Though the reference to ‘open minds’ and ‘if of’ baffles me.

Nothing covert about it!

tickingbird - I wouldn't have the time to moderate the other threads. I don't spend all my time on Gransnet you know!

Contrary to what you may think, I don't pounce on or pick on anyone in particular. It all depends on when I happen to be looking at Gransnet on any particular day so it's completely random.

Mamardoit isn't the first one on here whose assertions I've challenged and I expect that she won't be the last.

If people make dodgy or questionable assertions on here then they should expect to be questioned or challenged.

It's a pity that you seem to have a problem with that.

Ramblingrose
You obviously have no idea how some council officials and local business works.
Unfortunately you won't find any emails or texts asking for favours in return for other favours nudge nudge, wink wink.
I will say no more as it would be construed as slanderous, but it's good to see that several of us know what's been going on.
But it won't stop.