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

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Meant "worrying" - I'm not Priti Patel!

Mamardoit - this is very worryin. Do you have evidence that the factory bosses are connected to the "people who run Leicester"?

If so, where does it come from and please share it on here.

Leicester is a city full of far majority labour voters going back decades. The point is this is all allowed to happen is because the factory bosses are connected to the people who run Leicester.

It has a Labour mayor (who stupidly broke lock down) and Labour MPs. Maybe a good place for this government to make an example of. No seats to lose.

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'm afraid, Ug, that 'the book' that you'd like to see thrown at the sweat shops is the one which tories like the ERG want to get rid of. Deregulation (all that nasty red tape) is the name of their game.

To keep it relevant (sorry) some of the workers are saying no masks or hand sanitizer provided (I suppose take your own) but social distancing non-existent.

And some of the workers know that people feeling unwell have still arrived at work ... as they are poor and need the money.

Throw the book at these sweat shop factories!

In the Daily Mail today there’s an article about shocking practices in many of the ONE THOUSAND clothing factories. That figure alone stunned me! Some are tiny outlets run from inside terrace houses or garages. Some are off-grid.

Workers have been saying they are paid now £4 an hour. Illegal surely? The new slave labour?

One man stated “I'm of indian origin and live in Leicester. My mumworks in one of these factories and has self isolated since March as she in early 60s. The fact is all these factories are owned by sikhs hindus and Muslims.

Leicester is a city full of far majority labour voters going back decades. The point is this is all allowed to happen is because the factory bosses are connected to the people who run Leicester.

This is all legalised crime and it won’t stop - just that there’s a bit more scrutiny today because of covid 19.”

How are these people even living on £4 an hour? Claiming benefits to supplement?

The bosses should be hauled over the coals, given hefty fines or imprisonments.

When you think there’s been demonstrations about slavery practices, tearing down a statue in Bristol etc yet all this is rife in Leicester!

There is a report of police having to close 2 businesses in Leicester 'hotspot' and the police are 'watching' dozens more.

There are also reports that the suburbs of Oadby and Wigston are showing increasing cases. These are more affluent areas.

Was watching a video on FB. It showed police being called to a house in Leicester after reports of a party in full swing.

This video was filmed by the people who lived opposite and I watched in disbelief as young people (mainly white) poured out the front door. There must have been at least 50 crammed into that small house, probably more.

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?

If it is, why were people being encouraged to go and pick fruit just a few weeks ago? Did people really want to send others to an infection hotspot?

A rate of 978, which Ashford has, means that 1 in every 100 people is infected (very nearly the same as Leicester). Nobody really knows who that one person is, until he/she has infected others.

My relatives who live in the hotspot in Italy were under very strict lockdown - they couldn’t go more than 200 metres from their house, had to wear a mask, carry papers everywhere etc, now the bars, hairdressers, gyms etc have been open for a month or so. Our lockdown was a joke by comparison.

Thanks for highlighting that Maizie.

If I weren't just an armchair observer and actually had some authority, I'd be looking at anywhere with a rate over 500/100,000 and keeping an eye. If the rate stays that high over a few days, I'd order an urgent meeting with a local public health person/local authority. I'd want to know what the local circumstances were and put in place mitigating measures.

The measures needed for each authority would probably be different, but I'd make sure the resources were there. That might be extra testing/tracing, accommodation for people to self-isolate, continuation of food parcels/shopping, financial help for those who shouldn't work, extra police to break up gatherings, environmental officers to monitor workplaces, temporary emergency restrictions ... whatever it takes.

Of course there would be people who would try to "escape" the restricted area, so people would need to be told directly that their area was in a danger zone and have it explained how important personal responsibility is via posters, local radio, social media, etc. People might develop some community spirit (a kind of Blitz spirit) to get their area out of the danger zone.

Just a thought ...

I think there are quite a few going to be 'next'

Have a look at the case numbers in LAs here:

coronavirus.data.gov.uk/#category=ltlas&map=case&area=e06000047