Stop Sweatshop Greenwash at Thanet Earth Week of Action!
(Race to the Bottom outside M&S Flagship store in Oxford Street. Following just one protest, the company took all references to Thanet Earth off their packaging. The brand is back on now but it shows how vulnerable supermarkets are to public pressure).
June 27th-July 2nd will see a week of action against Kent-based Supermarket salad supplier Thanet Earth.
Thanet Earth is the biggest greenhouse complex in the UK, covering an area the size of 80 football pitches. Thanet Earth supplies Asda, Marks and Spencers, Sainsburys and Tesco with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.
When opened in 2008, Thanet Earth promised 550 local jobs in one of the most deprived areas of the UK. Instead the site employs 90% casualised migrant workers through 4 agencies in a system of constant precarity. Most workers have no contracts, bribes to secure shifts have been reported, and union members who have attempted to organise have found themselves out of work. Investigations by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority and Ethical Trading Initiative are ongoing.
When Unite the Union’s organising campaign secured over 65% membership, Thanet Earth responded by sending in another agency, diluting membership, cutting hours, and forcing workers into calling every day to find out if they have work. Members have branded this a union busting move.
Thanet Earth's 'Green' credentials are also questionable. Despite 'Made in Kent' looking appealing for conscious shoppers as a low food-miles alternative to Senegalese or Morroccan tomatoes, infact growing vegetables in chemicals and fibre glass, all year-round, under artificial lights and acres of plastic, and using massive amounts of water, even if rainwater - as this does not replenish the local water table and local farmers - is not an example of green growing. Supply chains stretched by lorry transport around the country are still carbon intensive and undermine localised production and delivery.
The 'factory vegetable' model serving carbon-intensive supermarkets also undermines fair prices and ramps up competition for local farmers. Whichever way you look at it, whether as the future of 'food security' or 'sustainable intensification' Thanet Earth fails the test on both upholding human rights and climate justice.
The 'factory vegetable' model serving carbon-intensive supermarkets also undermines fair prices and ramps up competition for local farmers. Whichever way you look at it, whether as the future of 'food security' or 'sustainable intensification' Thanet Earth fails the test on both upholding human rights and climate justice.
Enough is enough! Unite members have called a week of direct action targeting Thanet Earth, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, M&S and agency HRGO to push for union rights and recognition and an end to casualisation.
From Monday June 27th- Saturday July 2nd , ‘Secret Shopper’ flashmobs, store occupations, pickets, ‘Races to the Bottom’, and phone and email blockades are planned – see http://www.stopsweatshopgreenwash.blogspot.com/
Thanet Earth and the supermarkets accepting sweatshop veg will also be a target in the June 30th day of strike solidarity action in London.
Join in the fun! Pick a store, call your friends, we’ll send you leaflets, and get an action going in your area. Email
stopsweatshopgreenwash@gmail.com or call 07900 160 851 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 07900 160 851 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
For more info and materials see: http://www.stopsweatshopgreenwash.blogspot.com/
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