retailers blamed for rise in slave labor

Not that I like paying high prices for stuff, but I'm to the point I refuse to buy much of any non-food items new because of how poorly workers are treated and how little information gets back to me. More specifically if I don't know where something was grown/produced/assembled I make a point of not buying it.

Big-brand fashion and food retailers are accused of contributing to appalling employment conditions around the world in a new study by Oxfam published today.

Using their power at the top of global supply chains, companies with ruthless buying practices are squeezing their suppliers to deliver faster and more cheaply, the aid agency says. The effect is to drive down wages and compromise the welfare of the workers.

"There is a widening gap between the rhetoric of global corporate social responsibility and the reality of corporate practice," Oxfam's policy director, Justin Forsyth, said.

The report, Trading Away Our Rights, gathers research from 12 countries and inter views with more than 1,000 workers, factory owners, global brand owners, importers, exporters, and union and government officials.

It adds to concerns aired by the government's food and farming tsar, Sir Don Curry, that the impact of price wars is being unfairly felt by those at the bottom of the chain.

Tesco and Asda-Wal-Mart, the British retailers identified in the report, deny the allegations, saying that they enforce rigorous codes of ethical trading. The report highlights examples from around the world of the pressure from international buyers being transferred by factories to workers.