156

A Guardian investigation has found workers in France’s champagne industry are being underpaid and forced to sleep on the streets and steal food to stave off hunger.

Workers from west Africa and eastern Europe in the town of Épernay, home to the headquarters of some of the world’s most expensive champagne brands, including Moët & Chandon and Mercier, claim that they are either not being paid for their work or illegally underpaid by vineyards near the town.

The Guardian found workers in the town sleeping on the streets or in tents as the vineyards did not provide accommodation. Other workers staying in a nearby village said they had been forced to steal food from local people as they did not have anywhere to buy provisions.

Yet the champagne industry has been hit by a string of controversies related to its treatment of grape-pickers, with four workers dying from suspected sunstroke during last year’s harvest. In a case scheduled to go to court early next year, four people, including a vineyard owner, have been charged with human trafficking.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] galmuth@feddit.uk 14 points 1 day ago

Fixing this problem requires more redistribution of wealth than degrowth. Workers should be paid appropriately for their work, and those at the top should get a smaller slice of the pie.

Capitalism which means that business owners are free to make billions yet those who produce the goods go hungry, is utterly intolerable.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I guess my point was that the only way first-world countries can live in such excess is by massive exploitation of the world's poor. Resources are massively unevenly distributed worldwide, and first-world countries are using like three times more resources than they actually need to, if not more. There are so many people in such abject poverty that real redistribution will mean people like you and me living with less, too.

Redistribution will have to happen, but I think for it to work we'll all have to accept some limitations and a lot less "fun" extra stuff in our lives.

[-] john89@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Absolutely. This is a tough pill to swallow for most first-worlders, because they don't want to acknowledge they're a part of the problem.

The closer we get to the roots of a problem, the more people we'll find that contribute to it and the fewer we'll find that are willing to admit it.

[-] galmuth@feddit.uk 3 points 1 day ago

Fair enough - you're not completely wrong, looking at it from a wider perspective.

I can't see that ever happening however - the majority of relatively wealthy people are unlikely to ever accept a reduction in their wealth even if it solves climate change, world hunger, whatever.
People want to see an easy solution that doesn't affect them directly. Much more likely is the rise of the far right, riots, etc.

this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
156 points (98.1% liked)

World News

39371 readers
2428 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS