Anyone considering buying a leather bag or pair of gloves from designer brands Prada, Mulberry, Louis Vuitton, Aspinals of London and Samsonite could be forgiven for assuming that paying such high prices might mean avoiding the exploitation and abuse for which high street fashion is renowned.

Action at DESA However, as Turkish workers at the DESA factory in Turkey could tell you, the reality is very different. Long hours, low wages and appalling conditions are the norm and for the last six months the factory has been running a campaign of harassment and intimidation against the union they formed to stand up for their rights.

In April 2008, hundreds of workers at Turkish leather manufacturer, DESA, which produces for these brands along with British designers Nicole Fahri and Luella, decided to join Deri Is, the Turkish leather workers union. Since then 44 workers have been dismissed and a further 55 have been forced to resign from the union.

Workers have been fighting this denial of their right to organise through daily demonstrations outside the DESA factory in the Düzce Industrial Zone, facing constant repression and arrest from the local gendarmes. Emine Arslan, a union leader from another DESA factory in İstanbul(Sefaköy), was offered a bribe to drop her case against DESA and to end the demonstrations outside the factory. When she refused her family was threatened. Hours later her 11 year old daughter narrowly escaped an attempted kidnap by men on a motorbike.
Read more: A worker's story: Emine Arslan

It’s clear that very little of the huge sums of money customers are paying for the luxury items produced at DESA go to workers. All earn poverty wages, work long hours, and suffer from a variety of health complaints linked to poor health and safety conditions. They complain that there are not enough toilets for all the workers and those that exist are filthy. The only drinking water is from a hose on the toilet floor. The food provided from the factory is poor quality, and without the facilities for nursing or minding children many have to give up their work once they become mothers.<br>

Read more:DESA: Working conditions

DESA produces goods for lots of European and North American brands. Most have been contacted by the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) and/or the Clean Clothes Campaign over recent months. None have taken the action needed to ensure DESA workers get the rights to which all workers are entitled. Please take action now and urge these luxury brands to uphold DESA workers right to organise

Feb 2009 update,DESA: More talk, still no action