Updates, blog posts and events from THIRST
THIRST brings you a range of news, analysis and events to help you keep track of human rights and environmental developments in the tea industry around the world. These include announcements of new publications and events such as discussions on topical issues, monthly news updates and thought provoking blogs. We welcome news, guest blogs and suggestions of topics for future TEA Talks from all sections of the tea sector – but especially civil society.
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Blog post
THIRST’s Progress Report 2018-2021 out now
THIRST is delighted to share with you this record of our first three years of existence. We are grateful to all those who have helped shaped the journey so far […]
Monthly update
THIRST News Update – February 2022
Highlights: Finlays’ Kenyan employees win right to hear work injuries case in Scotland. India proposes new Tea Act as 1953 Act no longer reflects reality. Image: Press-TV: File photo shows […]
Monthly update
THIRST News Update – January 2022
Highlights: First Tea Transparency Tracker launched; female tea workers more vulnerable to violence; UN slavery rapporteur lambasts Sri Lankan tea workers’ conditions. Image: Herald Scotland THIRST News Two International Tea […]
Blog post
Happy International Tea Day! But is it…?
Happy International Tea Day! But is it…? Well, yes, kind of… The day that the UN designated International Tea Day in 2019 to “…promote and foster collective actions to implement […]
Monthly update
THIRST News Update – December 2021
Highlights: Unilever sells tea business to CVC amid worker welfare concerns and sustainability pledges; tea industry wakes up to urgency of climate crisis; workers continue to lobby for decent wages […]
Monthly update
THIRST News Update – November 2021
Highlights: Fury at Bangladeshi tea workers’ static wages; concerns that COVID-19 pressures will increase risk of forced labour; Finlays sued over tea workers’ back-injuries and quizzed over mechanical harvester operator […]
Monthly update
THIRST News Update – September/October 2021
Kenya’s radical proposal for tea price and income stabilisation fund. Indian gov set to amend 1953 Tea Act. Thriving Indian tea workers’ cooperative destroyed by commercial interests. Image: Sandip Saha. […]
Event
TEA Talk: Can tea and forests healthily co-exist?
Does tea cultivation have to mean the destruction of forests? And if forests are conserved how will communities that depend on them live? About this event As we get closer […]
Monthly update
Monthly update – August 2021
Companies step in as lives ruined by climate emergency & COVID-19. Experts debate woke-washing & certification. Workers fight on for decent wages, housing, job security. Children trafficked in Sri Lanka […]
Monthly update
Monthly Update – July 2021
Vaccinations reaching tea workers, but lockdowns still affecting work. Small tea growers from India to Kenya experiment with minimum prices. Kenyan tea mechinisation driving joblessness. Girl’s death highlights trafficking from […]
Blog post
Human Rights Impact Assessment of the Tea Sector
THIRST is conducting a human rights impact assessment of the tea sector. Working with civil society and industry across the world, it is exploring how the human rights of women […]
Monthly update
Monthly Update – June 2021
COVID-19 continues to plague India’s tea workers and impact global tea sales. Wage protests persist across several tea growing areas. Small tea growers in Kenya, Bangladesh & India struggle to […]