Introduction

   In total there are about 8634 factories in the UK. There was always a big demand for workers who were willing to work long hours and sometimes under difficult circumstances. Some factories would employ up to 60,000 people if we look back in time. However, how much of a coincidence would it be if immigrants from the same city in the same country were to meet in one of those factories? That is what I am trying to portray in my images of the 12 individuals who are now legally residing in the UK. These 8 women and 3 men were working in a factory located in Peterborough, UK. Without any previous planning or close relations they all ended up in the same factory sometimes working up to 16 hours a day. This factory, “Action Pack”, employed approximately 40 individuals with a ratio of about 3:1, men being the majority. These individuals did not previously communicate even though they were all from a city called Silute located in Lithuania. All of them met each other between the dates 2000 - 2003. They are now close friends and stay in contact this shows how a coincidence can be very meaningful. Their story is a heart-breaking one, it is a bond between very similar people, who were illegal at the time they met and were employed in this particular factory. However, all worked for the purposes of providing for their families, struggled through hardships and being shockingly underpaid to work in order to survive.

 Incidents that occurred whilst working in the Factory:

An employee got let go because she wanted to finish her work faster in order to get paid more to provide for her family, Quote: “I got fired because the manager told us to go on a break, I only had 4 magazines left to pack up to finish off a full palette and asked for an extra 2 minutes to finish it.”

Due to long hours of working an employee dislocated her toe and had to endure surgery. It was a result of heavy lifting.

They also received sanctions similar to children. They were told to not disobey any orders; in the case that they do disobey they will be placed on unpaid suspensions for up to two weeks. This caused many problems with bills being paid let or sometimes not having enough money to pay at all.

They even endured negligence resulting in one employee taking legal action and receiving compensation. Approximately between £1000 - £2000 was received for the damages that were caused whilst working in the factory.

Women suffered the most in the long term. They sustaining a number of mental and physical problems, such as; numb and swollen feet, legs and hands as well as extreme back pain and verbal abuse.