UNITE to NYC garment factory: You underpaid workers about $5 million

July 24th, 2008 | By Kelsey | No Comments »

The garment industry in the U.S. started in the north-east, followed cheaper labor overseas, and eventually, for the most part, jumped our borders. I know that LA is still (in)famous for its garment factories, but I had no idea that the needles were still thumping away in NYC.

These factories haven’t slipped beneath UNITE’s radar. From UNITE’s recent press release:

“This latest investigation shows that horrible sweatshop working conditions are still present in New York City and that the apparel industry is still not taking this issue seriously,” said Bruce Raynor, General President of UNITE HERE, the apparel and textile workers union. “The major apparel brands that were using this factory all have social responsibility systems that have failed to detect this major sweatshop operation.”

The factory that was recently cited, Jin Shun in Long Island City, NY, has operated under a number of different names, and was found to have underpaid more than 100 workers over several years. The Department of Labor stated that the contractor kept false records and coached its workers to lie to inspectors. The investigation also revealed that workers routinely worked twelve-hour days, six to seven days-a-week.

Not to belittle a workday of 12-hours or anything, but my dad has been working 12-hours six to seven days a week for about 35 years. Poor fella. Although, I suspect he pays himself a little better than what the workers at the Jin Shun get paid.

The USA is a pucker and China is a hemorrhoid

July 23rd, 2008 | By Kelsey | No Comments »

I had someone email me today asking about where our clothes come from. Here’s the short answer: 97% come from outside of the U.S., mostly from China.

And here’s that answer visually, courtesy of worldmapper:

The map is accompanied with this interesting tid bit:

Of all earnings from international trade, 7% is earned from clothing exports.

Ohio companies selling sweatshop wares to state

July 16th, 2008 | By Kelsey | No Comments »

It’s not everyday underwear workers in Bangladesh make the news in Ohio, but there are exceptions:

This story in the Hudson Times

Of all of the Anti-sweatshop movements, I think protesting against how the government spends their money is the most effective. Voters should have a say where their money goes. Besides, if anyone should support American business it’s the government.

The main champions of this cause are the passionate folks at Sweatfree Communities.

A confession…

July 12th, 2008 | By Kelsey | 3 Comments »

I just bought a 5-pack of OneDerWear disposable boxers. If you’re wondering why (which you should be) be patient. You’ll find out in a month or so after I conduct some uber-serious journalism.

Patagonia makes factory list public

July 10th, 2008 | By Kelsey | No Comments »

Way to go Patagonia. If only I could afford more of your products.

Jennifer Love’s Sweatshops

July 6th, 2008 | By Kelsey | No Comments »

United Students Against Sweatshop takes Jennifer Love Hewitt to task. Here’s an excerpt from the story on ABC News:

“We respect your accomplished career as an actor,” USAS says to Hewitt in an open letter posted on the site’s home page. “As a spokesperson for Hanes, however, you are selling products made in unsafe factories overseas where women are abused.” The group calls on Hewitt to “stop selling Hanes sweatshop underwear.”

Here’s the Jennifer Love’s Sweatshops website USAS built. The website which pictures the People magazine of a not-so skinny Hewitt demanding “Stop calling me fat!” is set next to a magazine titled Worker with a garment worker demanding, “Stop starving me!”

The picture comes with this Note:

This quote is not attributable to an actual Hanes sweatshop worker and the photo shown is not of a Hanes sweatshop worker; neither the quote nor the photograph should be taken literally. Rather, they are presented as art to draw attention to the abusive conditions that workers making Hanes garments are enduring. Substantial information is available on this website and on the internet demontrating that some Hanes workers are subjected to violations of basic worker and human rights. For more information click here.

I feel sorry for both Hewitt and the workers in the Dominican Republic that, according to the website, are subjected to “verbal harassment, forced and under-compensated overtime, failure to pay night employees correctly for severance and vacation, the coercion of workers’ to sign statements giving up the right to complain about the company’s scheduling practices, and egregious violations of workers’ rights to unionize.”

(In the interest of full disclosure, I’m wearing a pair of Comfort Soft Waistband Hanes boxers, right now. They are the most comfortable underwear I’ve ever worn, although, devoid of cartoons, they lack a little in the humor department.)

Nike’s Marty McFly Hyperdunks take sneaker lovers Back to the Future

June 25th, 2008 | By Kelsey | No Comments »

From myairshoes.com:

Nike will finally answer the cries of millions of sneaker fans- after years of waiting, speculating and begging - as it releases the Marty McFly Hyperdunks in limited quantities…Although not exactly the same as the ones worn by Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, these McFly-inspired Hyperdunks may be the closest McFly fans will ever get to the mythological pair.

Really? Sneaker Fans have been crying for Marty McFly Hyperdunks? I’ll admit it, I’ve dreamed of purchasing a Delorean and I even took up skateboarding (until the first fall) after seeing the original Back to the Future, but this is taking Back to the Future fandom a little too far.

What, no power laces?

Sweatshop-Free Obama Onesie

June 14th, 2008 | By Kelsey | No Comments »

Yes, it really exists.

NorthFace, CAFTA, and Eddie Bauer under attack

June 3rd, 2008 | By Kelsey | No Comments »

The headline of the National Labor Committee’s Press Release:

Salvadoran Women Sewing $165 Jackets for The North Face and $54 Shirts for Eddie Bauer Cannot Afford Milk for their Children

The jacket in question is NorthFace’s uber-popular Denali jacket. I own one. Here’s me modeling next to my friend Sange in Nepal…

The NLC is calling for a 50% wage increase that would allow “The workers and their families (to climb) out of misery and at least into poverty.” Companies in Central America and Mexico are already having trouble competing with their Asian counterparts. It would be great if they could increase the worker’s wage and still compete, but it’s not likely. I’m guessing the end of the industry in El Salvador is nearing. Rumor is that the industry might jump to Bangladesh where instead of paying workers 94-cents an hour the workers get paid about that much in a day.

Related Post: My NorthFace shorts

In defense of Sweatshops

June 3rd, 2008 | By Kelsey | 2 Comments »

Benjamin Powell, Assistant Professor of Economics at Suffolk University, is coming to the defense of sweatshops. In this article he makes several arguments:

- we need to look at jobs in the garment industry in the context of their countries’ economies
- Fighting for workers’ rights alone will lead to the unemployment of workers
- Workers’ rights can only improve if worker efficiency and productivity improves

Here’s an excerpt:

Should Kathy Lee have cried? Her Honduran workers earned 31 cents per day. At 10 hours per day, which is not uncommon in a sweatshop, a worker would earn $3.10. Yet nearly a quarter of Hondurans earn less than $1 per day and nearly half earn less than $2 per day.
Wendy Diaz’s message should have been, “Don’t cry for me, Kathy Lee. Cry for the Hondurans not fortunate enough to work for you.” Instead the U.S. media compared $3.10 per day to U.S. alternatives, not Honduran alternatives. But U.S. alternatives are irrelevant. No one is offering these workers green cards.

This graph shows that most apparel workers earn more than the average person in their country.

I agree that in most of these countries there are much worse ways of trying to make a living, but I’m not so sure about his numbers. Not that I know what the numbers should be, but that’s my point, no one can. He even admits to his assumption:

Data on actual hours worked were not available. Therefore, we provided earnings estimates based on various numbers of hours worked. Since one characteristic of sweatshops is long working hours, we believe the estimates based on 70 hours pr week are the most accurate.

I met workers that worked much longer than 70 hours per week, but didn’t get paid for more than 50. Numbers, like Chinese labor laws, are often pointless. Unless you do extensive worker interviews and studies, I don’t think there is anyway to obtain accurate estimation of wages paid or hours worked in most garment sectors

I’m not a big fan of the way he dismisses the passion of the anti-sweatshop movement. He talks like Charles Kernaghan, arguably the father of the modern movement, is a puppet of US protectionism. As if, Kernaghan’s fight for the workers around the world is a charade for his actual intention of preserving what’s left of the American apparel industry.

Powell’s essential argument is sweatshops are good. The anti-sweatshop movement’s argument is that sweatshops are bad.

In my opinion they’re both wrong.