SWEATSHOP WORKERS WIN LONG FIGHT WITH JESSICA McCLINTOCK
(Labor Notes, May 1996)
In an historic victory with far reaching implications for sweatshop workers in the U.S., Asian Immigrant Women Advocates has won a three year dispute with millionaire fashion designerJessica McClintock. The settlement includes:
Back wages for laid-off garment workers who made clothes for McClintock;
- A garment workers education fund and scholarships for students and garment workers;
- An outreach campaign with state literature to inform garment workers of their rights;
- A toll-free hotline in English and Cantonese monitored by the Department of Labor that can be used to report abuses of wage and working conditions laws.
Under terms of the agreement neither party can release information about the dollar amounts, but expert sources estimate that 12 laid-off garment workers received a total of at least $10,000.
AIWA launched the Garment Workers Justice Campaign in 1993 after a subcontractor called Lucky Sewine Co. declared bankruptcy. Lucky's workers, many of whom were owed several months of back wages, were left high and dry.
The Lucky workers went to AIWA, which at the time was primarily a service organization for Asian immigrant women. AIWA director Young Shin agreed to help them get redress from McClintock. Lucky Sewing made expensive high-fashion dresses for McClintock; AIWA argued that McClintock had a moral responsibility to reimburse the workers even though the company was not legally liable.
"LET THEM EAT LACE"
McClintock refused to even consider the workers' demands and counter-attacked with a barrage of public relations after AIWA started picketing McClintock's retail outlets.
AIWA began a creative, multifaceted campaign in cities across the country, which included several fullpage ads in the New York Times that painted McClintock as a heartless Marie Antoinette saying to the starving workers, "Let Them Eat Lace."
The break in the campaign came last fall, when the Department of Labor published a list of "Fair Labor Fashions Trendsetters." These are corporations that are, according to the Department of Labor, notable for their commitment to upholding worker protections.
McClintock was on the list. Although AIWA staff and organizers would not discuss the campaign, citing the delicate nature of discussions with McClintock, it appears that AIWA notified the DOL of the Garment Workers Justice Campaign and of the glaring contradiction between McClintock's verbal commitment to worker protections and the company's use of sweatshop labor.
Faced with the prospect of being taken off the list - and suffering far greater negative publicity than AIWA could ever generate - McClintock decided to give in.
"This is a fantastic victory for garment workers everywhere," said one garment industry labor expert who asked not to be named. "This means that corporations can be held accountable for the actions of their subcontractors."
(by John Anner)
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