Campaign against

CAMPAIGN AGAINST SWEATSHOPS
(Labor Notes, July 1996)

  More than 40 unions and community groups have joined with UNITE! and the National Consumer league to form the Partnership for Responsibility, an organization working to expose sweatshop conditions of U.S. firms, both hero and abroad.
  Department stores often contract out garment production to shops that operats under horrendous conditions. The strategy of the coalition is to educate consumers about who makes the garments and under what conditions Organizers hope that if consumers boycott stores that sell sweat shop-produced goods, retailers will require producers to stop using sweat hop labor.
  On the legislative side, the coalition is working to strengthen the Fair Labor Standards Act to attach legal liability for unpaid wages to retailers or manufacturers who contract with illegal sweatshops.   The current target is typical of the garment industry Dillard's, an upscale department store, carries tho products of the Renaissance apparel firm. Renaissance has contracted work to Martin Fashions.
  Martin employees worked more than 10 hours a day with no benefits until February, when tho shop closed. That left 36 workers, whose wages were already a lard, pocketed $2 million last year. The Partnership is asking that letters protesting the use of sweatshop labor be sent to William Dillard, Chairman and CEO, 1600 Cantrell Rd., Little Rock, AR 72201.

For additional information on the campaign, contact UNITE! at 212/819-0959.

Home page