The Observer has a story out how clothes destined for Americans malls just in time for the holidays are being made with child 'slave' labor in India.
Child workers, some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined for Gap Kids, one of the most successful arms of the high street giant.
Speaking to The Observer, the children described long hours of unwaged work, as well as threats and beatings.
Yes, you read that right, unwaged work, these kids weren't even being paid!
This is nothing new for The Gap who has severed contracts in the past year alone with 23 suppliers for work place abuses. In 2004 The Gap launched a 'social audit' and terminated contracts with 136 suppliers:
In 2004, when it launched its social audit, it admitted that forced labour, child labour, wages below the minimum wage, physical punishment and coercion were among abuses it had found at some factories producing garments for it. It added that it had terminated contracts with 136 suppliers as a consequence.
As the holiday shopping blitz approaches let keep in mind what Professor Sheotaj Singh, co-founder of the DSV, or Dayanand Shilpa Vidyalaya, a Delhi-based rehabilitation center and school for rescued child workers, has to say:
'It is obvious what the attraction is here for Western conglomerates,' he told The Observer. 'The key thing India has to offer the global economy is some of the world's cheapest labour, and this is the saddest thing of all the horrors that arise from Delhi's 15,000 inadequately regulated garment factories, some of which are among the worst sweatshops ever to taint the human conscience.
'Consumers in the West should not only be demanding answers from retailers as to how goods are produced but looking deep within themselves at how they spend their money.'
There are only two companies that make clothes in the US and they are All American Clothing and Justice Clothing. If anyone knows of any others please post. Mindful play has posted this link to a list of companies that support fair trade practices and living wages. Bob oak has listed this site as a place to buy American and jersey joe has posted this link where you can buy the DVD, 'Stolen Childhood', a frightening look at children around the world working in slave like conditions.
Corporations know of only one thing and that is making a profit, if consumers stop buying from companies known to support slave labor, then they will start to lose money, then they will listen and change their ways. Consumers have all the power. Is it that Americans don't care that their clothes are being made with slave labor or is it that they don't know?
We vote everyday with our wallets, we make a statement with the things we spend our money on, we are saying that we approve if we buy clothes made from The Gap and numerous other corporations who have supported slave wage labor.
Here is a list of organizations working to rid the world of sweatshop labor and to promote a more just global market place:
Sweat Free Communities
Peace Through Interamerican Community Action
The National Labor Committee
United Students Against Sweatshops
The Workers Rights Consortium
Maquila Solidarity Network
Union Label and Service Trades Department AFL-CIO
Behind the Label
National Mobilization Against Sweatshops
Sweatshop Watch
Clean Clothes Campaign
InterReligious Task Force on educating and advocating human rights
Misscee has some excellent links on where to shop in the comments:
http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/...
http://www.sweatfree.org/...
http://www.unionhouse.com/
http://www.zebulonusa.com/...
http://www.earthcreations.net/...
http://www.buddysjeans.com/
http://www.jeans-blue.com/
http://www.globalgirlfriend.com/
http://www.modestapparelusa.com/
http://www.athleticappeal.com/
http://www.prompartydress.com/
Please spread this list of organizations around, support some of them financially if you are able. On behalf of the children in India and all over the globe who are laboring under horrible conditions, let's do what we can to stop this.
UPDATE: dengre who has done so much work on the sweatshops of the Northern Mariana Islands works with this group, Co-op America, economic action for a just planet, that publishes the national green pages the nations only directory of screened and approved green businesses. The site also lists a responsible shopper link where you can buy from socially responsible companies.
Update II: The News of the World paper is the one that travelled to India and they have more on the horrific exploitation of these kids:
After talking to frightened youngsters as they laboured to produce goods in time for the lucrative Christmas season, we can reveal they are:
FORCED to work without pay for up to 19 hours a day in the stifling heat.
BEATEN with a rubber pipe if they cry or protest.
KEPT in stinking, poorly-lit sweatshops running with raw sewage and
BRANDED with tattoos which bond them to their greedy bosses.
They have also have pictures that show:
Their shabby four-storey unit is smeared in filth, its corridors covered in excrement from a flooded latrine.
Here is how one child describes the conditions:
Another child— JIVAJ, from West Bengal, who looks about 12—wept as he told us: "Our hours are hard and violence is used if we don't work hard enough.
"This is a big order for abroad, they keep telling us. Last week we spent four days working from dawn until about one in the morning next day.
"I was so tired I felt sick. If any of us cry we are hit with a rubber pipe. Some boys had oily cloths stuffed in their mouths." A third boy, MANIK, who is also on "probation" and working for free, claims to be 13 but looks far younger. He said: "I want to work here. I have somewhere to sleep at night."
Looking cautiously behind him, he added: "The boss tells me I am learning. It is my duty to stay here.
There has been disagreement in the comments on whether or not the Gap is a good company. Here is a link to their website where they detail their Social Responsibilty Report. Comments have also made it known that the Gap has:
- During the Califonia fires they paid all their retail employees for the days their stores were closed.
- After Hurricane Katrina they had a directive from the top that every Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy employee would be accounted for. They gave priority for job openings to displaced workers. On the advice of social workers and other experts they designed a program to send thousands of displaced kids in ten cities on shopping sprees at Old Navy stores. I did some work on this project and it was the most incredible thing I have ever worked on.
- They're a founding sponsor of project(red), the effort founded by Bono that is sending millions of dollars to Africa.
- The Gap Foundation has been giving away millions every year for 30 years.
The Gap should be applauded for terminating contracts with suppliers when they see this sort of abuse and for trying hard to be socially responsible, but I think they can and should go a step further. Why contract out at all? Why not build their own factory and make the people in other countries their employees? If the Gap came out with a marketing blitz on this and explained why their clothes are now costing a little bit more, I'd bet their profits would increase. People are hungry for leaders on this and the Gap has a good opportunity to turn this PR disaster into a positive for them.