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No Time for Labor Day
[Column 353, September 5, 2005] | Archived
Columns
By Ken Suggs*
Thanks to a Congressional act passed in 1894, most of us in the United
States enjoy a day off from work on Labor Day. But in developing nations
around the globe, the first Monday of September is just another day:
Tens of millions of people report to factory jobs early in the morning
and return home after 10 at night; most of them earning less than
50 cents an hour.
The good news is that most export assembly factories (places that
produce garments and sneakers, for example) no longer rely on young
children to make their products. That turn-around is due largely to
a workers' rights group called the National Labor Committee.
In 1996, the National Labor Committee (NLC) uncovered sweatshop conditions
at a Honduran factory where children were making a Kathie Lee Gifford
clothing line destined for Wal-Mart stores.
"That exposé jump-started the anti-sweatshop movement
in the United States," says Charles Kernaghan, executive director
of the NLC. "We met with workers in Honduras and they turned
out to be teens...making 31 cents an hour. Now everyone has learned,
you just don't do that."
Kernaghan explains that 96 percent of the clothes we have in the
U.S. are not made here. They are imported from what is called the
"developing world" -- nations in which U.S. clothing manufacturers
can find factories to produce their clothing as cheaply as possible.
Prior to the Kathie Lee Gifford/Wal-Mart scandal, the majority of
garment factories in the developing world relied on child labor.
"There were 100,000 children alone, working just in Bangladesh.
That story ended the use of child [garment] laborers," says Kernaghan.
Unfortunately, the squalid factory conditions and substandard pay
still exist. A Dateline NBC program that aired in June revealed garment
workers sewing clothes for Wal-Mart earning 13 to 17 cents an hour.
Since that program aired, the NLC has called on Wal-Mart to pay its
overseas workers an extra 20 cents an hour.
"Wal Mart is the largest corporation, and they will set the
standard for the industry," says Kernaghan.
He explains that manufacturers bargain with overseas factory owners
to get a garment made as cheaply as possible so that it can be sold
in the U.S. for as little as possible. Kernaghan calls this practice
"predatory pricing" or the "race to the bottom."
And, as a result of such pricing, workers' wages are reduced to mere
pennies.
The NLC would like anti-sweatshop legislation introduced in and enacted
by the U.S. Congress to guarantee legal protections for workers. According
to the NLC, corporations demand—and have—laws to protect
their trademarks and products, but there are no laws to protect the
rights of the 16-year-old girl who made those products.
In the United States, a strong civil justice system helps protect
people who are injured through no fault of their own, or who are taken
advantage of by corporations, or who are victims of unfair labor practices.
But workers in most foreign nations have no such legal system to protect
them. These are the legal protections for American families and workers
that some special interests seek to limit or eliminate in the name
of "legal reform."
Kernaghan says the proposed legislation is based on an existing law
that went into effect after Burlington Coat Factory sold coats made
with dog fur from China.
"If we can save animals, can't we also save humans?" asks
Kernaghan. "Such a law would be a turning point."
Kernaghan says, "We want a sales ban. Then we can catch the
sweatshops in the U.S., too. We have the strongest voice in the global
economy and we are in the best position to move forward. Someone has
to take the lead."
Resources:
National Labor Committee: www.nlcnet.org
Workers Rights Consortium: www.workersrights.org
Sweatshop Watch: www.sweatshopwatch.org
*Ken Suggs, president of the American Association for Justice, is a partner in the Columbia, SC, law firm of Janet, Jenner
& Suggs.
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