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Labor Round-Up

By Suzanne Lee

No more underwear from Burma

Sara Lee, a top seller of intimate apparel in the United States with nearly $17.5 billion dollars in annual revenues and owners of Hanes, Hanes Her Way, Leggs, and Just My Size brands has ceased allowing production of its garments in Burma.

“Sara Lee is a model for what we would like to see from corporations. Their response was swift and honest,” Jeremy Woodrum, Washington DC director of the Free Burma Coalition (FBC), said.

FBC found Hanes Her Way and Hanes University clothing made in Burma in Ames department stores and posted the information on the FBC Web site. In a letter to FBC dated August 31, 2001 Sara Lee Vice President and Chief Counsel Melvin L. Ortner wrote, “We want the Free Burma Coalition to know that production in Burma violates both our Global Operating Principles and our Supplier Selection Guidelines... two of our licensees did use Burma facilities in direct violation of their contract with us... We have taken immediate steps with both licensees to confirm that neither will make our product in Burma again.”

A coalition of U.S.-based non-governmental organizations and labor unions, including the FBC, Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network, and Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights, have called on U.S. corporations to stop importing from Burma. This comes in response to evidence from the International Labor Organization that the country’s military regime is responsible for horrific human rights abuses, including “a modern form of slave labor.”

Sara Lee’s move follows a string of recent decisions by U.S. corporations against Burma’s military regime from using profits from the garment industry to perpetuate abuses. The U.S. State Department, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International all condemn the regime’s human rights record.

“Sara Lee’s Hanes licensees were caught with their pants down, and we commend Sara Lee for ending its support for Burma’s military regime by stopping its licensees from producing Sara Lee products in Burma,” Woodrum said.

Or Pots

Pottery Barn, a home furnishings store owned by San Francisco-based company, William Sonoma, has also broken off all business ties with the country of Burma.

“Because of the human rights situation in Burma, it is a priority for [Pottery Barn] to make sure that our international activities adhere to our corporate values,” Tracy Brown, director of public relations for Pottery Barn, said.

A coalition of U.S.-based consumer organizations, labor unions, and human rights groups became concerned about ties to Burma’s regime after the National Labor Committee (NLC) obtained shipping data showing Williams Sonoma imported items worth $321,548 from Burma last year. FBC members subsequently found items from Burma for sale in Pottery Barn stores in Washington D.C. and had planned a nation-wide day of protest in front of Pottery Barn stores in six different U.S. cities, including San Francisco’s Castro location.

Two letters to the FBC explained that Pottery Barn has removed products made in Burma from its store shelves, catalogue, and on-line store, and that the company has adopted a policy against placing any new orders from the country. The letter also read that the company continues to produce a line of products called “The Martaban Collection” so named for a major gulf off of Burma in the Andaman Sea, but that all items are non-Myanmar-made products.

“Companies like Williams Sonoma are beginning to realize that doing business in Burma helps perpetuate forced labor and misery,” said Charles Kernaghan of the NLC. “Fortunately, Williams Sonoma is saying ‘no’ to the military dictatorship of Burma.”

Williams Sonoma is the twentieth company to end business with Burma during the past fourteen months on account of human rights abuses, joining other retailers such as Wal-Mart, Costco, TJ Maxx, Fila, IKEA, and Perry Ellis.

However, many companies continue to import from Burma or allow goods from Burma to be sold in their stores, including Ames and Macy’s.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose political party won Burma’s 1990 democratic election and were later annulled by the ruling military regime, has called for companies to stay away from Burma until “rule of law and basic democratic institutions” are in place.

“We need to go after the retailers and investors such as UNOCOL that help to prop up the dictatorship in Burma,” said Shannon Wolfe of Global Exchange.

Forever 21 Uses Sweatshop Labor

Forever 21, a popular retailer of women’s and teenage clothing, faces an outcry from the Los Angeles garment community regarding its sweatshop conditions. Nineteen garment workers from six of Forever 21 factories have banded together for a public campaign in demand of not only back wages, but also the improvement of health and safety conditions and respectful treatment from the owners.

“We worked ten to twelve hours a day for sub-minimum wages and no overtime,” Esperanza Hernandez, one of the garment workers, said. “A lot of our factories were dirty and unsafe, with rats and cockroaches running around.”

Joann Lo from Garment Worker Center says the owners of Forever 21 have stated that they are not responsible because the workers worked for contract factories and not directly for Forever 21. However, under the California Assembly Bill 633, manufacturers are held responsible for factory conditions.

With the help of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the workers filed a complaint on Sept. 6 with the Los Angeles Superior Court. The nineteen different defendants named include Forever 21’s president/co-founding husband and wife team of Do Won Chang and Jin Sook Chang and the contract sweatshops and their owners.

The complaint states, “typically laboring six days a week, nine to twelve hours a day, Plaintiffs were routinely denied their legal wages while producing clothing bearing the ‘Forever 21’ label.”

They are currently awaiting a response from Forever 21.

The fight against sweatshop conditions continues as protestors pass out leaflets in front of Forever 21 stores. Forever 21 has 92 stores around the country, including seven in the Bay Area.

“The response from the shoppers has been very positive. They are surprised and want to know what else they can do to help,” Lo said.

Go to www.sweatshopwatch.org for more information on how you can help.