A freelance journalist has caught the GAP using child labor to produce hand embroidered clothing for its GAP Kids line. The children, who are as young as 10, are quoted as saying they were sold to the factory by their families and cannot leave until their debt is paid. A video of the factory’s squalid conditions shows GAP Kids labels on the clothing.
“There was an overflowed latrine. Bowls of rice covered in mosquitoes. Quite a putrid smell inside the sweatshop,” says Dan McDougall, the freelance reporter.
What are the odds that the GAP is right now, at this moment, “taking this seriously?”
From CBS 5:
“At Gap, we firmly believe that under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.
“These allegations are deeply upsetting and we take this situation very seriously. All of our suppliers and their sub-contractors are required to guarantee that they will not use child labour to produce garments.
“It is clear that one of our vendors violated this agreement, and a full investigation is under way.”
Child labor is a huge problem in India, where millions of children work in factories. The GAP says it requires its subcontractors to guarantee that they will not use child labor, and that it fired 23 factories last year for violations of its policies. Obviously, they needed to fire at least 24.
SF-Based Gap Severs Ties With Child Sweatshop [CBS 5] (Thanks, Andre, humphrmi, Douglas, and Maria!)
Busted: Gap Sweatshop Videos Cause Uproar [ABC 7]
(Photo:ABC7)
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I am an American designer and manufacture in NYC. Do you all have the same “buy American” attitude when looking at my price tags? It seems to be politically correct to criticize those damn designers with their high prices — until a story like this comes along. Look, my prices aren’t artificially inflated — I WANT my prices lower as they equal more sales. But because I pay my employes well and use only legit factories in NYC, my prices have to be high just to (barely) break even. The next time you make a purchase, please consider than the more expensive garment (made in USA) by a small design company may be the right choice.
@mattatwork: Yes!
Instead of “It is clear that one of our vendors violated this agreement, and a full investigation is under way.”
It should be ‘It is clear that we failed at monitoring our vendors to the detriment of innocent children, and a change in our practices is under way.’
I wonder, as part of their full investigation, what will happen to the kids?
Something that was missing from above: GAP has canceled the order from the Indian sweat shop and yank the clothing.
For kids, by kids. This was an onion video (www.theonion.com) and it is so perfect now.
Not to play devil’s advocate, but as much as the practice of child/slave labour is abhorrent, sometimes it’s better than the alternative (say brothels). These children are so poor that they are not likely to be going to school or eating well any time soon, this might actually be a better alternative.
The problem now is that, instead of working with its contractor to provide child care/education for the children and employ the parents (or whatever), GAP will simply cancel their contract with this unknown sweatshop, who will then either fire everyone and go out of business, or get another western contract and continue doing exactly the same thing. It’s not like GAP is actually going to pay their contractors MORE to make their clothing, they’ll still look for the lowest bidder to replace this contractor.
I don’t want to blame anyone for this. Eventually human nature degrades us all. You can blame Gap, India, the factory owners, but in the end you’re not helping the situation. Gap, and similar companies, are cutting off business to people who participate in these practices, thus putting them out of business and forcing them to start over legitimately. I thank them for that, and any faults that they have I’m sure you and I could both match in our own past actions…
Gap or Wal-mart or any other and even an exporter who supplies would not know the involvement of child labor in stitching garments, as is hidden practice and media takes advantage for its publicity. Media does not care the reasons or does not wish to highlight reasons and issues of child labor. Shame on such Media or organizations those do not highlight solutions to child labor eradication rather expose for own advantage. [www.sadashivan.com] Number of child prostitution and street children are increasing each day, each month and each year. Arresting child labor in factories in several countries have opened numerous fields for young children to opt alternate ways of sourcing money. New fields like pornography, sex tourism, plastic items, plastic bags and garbage collection, begging in streets, pick pocketing. Check video how children perform acrobat in streets and roadside. [www.youtube.com]
The best practice for GAP, Wal*Mart, Ikea or other textile importers would be to establish own production units with dyeing, stitching machines, finishing and packing in rural village. Over 70% of tailors and garment workers migrate to urban cities to work for sub-contractors of garment or home furnishing exporters. Majority of them are either illiterate or semi-literate so don’t know what child labor ( [www.sadashivan.com] ) issue is? For them the issue is survival in expensive urban cities raising money for future life in their own village. Most important factor is that job is unstable so can not settle down at one place; move from one unit to another to get better wage as they are on wage per piece produced and wage decided by demand and supply. Under such circumstances, giving education in schools to children is not easy. For them education to their children is learning survival skill that children learn through child labor ( [www.sadashivan.com] ). For them child not only learns practical skill rather also earns for home. They find their children future more secured than the unemployed graduate in developing world. So they seek help of their children to contribute towards home. Nearly 80% of garment and home furnishing exporters get production done through sub-contractors (fabricators). For exporters having own unit in urban cities is presently not viable due to lack of sufficient finance or increased capacity to meet order quantity, labor issues and expensive affair. Most exporters of urban cities outsource their production from small unorganized stitching and embroidery, button-hole (kaj) units located in either unauthorized or poor residential areas of the cities. For illiterate or semi-literate sub-contractors such places are convenient and cheaper to operate. Such areas are beneficial to avoid government attention, escape labor laws and other benefits too to cut cost of production. A packed garment or home furnishing piece in the rack of a store of an importing country goes from many hands and stages from raw cotton, polyester or other fiber to finished and packing stage. If Garment export units are located in rural villages from where the workers migrate, would be of more help to them towards earning and avoiding children from child labor. Rather would help generating jobs in more areas of manufacturing accessories like; button, laces, threads, machine accessories, hand embroidery and etc;. Child labor ( [www.sadashivan.com] ) elimination depends on improving living standard of the parents. Avoiding contractors or subcontractors is minimizing extra cost would fetch more benefits to direct buyers and the garment workers. Finally, a unit with all manufacturing facility in rural village from weaving to packed shipment would fetch minimum 25% cost reduction. [www.sadashivan.com]
gap can say whatever they want. the bototm line is “they knew what was happening” and it would have continued if they had not of gotten caught! my husband works for a major tire company and within that company are the international groups that travel to other factories to make certain the performance of those workers is ethiical.
I guess I’ll have to add Gap to the list of retailers or name brands I no longer patronize. I do not want to wear, eat, or use items not made or purchased fairly. March 1st 2008 will be the fifth anniversary of a WalMart free lifestyle. To xxoo congratulations: advertise under the fair trade tag and you will get consumers like me who have a hard time reconciling a conscience with the business practices of today
Wow
They gave $200, 000.
Thats how much they spend to air 1 ANNOYING COMMERCIAL during prime time.
Seriously… THE GAP IS EVIL.
Here’s some food for thought, and I’m sure I will take a major tongue lashing for this, but I have to offer another perspecitive. Many of these places are third world or damn near close to it. If these children were not making clothes, they may be sold as prostitutes or worse God forbid. These places need the whole family to work and pitch in, as soon as they can. We need to take some responsibility ourselves if we started helping these countries become self sufficient, so that children could be children again. I am in no way justifying what is being done, but I do think it could be by far worse for them.
N guess what? Disney Land and Old Navy do it too!…