Sweatshops:  An Ugly Stain on American Fashion

Neil Kearney 
General Secretary 
International Textile, Garment and
Leather Workers' Federation

Neil Kearney:
The reality today is that most of the 30 Million jobs in the
fashion industry around the world are low paid, inferred and
often based in expert processing zones where worker rights are
usually suppressed.  Wages are frequently below the existence
level and falling in real terms.  Over time it is increasingly
obligatory and often unpaid.  Billions of children are employed. 
Management by terror is the norm in many countries.  Workers are
routinely shoved, beaten, kicked, even when pregnant.  Attempts
to unionize are met with the utmost brutality, sometimes with
murder.