Sweatshop Bill Approved, Awaits Governor’s Decision; L.A. Union Rally Planned

A bill aimed at cracking down on the latest proliferation of garment sweatshops in the Orange and Los Angeles counties is heading to Gov. George Deukmejian’s desk.

The International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union announced Friday that it would stage a rally in the Los Angeles garment district next week calling on the governor to approve the bill.

On Thursday, the Senate approved the bill 21 to 12, the minimum required for passage. The measure, sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-West Los Angeles), would make designer-name, garment-industry sweatshops, which employ underage children and immigrants at sub-minimum wages, responsible for labor abuses committed by their independent suppliers.

The bill was introduced in March after a series of articles in The Times revealed that many independent contractors still run sweatshops paying as little as $1.45 an hour to children and immigrants, including Southeast Asians relocating to such Orange County communities as Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Westminster.

Under provisions of the bill, name-brand clothing manufacturers would be held “jointly liable” for labor and safety violations committed by their subcontractors, many of whom pay immigrant children and women by the piece of clothing sewn in their homes or in crowded, fire-prone shops.

Depending on the complexity of the job and the speed of the stitcher, the piece rate often translates into less than the California minimum wage of $4.25 an hour.

Hayden had predicted that his bill would pass the Legislature and said the biggest test would be whether Deukmejian would sign it into law.

Linda Kerrigan, a spokesman for the Department of Industrial Relations, which is responsible for state labor-law enforcement, said the agency has remained neutral through the legislative debate and has not yet decided whether to recommend that the governor sign or veto the bill.

Steve Nutter, regional director for the garment workers’ union, on Friday called the bill “more of a human rights issue than a labor issue.” He said the union will seek a meeting with the governor to urge him to approve the measure.

The bill’s passage comes as the Industrial Relations Department, whose budget for labor-law enforcement has already been slashed, faces another $7-million shortfall as a result of the current budget crisis, a situation, Nutter said, that opens the door to rampant abuses.

“I would imagine the amount of time actually spent doing garment industry enforcement is small indeed, much smaller than 10 years ago,” Nutter added.