Who Are Apparel Industry ‘Good Guys’?

I am amazed that the U.S. Department of Labor is naive enough to believe that by printing a list of so-called “good guys” the consumer would even react to it (“U.S. Plans List of Clothes Makers, Retailers That Obey Labor Laws,” Nov. 3).

What is the definition of a good guy? If you consider the companies they probably will list, many will be firms that were cited for labor violations of one form or another. In order to restore their operations, they were motivated to sign documentation that required them to agree to labor compliance monitoring. So basically, by the U.S. Department of Labor definition, all of the old “bad guys” are now the “good guys.”

What about all of those law-abiding companies that never broke any laws to begin with and always supported the mandates of our country? Will we see them on the “good guy” list? Doubtful. In fact these companies will once again be painted with the same broad brush of generalization. The idea that a law-abiding company that does not have the need for compliance monitoring will more than likely be left off the “good guy” list offers just one more example of misguided politics. There seems to be more of an interest in calling attention to the poster children of the U.S. Department of Labor than there is in the honest businessman.

Also, will we see importers on the good guy list? More than likely. It seems that if you perpetrate labor abuses on other continents, it doesn’t count. Out of sight, out of mind. It’s all right to support labor abuse as long as its not in our back yard.

The challenge for the industry and both state and federal agencies is to find resolutions to problems by working together. Using the media as some form of exploitation accomplishes nothing but to create animosity in an already tense environment.

BERNARD LAX

President

Coalition of Apparel Industries

in California