Retailers Assailed in Sweatshop Protest

More than six months after authorities raided a now-notorious sweatshop in El Monte, a coalition of labor, immigrant and other activist groups accused seven major retailer chains Friday of ignoring evidence that outlets sold millions of dollars in clothing produced under slave-like conditions.

“We’re calling for corporate responsibility toward consumers and toward the workers,” said Paul Lee of the Sweatshop Watch coalition, which issued a “retailers report card” at a news conference outside the Seventh Market Place on Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles.

The mall is home to outlets of two chains--Robinsons-May and Bullock’s--that are among the seven prestigious retailers given “failing” grades by the coalition. The other five are Sears, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Target and Montgomery Ward.

With the exception of Nordstrom, all the chains have previously been named by federal labor investigators as possible recipients of goods produced in the El Monte shop.

All seven chains strongly deny any wrongdoing and say suspect goods were either removed from their racks and shelves or never made it to their stores.

“We haven’t found anything at all to indicate we had any merchandise from there,” Sandra Salyer, vice president of Dayton Hudson Corp., said Friday.

Dayton Hudson is the parent company of Target, the discount chain, and also owns Mervyn’s, identified by state and federal authorities last year as a possible recipient of sweatshop-produced goods. Though Mervyn’s was not named by Sweatshop Watch, it is among a number of firms being sued for more than $5 million in back wages and damages by the former sweatshop workers.

The Sweatshop Watch activists said that Thai workers freed from the El Monte operation have identified sweatshop-produced clothing on sale at L.A.-area outlets of Robinsons-May and Sears. All seven retailers did business with Los Angeles-area vendors that acted as intermediaries with the sweatshop operators, purchasing clothing from El Monte and later selling to retail firms.

Accusing the retailers of a cover-up, the activists called on the chains to adopt a code of behavior drafted by Sweatshop Watch and contribute funds for the well-being of the 72 Thai workers liberated from El Monte and 84 mostly Latino workers who labored at two affiliated factories.

“Retailers can pocket tens of millions from the sale of sweatshop clothing and have no real responsibility to fix the problem,” said Steve Nutter, regional director for the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

The current campaign, acknowledge Sweatshop Watch organizers, is essentially a public relations effort aimed at forcing retailers to bow to activist demands.

The garment industry’s pyramid-like makeup--with retailers and manufacturers at the top, contractors in the middle and the workers at the bottom--effectively insulates big stores from liability for wage violations and other abuses at thousands of small sewing shops, according to industry critics.

All seven chains have investigated the reports linking them to goods produced at the El Monte site, shut down Aug. 2 after a government raid.

Several chains--including Montgomery Ward and Federated Department Stores (owner of Bullock’s, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, among other outlets)--pulled merchandise suspected of having originated in El Monte. All condemned the El Monte operation.

Industry representatives maintained that the seven chains abide by strict standards set by the National Retail Federation. The federation guidelines attempt to ensure that vendors and contractors adhere to laws governing minimum wage, child labor and other workplace matters.

“We expect all of our vendors and their subcontractors to comply with our expectations and with all applicable laws,” said Paula Stanley, a spokeswoman for Seattle-based Nordstrom.

But Sweatshop Watch organizers call industry standards inadequate to ensure fair-labor practices at tens of thousands of apparel sewing facilities, many of them unregistered.

“It all boils down to a ‘do-nothing’ attitude by those who profit from the misery of the Thai workers and the hundreds of thousands of garment workers who are daily cheated across the United States--and many more sweating abroad,” Nutter said.

Company representatives rejected Sweatshop Watch’s call for a new code of behavior. “I’m not going to get into a public debate over moral obligations,” said Frank J. Williams of the May Department Stores, which owns Robinsons-May.

Eight ex-operators of the El Monte complex have pleaded guilty to federal civil rights violations and other charges and face up to seven years in prison.