I have been shopping at Forever 21 for years now and I didn't find out until now how bad they actually screw over their employees.
In a PBS documentary called
Made in LA, employees expose Forever 21's disgraceful treatment it has towards its employees.
The award-winning documentary follows the story of three Latina immigrants who are working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops and are on a three-year journey to win basic labour protections from the retailer, Forever 21. This documentary shows the struggles and courage each woman go through as they embark on a journey to get equal rights as employees.
One of the employees, Guadalupe Hernandez says she earned, "$4 per hour working 10 hours a day 6 days a week in a factory with no running water adn no bathroom."
Owners of the clothing business, Don-Won Chang and Jin Sook are known to be strong Christian believers and are known to discriminate employees based on religion especially if they do not follow the same beliefs as they do. However, if an employee is will to go on a Christian mission or become "born again" Christians, they promise better pay and a promotion.
How crazy is that?!?
Also, not only do they pay their employees $4 an hour in Los Angeles, they do third party contract work overseas and also put employees in even harsher sweatshop conditions.
Other retailers that have been a target of sweatshop controversy include:
"P.Diddy" Combs' Sean Jean line
There were accusations that P.Diddy's Sean Jean line relied on Honduran women, who were being paid in pennies by the hour, to sew and stitch t-shirts that s for more than $40 a piece.
P.Diddy made a public apology and said this is an important issue to him and made sure that all and any of his merchandise that had his name on it were treated fair.
The Gap
Two years ago, British newspaper, The Observer, found children who were as young as 10 years old, making Gap clothing in a sweatshop in New Delhi, India. The children said they were not being paid because they were told they were still trainees.
Gap responded quickly and said the sweatshop was being run by a subcontractor that a vendor had hired and was in violation of Gap's policies and said that all product made in sweatshops will be destroyed and will not be sold.
In Gap's policies the company requires its suppliers to guarantee they do not use child labour to make any of their clothing. They reassured the public that they have stopped working with other factories and "forcefully reiterate the prohibition on any child labor" especially in India.
Gap faced tough times after the child labour controversy and it heavily impacted its brand. Two weeks after the controversy arose Gap got on their marketing and PR wagon. They provided it's customers 30% discount vouchers, involved themselves heavily with the Product Red charity and the clothing line launched clothing and accessories with "Product Red" with celebrities supporting the cause. This slowly got Gap back up in sales.
It is either Forever 21 owners should clean up their act, or else they have a lot of marketing and public relations to do to clean up their image.
Wow. Maybe buyers (including myself) should think twice before purchasing clothing from a company like this, no matter how nice the clothes appear to be.
So, if you shop at a retailer like Forever 21, will you continue to buy clothing from them?
I'd say, NO!
Rose :)
