90,000 immigrants work long hours for low wages in Los Angeles sweatshops. Local organizations and officials are joining

workers to improve conditions in factories like this one.

 Roxane Auer, The Ephoch Times

 

  In 1995, two major sweatshop exposes rocked the nation and put sweatshops back in the public eye. In the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte, labor 

  officials discovered a slave-sweatshop where 80 Thai immigrants were forced to sew brand-name clothes in a compound behind razor wire and armed

  guards. Making clothing that was sold at major stores like Mervyn's and Montgomery Wards, the workers made less than $2 per hour.
 

  Since these sweatshops were discovered, other companies have been charged with using sweatshop labor in the U.S. and around the world including

  Nike, Gap, and others.  Today, garment workers continue to organize for fair working conditions.

  Many California garment workers are paid well below the state minimum wage. In 2000, when the California state minimum wage was $5.75 per hour, the

  Census reported the average wage for garment workers in the United States as $5.18 per hour, which is close to the federal minimum wage of $5.15.

  However, labor law states that workers are entitled to the higher of the two minimum wages.

 

Julie Su,

" No Sweat: Fashion, Free Trade and the Rights of Garment Workers"