Sweatshop is an understatement (extracts from article by Jena Kehoe)
Earlier this year 29 people were killed in a garment factory in Bangladesh; the factory is used by many well-known American clothing brands including Tommy Hilfiger. Electrical wiring overloaded by sewing machines is said to have sparked the fire. Dozens of textile workers who were breaking for lunch on the roof were unable to descend smoke-filled stairwells. Several were forced to make ropes from rolls of fabric and attempt to scale down the side of the building.
When asked by ABC News backstage at his Fall 2012 show, the American designer claimed he’d moved his operations. “I can tell you that we no longer make clothes in those factories. We pulled out of all of those factories.” Hilfiger corrected himself after the news outlet obtained shipping records for Tommy Hilfiger originating from the very same factories.
The director of the Worker Rights Consortium, Scott Nova, told ABC’s reporter that three workers were killed at factories responsible for producing Tommy Hilfiger in the past few weeks, and that the American companies hadn't delivered on their promises of safer labour conditions.
Anyone fancy wearing Tommy Hilfiger golf collection? Can their sponsored golf professionals and agents just take the money and plead ignorance to the unethical sweatshop manufacturing? After all everyone else does.
Who has blood on their hands?
---------------------------------------------------------
