'Sweatshops Have No Place on American Landscape, Says Labor Secretary'

By Michael F. Flach
^{HERALD Editor}

ARLINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman said she looks forward to working closely with Newark Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick and other religious leaders around the country in the battle to eliminate garment industry sweatshops.

Archbishop McCarrick, who is chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Policy, is creating a "no sweat" archdiocese.

"In September – just in time for back-to-school -- he will launch an ‘anti-sweatshop’ classroom instruction effort for every one of the 188 elementary and high schools in the archdiocese," Herman said.

"The program will go even further and develop criteria and safeguards against the purchase of school uniforms made under sweatshop conditions," she said. "Their goal is one that we all share: no child should wear clothes made by workers robbed of their own childhood."

Archbishop McCarrick is developing the program in conjunction with federal and state Departments of Labor and local labor unions.

Herman said she will be with the archbishop when he announces the initiative in Newark, and she will work closely with him over the summer "to enlist other religious leaders in replicating this effort."

"Every worker is entitled to a fair wage, safe working conditions and a sense of dignity and respect," Herman said. "Sweatshops have no place on the American landscape. They deny the simple human dignity that is the birthright of all of us."

Herman, a graduate of Xavier University in New Orleans, gave the keynote address May 30 at Marymount University’s conference "An Academic Search for Sweatshop Solutions." It was the secretary’s first opportunity to speak on the sweatshop issue since taking office one month ago.

The conference was sponsored by Marymount’s Fashion Design and Merchandising programs and Center for Ethical Concerns. It brought together academicians and apparel industry leaders from across the nation.

Conference participants included representatives from Levi Strauss, Liz Claiborne, Nicole Miller, Nordstrom, Phillips-Van Heusen, Reebok and the American Apparel Manufacturers Association.

Herman had high praise for Marymount’s pioneering efforts in the sweatshop debate. The Arlington university hosted former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich in September 1995 as part of his campaign to raise national awareness of inhumane working conditions in the garment industry.

"For more than 150 years, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (who founded Marymount) have combined educational excellence with service to others," Herman said. "I appreciate everything Marymount University is doing in the struggle against sweatshops."

Herman, a native of Mobile, Miss., said her own road to public service began as part of her Catholic education. Her first professional job in 1969 was as a social worker with Catholic Charities.

"At home, in church, in school, later, in college classrooms, I learned the lessons of Catholic social teachings," she said. "I came to understand that, next to family and faith, the most sacred thing in our lives is the work that we do.

"Work affirms our humanity and allows us to make our own unique contribution to the world."

Herman said she has established five goals as head of the Department of Labor: to equip every U.S. worker with necessary skills; to move workers from welfare rolls to payrolls; to ensure economic security in retirement; to guarantee safety in the workplace; and to help workers balance work and family.

"In order to increase incomes, to make work more attractive than welfare, to protect pensions, and to allow every worker to succeed at home as well as on the job, we must relegate sweatshops to the history books, once and for all, now and forever," she said.

The May 30 conference was meant to build on the framework set forth by the Apparel Industry Partnership, which recently announced its code of conduct defining decent worldwide working conditions and wages, as well as monitoring systems.

The codes and monitoring systems outlined by the partnership "will significantly reduce the use of sweatshop labor around the world" and it will "give consumers greater confidence in the garments they buy," Herman said.

Herman announced the results of a 1997 San Francisco Garment Industry Survey, jointly conducted by the Department of Labor and the State of California -- which found that when companies monitor their operations and contractors, 87 percent are in overall compliance with minimum wage and overtime laws.

"In this ear of concern for civility, decency and family values, sweatshops are repugnant to our moral core," she said. "It is wrong to value fashion when we do not value the people who make fashion real.

"The loveliest dress goes quickly out of style when we are reminded that the woman who made it might not be able to feed herself or her children," Herman said.

"One sweatshop is one too many," she said. "The bad actions of a few are tarnishing the good reputations of the others and undercutting the competitive field of the industry.

"There isn’t a business textbook in the world that supports the idea that sweatshops are a pathway to business prosperity," Herman said. "But I can find dozens of textbooks that supports the theory that the best way to an impressive bottom line is through a solid investment in workers.

"In the fight against sweatshops, it is time for all of us – business and unions from every sector of the garment industry – to move in a new direction and to move forward together," Herman said.

"The Apparel Industry Partnership will only succeed if more manufacturers and retailers join the effort and actively participate."

Herman announced that the Department of Labor has presented a $200,000 grant to the Garment 2000 learning factory in San Francisco, which provides new opportunities for garment workers through training and education. She called on other garment industry centers to develop similar programs.

"This problem is not limited to our own borders," Herman said.

"We must build a truly international partnership," she said. "Fifty percent of the garments we buy are imported, so we must have all the nations of the world actively involved."

Herman said the Clinton administration is doing its part in educating foreign governments about sweatshop abuses. She will host a meeting with Central American labor ministers later this year. President Clinton raised the importance of the Apparel Industry Partnership during his recent meeting with European Union leaders.

This summer the Department of Labor will publish a report on child labor and codes of conduct in the footwear industry, Herman said.

"Putting an end to sweatshops, finally and completely, will not be easy," she said, "but it will not be impossible.

"It is my honor and my obligation to work for an America where everyone can find useful, decent and honest work with fair wages," Herman said. "An America that offers opportunity for our youngest people and security for our older people. An America where work is honored and justice is done.

"Together, we can make sure that this vision of an America that works for all working people – including garment workers – will not be a dream deferred."

Copyright ©1997 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.