Garment workers are among the most exploited employees in the workforce today. Many are women immigrants who must not only attempt to survive on meager wages, but also confront language barriers and anti-immigrant sentiment. With little access to job skills training, many workers are stuck in a cycle of poverty.

Garment worker advocates are employing a variety of strategies to combat the illegal conditions so pervasive in many factories. Advocates successfully increased public awareness of garment industry practices when they exposed the use of sweatshop labor for celebrity clothing lines, such as Kathie Lee Gifford’s, and the slave-like conditions at a factory in El Monte, California. 

ERA’s Litigation:Does 1-8 v. ASC Fashion 

Corporate Watch.

Unfortunately, the trail of accountability for worker abuse ends at the factory door. To make real reform in this industry, retailers and manufacturers must take responsibility for their factories and contractors’ actions.