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Gap
Sweatshops Campaign With clothing production in numerous countries, the Gap, Inc, owner of Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic, is a major exploiter of sweatshop labor.
Wetlands and other groups are organizing demonstrations at Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic stores challenging the company to improve the conditions of its overseas workers. Wetlands is also fighting the Gap's owners' destruction of redwood forests. " (destruction of redwood forests should link to the section on Gap redwoods destruction.) For more
information contact: GLOBAL
EXCHANGE What You Can Do: "A coalition of groups is kicking off the STOP SAIPAN SWEATSHOPS campaign. They are targeting the Gap and other companies producing in Saipan but are not calling for a boycott" -Nikki Bas, Sweatshop Watch
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"On
January 13, 1999 a lawsuit was filed against 18 US clothing companies,
including the Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, the Limited, J.C. Penny, Wal-Mart
and Sears. With no US import tariffs, no US quota restrictions,
a minimum wage of $3.05 per hour, and lax immigration laws, the
Northern Mariana Islands--a US Commonwealth in the South Pacific--has
attracted a host of foreign investors who produce clothes for
some of the biggest brand-name labels at the cost of exploiting
workers. These companies are accused of using indentured labor--predominantly
young women from Asia--to produce clothing on the island of Saipan.
These immigrant workers must: sign contracts that deny them their
basic human rights; pay exorbitant recruitment fees that keep
them in a state of indentured servitude; work up to 12 hours a
day, seven days a week, often without overtime pay; and live in
overcrowded housing in unsanitary conditions. The Gap is the leading
company in Saipan's garment industry, producing hundreds of millions
of dollars worth of clothing." -Sweatshop Watch