OMG, like, who would've suspected a billion dollar retailing giant might pay its garment workers slave wages in order to keep prices low? As if:
Teen millionairesses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen demanded retail giant Wal-mart provide female factory workers in Bangladesh with maternity leave and benefits in New York Thursday. The Full House stars, 18, were horrified to discover the workers creating their Olsen Twins clothing line, which is sold in Wal-Mart stores, were working in poor conditions. Just hours after a protest by members of America's National Labor Committee (NLC) began at Washington Square Park near New York University, where the sisters are studying, Mary-Kate and Ashley signed the petition for Wal-Mart to give workers the "legal right to maternity leave with benefits".
"We were shocked," The Olsens added, "All this time we were sure our line of affordable cutting edge apparel was lovingly crafted by elves and pixies in the mystical Forest of Snickerdoodle, under the watchful yet compassionate eye of the Faerie Queen."
"Bangladesh" sounds silly enough to be made up. Maybe that's where they got confused.
A few more rosters came in overnight... and here's the headlines that slipped under the door: Kofi Annan's son is calling the investigation a witchhunt. Never mind the fact that he turned his secretary into a newt (she got better).......
| --Posted to The Dead Pool on Dec 14, 2004 9:16 AM:. |
Teen millionairesses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen demanded retail giant Wal-mart provide female factory workers in Bangladesh with maternity leave and benefits in New York Thursday. The Full House stars, 18, were horrified to discover the workers creati......
| --Posted to roman candles on Dec 14, 2004 9:23 AM:. |
Teen millionairesses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen demanded retail giant Wal-mart provide female factory workers in Bangladesh with maternity leave and benefits in New York Thursday. The Full House stars, 18, were horrified to discover the workers creati......
| --Posted to roman candles on Dec 14, 2004 9:24 AM:. |
Bullshit. These are 18-year old *billionaires* who oversee every aspect of their financial empire, including sitting in on meetings concerning the development of their clothing line. Claiming they had "no idea" how or where the clothing would be manufactured is like Ken Lay saying he was out of the loop.
I'm not sure where you got that I was letting Wal-Mart consumers off the hook, as this was solely a bit of sarcastic assholery aimed at the Olsens. Sorry if it wasn't as wide-ranging an indictment as you might have liked, but you've got your own blog for that.
Not all clothing made by poorly compensated workers in developing nations is cheap Walmart crap. Just because the designer sweater cost $200 doesn't mean the worker who made it was treated any better than the worker in the Olsen factory.
A few more rosters came in overnight. We're now at 48 49! And here's the headlines that slipped under the door: Kofi Annan's son is calling the investigation a witchhunt. Never mind the fact that he turned his secretary into......
| --Posted to The Dead Pool on Dec 14, 2004 10:59 AM:. |
I didn't say the Olsens had "no idea." But I would suppose that at 18, had I asked a manager or agent or someone else, "We're not making these in sweatshops, right?" and been told "no, of course not," I (at 18) might have been inclined to take their word for it. I'm not excusing them, nor their little show for publicity here.
However, I do look at this whole cheap labor thing as very similar to the "war on drugs." We spend so much money and effort going after dealers and suppliers and demonizing the people who supply drugs... all the while not wanting to admit that it is our citizens who want the stuff, and that wherever there is demand, someone will find a way to supply. The way to kill the drug problem is to attack the demand side, not supply.
In the same vein, every couple of years some celebrity gets put through a wringer for having their clothing line made by sweatshop workers... but no one ever highlights that despite the well-known problems and suspicions about any clothing made in overseas shops, no consumer ever seems to want to ask the questions. It's just easier to be "outraged" when it's thrust into the public light.
The truth is, until consumers start asking the questions and demanding better treatment of the workers who make their clothes, the sweatshop issue will not go away. Address the demand -- not the supply.
Wasn't accusing you of letting anyone off light -- I was just expressing an opinion. Sorry if I rankled you.
Wow, They SIGNED A PETITION? That must be the most they could possibly do to stop human rights violations occuring while clothes bearing their name are being created.
Don't you think if you were signing a contract with K-Wal-Target-Mart or whoever, that you might include a provision wherein you could back out if it turned out that the clothes were made from the skins of adorable orphan babies or something?
Or is it that they just don't want to rock the billion dollar boat?
While I would cut them a little slack (we are talking about 18 year olds here, who in general might be a little more naive than us worldly wise adults), I think the larger problem is getting ignored.
Everyone wants to play "gotcha" with mega-egos like the Olsens and Kathie Lee for getting "caught" having the makers of their clothing lines treating their third world workers like slaves. "They should know better," goes the refrain.
Yeah well, if stars should know better, shouldn't consumers as well? And yet every trailer park matron and NASCAR dad (as well as a few yuppie suburbanites who really have no excuse) shops Wal-Mart and buys these cheap clothes and other similarly inexpensive products... then feigns shock and outrage when some famous person is "caught" a la the Olsen twins. Why aren't the do-gooders protesting outside the gates of trailer parks, or in Wal-Mart parking lots? Why are the consumers of this slave labor booty not targeted for shame and outrage?
Guess it's just easier to point fingers at famous people.
The fact is, until a sense of shame is brought to those who buy these products -- instead of those whose companies make the products, nothing is going to get solved. All we'll have is a bunch of people pointing fingers of faux indignance at the people who make the products they buy.