Workers' Rights Group: IL Buys Uniforms Made In Sweatshops

By Margaret Lyons in News on Jul 1, 2008 5:58PM

An anti-sweatshop organization says the State of Illinois "does business with companies that are linked to sweatshops." That's in violation of an executive order.

The full report from SweatFree Communities outlines the ways tax dollars "increase the downward pressure on labor rights, wages, and working conditions." Illinois buys uniforms and apparel from Fechheimer, Dickies and Blauer, companies SweatFree says violate their workers' rights. SweatFree says workers at Fechheimer's factory in Honduras are forced to work overtime, are paid below minimum wage, work in unsafe conditions, and female employees are subject to pregnancy test and are fired if they're pregnant. The report says at Dickies's factories in Pakistan, workers earn less than a living wage and worker organizing is forbidden, and that Blauer's factories in China use child labor. According to the Sun-Times, "A state official said the companies are in compliance with multiple anti-sweatshop efforts." [S-T]