Gap Production facility buys children slaves as young as 10 to work sewing jeans

Authorities uncover Gap, the US retailer of jeans and young teen clothing, buying children from impoverished families in India to work as slave labour sewing jeans in their production facilities. As I read this article to my wife she fought back the tears and asked me to go on to something else. In a quiet and slightly trembling voice she asked me to talk about something else. We have travelled the world and lived in various countries. Both of us have run companies, not big by US standards, but big enough. We are not naïve. Poverty exists, human tragedies occur every day in every country in the world including the US. We cannot stop them.

We have always treated the employees of the companies we were responsible for, with respect and dignity. Many of these same employees would not agree and many did not give a fair return to the company but this is part of running a business. We understand the pressures a CEO and Board feel to secure returns for investors however there must be a line. There must be a boundary that no CEO will cross for financial gain.

The company responded on Sunday that it:

“launched an investigation after it was told earlier this week about an allegation of child labor at a factory in India that was working on one product for GapKids.
The company said a very small portion of a particular order placed with one of its vendors was given to an unauthorized subcontractor without its knowledge, which violated its agreement with the vendor.

The company said it stopped the work order as soon as it was alerted and prevented product from being sold in stores.

It said it strictly prohibits the use of child labor.”

This evokes memories of Mattel CEO whining before Congress about how they did not know about lead in all their toys for children and that it was limited to just a “few and isolated, unauthorized facilities” and that the company had no prior knowledge. All this just days before Mattel went to the Chinese government and apologized publicly for the outrage in the US over shoddy Chinese workmanship and unhealthy materials.

These Multimillion Dollar CEOs are lying to you, me and Congress. They know full well what is going on. They are willing to poison American children in the name of profits, why does it seem so strange that they would buy children slaves for profits. These CEOs cannot hide behind guise “Don’t look, Don’t tell”. They know full well what is going on, they just do not care. A prominent promoter of Reaganomics recently asked why CEOs are always portrayed as crooks, dishonest, lying bastards in films. The answer is simple, while there are exceptions, CEOS are mostly very bad people. How can you tell if a CEO is bad?

A CEO is bad when he makes millions of dollars a year and has people on his payroll who do not make more than the poverty level. A CEO is bad when he moves production facilities offshore so he can use child labour, not clean up the pollution generated by his production process, and/or utilize chemical, elements and materials banned from US production facilities. In other words just about every company listed on the US exchanges.

The American consumer is caught in the middle. Very few Americans approve of using child slavery. Americans have already banned dangerous pesticides, lead in paint, and created legislation requiring production facilities to clean up their pollutants but our corporations have found a way around it. Just move the facility to some poor country where these things are not prohibited. They indicate that Americans are not required to purchase their goods. No one is twisting the consumer’s arms. No one forces shoppers to go to Walmart or Target or to buy Mattel’s and Disney’s toys however when the US only produces 18% of what it consumes onshore there is little choice.

Unfortunately we must depend on our elected officials to regulate, control and verify what corporations do. We must trust the same politicians who receive millions of dollars in kick-backs and contributions to make corporations live up to US standards. This is a losing battle. All that remains is for each American to shed a silent tear as we enjoy that new pair of jeans our teenage daughter just had to have and remember, “there, but for the grace of God, go I.”

Tags: Government Politics Recession Corporate America Finance Child Labor Economy Reaganomics