A Hip-Hop Star's Fashion Line Is Tagged With a Sweatshop
October 28, 2003
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
A 19-year-old Honduran apparel worker and a leading
workers' rights group said yesterday that the hip-hop
artist Sean Combs was using a sweatshop in Honduras to
produce tens of thousands of shirts for his Sean John
fashion company.
The worker, Lydda Eli Gonzalez, said the factory's managers
yelled and cursed at workers, forced them to work unpaid
overtime and fired employees for being pregnant. She said
that when workers sought to unionize last summer to improve
conditions, she and 14 other outspoken union supporters
were suddenly fired.
Steve Hawkins, owner of the factory, Southeast Textiles
S.A., called the charges lies and said that the factory
strictly complied with the law and maintained good
conditions.
Jeff Tweedy, executive vice president of Sean John, the New
York-based apparel company run by Mr. Combs, who performs
as P. Diddy, said: "We have absolutely no knowledge of this
situation. However, we take these matters very seriously,
and we will have our director of compliance look into the
matter immediately."
Sean John is one of the factory's biggest customers. The
plant, in Choloma, Honduras, employs 380 workers who
produce long-sleeved T-shirts with "SJ" or "Sean John"
emblazoned on them.
Ms. Gonzalez said she traveled to New York from Honduras to
ask Mr. Combs to pressure the factory's owner to treat the
workers better. Her trip was sponsored by the National
Labor Committee, a New York-based group that embarrassed
the Gap, Kathie Lee Gifford and other major fashion names
in exposing sweatshop conditions at factories they used.
Ms. Gonzalez said employees were ordered not to talk during
work hours, needed passes to go to the bathroom and were
generally limited to two bathroom visits a day. Managers
called workers on the loudspeakers if they were in the
bathroom more than a few minutes, she said. Managers, she said. Managers often
ordered female workers to take pregnancy tests, she said,
and if they were pregnant, they were immediately fired to
help the company save on medical expenses and maternity
leave.
"It's a bad place to work, depressing; there's a lot of
humiliation," said Ms. Gonzalez, who is on her first trip
outside Honduras. "They yell at you with gross words. They
call you `dog,' `lazy,' `burro.' "
One day last May, Ms. Gonzalez said, the factory's manager
grabbed the throat of an employee who was complaining that
workers were being shortchanged.
"My purpose is to represent all the sewing machine
operators in Honduras and to put an end to the humiliation
and labor violations," Ms. Gonzalez said. "Sean Combs is a
man with great power and influence, and we think he should
help us and help end these violations."
In a telephone interview from Honduras, Mr. Hawkins, the
factory's owner, said: "I categorically deny every single
claim they've made. It's nothing more than a labor union
with an ax to grind."
He said that once the union's organizing effort failed,
union supporters retaliated by spreading lies against the
factory. He said that workers were not fired for supporting
a union, but for bad quality or an uncooperative attitude.
Honduran law prohibits firing workers for supporting a
union.
Mr. Hawkins said that the factory was air-conditioned, that
it paid overtime and that it had a nurse and a doctor on
staff. He said the factory passed muster with outside
monitors who inspected it every few months at the behest of
the companies that use it.
"I never mistreated anybody," said Mr. Hawkins, who said he
moved his operation from North Carolina to Honduras because
of pressures from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"I treat employees just like I'd like to be treated
myself."
He acknowledged that the factory's manager, Delia Cruz, had
recently left the company. "She was much hated and resigned
two weeks ago," he said.
Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor
Committee, defended his group's conclusions about Southeast
Textiles, saying he and other committee officials had
interviewed about 20 workers from the factory.
"It's a factory where the workers have zero rights," he
said. "It shows the whole charade of monitoring. The
workers were ordered not to tell the truth to the monitors,
and they knew if they did they would be fired."
He asserted that Mr. Combs's use of such a factory was more
shocking than Kathie Lee Gifford's. She was embarrassed
when a 15-year-old Honduran girl came to the United States
in 1996 to describe conditions at a factory making goods
for the Kathie Lee line, which was sold at Wal-Mart.
Mr. Kernaghan said the workers received 15 cents in wages
to make Sean Jean shirts that sell for $40. Many workers
said the company failed to make mandatory contributions to
the Honduras national health fund, he said.
"Sean Combs obviously has a lot of clout, and he can
literally do a lot overnight to help these workers," Mr.
Kernaghan said. "This isn't Kathie Lee selling shirts in
Wal-Mart for $5.99. He is selling T-shirts for $40, and
you'd expect the workers to be treated better and earn a
little more."
Ms. Gonzalez said the workers earned 90 cents an hour, far
too little to support an individual or a family. Many
afternoons the seamstresses were forced to work two extra
hours to try to meet a production goal, she said. The
workers invariably failed to meet that goal, she said,
because Sean Jean standards were so exacting. As a result,
she said, the workers received neither a production bonus
nor pay for the extra hours.
www.nytimes.com/2003/10/2...a0bd8ec85b
October 28, 2003
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
A 19-year-old Honduran apparel worker and a leading
workers' rights group said yesterday that the hip-hop
artist Sean Combs was using a sweatshop in Honduras to
produce tens of thousands of shirts for his Sean John
fashion company.
The worker, Lydda Eli Gonzalez, said the factory's managers
yelled and cursed at workers, forced them to work unpaid
overtime and fired employees for being pregnant. She said
that when workers sought to unionize last summer to improve
conditions, she and 14 other outspoken union supporters
were suddenly fired.
Steve Hawkins, owner of the factory, Southeast Textiles
S.A., called the charges lies and said that the factory
strictly complied with the law and maintained good
conditions.
Jeff Tweedy, executive vice president of Sean John, the New
York-based apparel company run by Mr. Combs, who performs
as P. Diddy, said: "We have absolutely no knowledge of this
situation. However, we take these matters very seriously,
and we will have our director of compliance look into the
matter immediately."
Sean John is one of the factory's biggest customers. The
plant, in Choloma, Honduras, employs 380 workers who
produce long-sleeved T-shirts with "SJ" or "Sean John"
emblazoned on them.
Ms. Gonzalez said she traveled to New York from Honduras to
ask Mr. Combs to pressure the factory's owner to treat the
workers better. Her trip was sponsored by the National
Labor Committee, a New York-based group that embarrassed
the Gap, Kathie Lee Gifford and other major fashion names
in exposing sweatshop conditions at factories they used.
Ms. Gonzalez said employees were ordered not to talk during
work hours, needed passes to go to the bathroom and were
generally limited to two bathroom visits a day. Managers
called workers on the loudspeakers if they were in the
bathroom more than a few minutes, she said. Managers, she said. Managers often
ordered female workers to take pregnancy tests, she said,
and if they were pregnant, they were immediately fired to
help the company save on medical expenses and maternity
leave.
"It's a bad place to work, depressing; there's a lot of
humiliation," said Ms. Gonzalez, who is on her first trip
outside Honduras. "They yell at you with gross words. They
call you `dog,' `lazy,' `burro.' "
One day last May, Ms. Gonzalez said, the factory's manager
grabbed the throat of an employee who was complaining that
workers were being shortchanged.
"My purpose is to represent all the sewing machine
operators in Honduras and to put an end to the humiliation
and labor violations," Ms. Gonzalez said. "Sean Combs is a
man with great power and influence, and we think he should
help us and help end these violations."
In a telephone interview from Honduras, Mr. Hawkins, the
factory's owner, said: "I categorically deny every single
claim they've made. It's nothing more than a labor union
with an ax to grind."
He said that once the union's organizing effort failed,
union supporters retaliated by spreading lies against the
factory. He said that workers were not fired for supporting
a union, but for bad quality or an uncooperative attitude.
Honduran law prohibits firing workers for supporting a
union.
Mr. Hawkins said that the factory was air-conditioned, that
it paid overtime and that it had a nurse and a doctor on
staff. He said the factory passed muster with outside
monitors who inspected it every few months at the behest of
the companies that use it.
"I never mistreated anybody," said Mr. Hawkins, who said he
moved his operation from North Carolina to Honduras because
of pressures from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"I treat employees just like I'd like to be treated
myself."
He acknowledged that the factory's manager, Delia Cruz, had
recently left the company. "She was much hated and resigned
two weeks ago," he said.
Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor
Committee, defended his group's conclusions about Southeast
Textiles, saying he and other committee officials had
interviewed about 20 workers from the factory.
"It's a factory where the workers have zero rights," he
said. "It shows the whole charade of monitoring. The
workers were ordered not to tell the truth to the monitors,
and they knew if they did they would be fired."
He asserted that Mr. Combs's use of such a factory was more
shocking than Kathie Lee Gifford's. She was embarrassed
when a 15-year-old Honduran girl came to the United States
in 1996 to describe conditions at a factory making goods
for the Kathie Lee line, which was sold at Wal-Mart.
Mr. Kernaghan said the workers received 15 cents in wages
to make Sean Jean shirts that sell for $40. Many workers
said the company failed to make mandatory contributions to
the Honduras national health fund, he said.
"Sean Combs obviously has a lot of clout, and he can
literally do a lot overnight to help these workers," Mr.
Kernaghan said. "This isn't Kathie Lee selling shirts in
Wal-Mart for $5.99. He is selling T-shirts for $40, and
you'd expect the workers to be treated better and earn a
little more."
Ms. Gonzalez said the workers earned 90 cents an hour, far
too little to support an individual or a family. Many
afternoons the seamstresses were forced to work two extra
hours to try to meet a production goal, she said. The
workers invariably failed to meet that goal, she said,
because Sean Jean standards were so exacting. As a result,
she said, the workers received neither a production bonus
nor pay for the extra hours.
www.nytimes.com/2003/10/2...a0bd8ec85b
