Sweatshop Task Force Develops Guidelines Major Apparel Makers Agree To Boost Conditions For Overseas Employees

A handful of apparel manufacturers - including Nike and Reebok - have agreed with human rights groups on a pact intended to curb worker abuse and monitor overseas facilities used by U.S. companies, The New York Times reported today.

The group said it wants to reassure consumers that clothing isn’t made in sweatshops.

The nation’s leading apparel union has already criticized the proposal, saying it does not commit companies to paying workers a “living wage” or address manufacturing in countries with human rights problems.

“This agreement’s not very good,” said Mark Levinson, director of research at the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

The agreement is the result of work done by a White House task force set up in 1996 after it was discovered that Kathie Lee Gifford’s clothing line was made in sweatshops.

Nine of the task force’s 18 members negotiated the agreement, including four companies: Nike, Reebok, Liz Claiborne and Phillips Van Heusen. The Times said four other corporate members - L.L. Bean, Patagonia, Nicole Miller and Gifford - have accepted it.

Under the pact, American manufacturers pledged to not do business with companies that use forced labor or require employees to work more than 60 hours a week. It also prohibits companies from hiring children younger than 15, unless they’re in countries those at age 14 can legally work.

President Clinton praised the accord as a “historic step.”

“The administration is convinced that this agreement lays the foundation to eliminate sweatshop labor, here and abroad,” Labor Secretary Alexis Herman said.

The agreement also requires companies to pay the minimum wage mandated by local law or the industry standard, depending on which is higher, but labor unions claim in many countries the minimum wage is too low to support a family.

It also calls for the establishment of a watchdog group, the Fair Labor Association, which would oversee compliance. The association would certify the monitors that investigate the factories.

The needletrades union, however, was sharply critical and said it would drop out of the task force if other members adopt it.

“How can you talk about eliminating sweatshops without making a commitment to pay a living wage? And the agreement allows companies to produce in countries that systematically deny workers rights,” Levinson said.