Former sweatshop worker denounces labor practices by Hetert-Qebu A. Walters Contributing Writer “[Forever 21’s] clothes are nice and they are inexpensive, but they are made with tears,” said former sweatshop worker Guadalupe Hernandez who spoke to students via interpreter Joann Lo about her experience working in a Los Angeles sweatshop. The United Student Labor Action Coalition (USLAC) sponsored Hernandez’s Oct. 10 speech as part of a national campaign to raise awareness about a boycott of the Forever 21 label and the workers’ struggle for owed back pay and a guaranteed minimum wage. Hernandez illustrated the plight of Forever 21’s mostly Latino and Chinese female immigrant workforce through personal accounts. According to Hernandez, the factory was infested with rats and roaches and lacked clean water as well as a sanitary location for workers to eat. Her workday began at about 7:30 a.m. and wouldn’t end until approximately 6 p.m. In a typical week, Hernandez would make between $250 and $300 after working a total of seventy hours. According to Hernandez, Forever 21 made over $500 million dollars in 2001. The company is expected to make over $500 million in sales in 2002. Hernandez said that workers are asking to be paid minimum wage. “We want to be respected as workers and as people,” she said. With the assistance of the Garment Worker Center, an organization that helps garment workers organize, Hernandez along with 18 other workers, filed a lawsuit against Forever 21 last September. Owners of the fashion label asked for a dismissal, which was granted by the judge presiding over the case. The workers are in the process of appealing this decision. Two days after the dismissal of the lawsuit, Forever 21, using video footage of protests against the company as proof, filed a lawsuit against the Garment Worker Center and the 19 workers, for defamation of character. The company also wanted to get the names of the workers’ student supporters so they could be named in the lawsuit as well, but the workers do not know their names. Hernandez said that Forever 21 wanted to take away the homes and cars of the 19 workers. “We have nothing to lose, but our dignity,” Hernandez said. “And we won’t lose that.” In April, Forever 21 dropped the lawsuit against the workers, but the suit against the Garment Worker Center, as well as other organizations supporting the workers’ fight, is still pending. Protests continue against Forever 21 while the workers wait to appeal. In August, the workers were able to secure billboard space advertising that Forever 21 uses sweatshop labor to make its clothes. According to Hernandez, this was accomplished using monies raised from raffles and an anonymous donation. Workers protest outside of the Beverly Hills home of Do Won Chang, owner of Forever 21, and in front of the hotel, and restaurant that he owns in Los Angeles’s Korea Town. Hernandez said that the workers wrote a letter to Chang asking for sanitary working conditions, to be paid minimum wage, and to receive medical insurance. She said that Chang didn’t deliver the workers’ requests because he denies that they worked on his clothes. Hernandez said that Chang was able to deny responsibility for the workers because his signature does not appear on their paychecks. Forever 21 hires a subcontractor, who hires and pays the garment workers. When asked by a student if Chang is still responsible for the workers pay, Hernandez said that he should be. “He should check to see where the work for [his company] gets done,” she said. Forever 21 does help to establish the rate paid to the garment workers because what they pay to subcontractors determines the garment workers wage, Lo said. Stores that sell the Forever 21 brand go by the names of XXI and Fashion 21. There are three stores located in Conn. that sell the Forever 21 brand. When asked what students can do to support the workers, Hernandez said students can boycott the store and organize a picket to show Forever 21 that students support the workers. “Many people assume that most sweatshops are overseas, and don’t know that they are on our soil,” said Ariana Zeno ’05, organizer of the lecture. Hernandez said that the workers’ fear of being discovered by the Immigration and Naturalization Service is one of the reasons that more Americans don’t know about the exploitation of labor that takes place in this country. She estimated that out of twenty garment workers in a factory, only two will have proper documents, verifying that they can legally work in the U.S. Workers are also less likely to speak up because of the events of Sept. 11, she said. “It was nice to hear [Hernandez’s] voice. So often the voices of actual workers are left out of the political and economic dialogue,” said Danielle Dixon ’05. “However, when discussing sweatshops, the issue is so multidimensional, it is unrealistic that one talk can encompass all the vital information.”

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