Sweatshops
Exploitation is never in fashion.

Street Cents learns a lesson -- the hard way

Finding out about clothes and where and how they're made isn't easy. Street Cents just learned this lesson - the hard way.

After watching a segment aired on CBC Disclosure we found out that the supplier of our boys t-shirts, is being charged with sweatshop abuses by their workers in Honduras. Charges involve low wages and a factory filled with fabric dust.

We were pretty upset when we heard this, so we called Gildan, the company that makes the shirts. Gildan told Street Cents that our t-shirts were made in their Montreal factory with decent safety standards. This is plus, but it doesn't change the fact that the same company is being charged with sweatshop abuses by their own workers in Honduras.

Street Cents thought buying from a Canadian manufacturer was good enough - guess not. After finding out this news, Street Cents considered finding another supplier. Before making any moves, we decided to call the Maquila Solidarity Network first. This network is an organization dedicated to exposing sweatshops. Surely they're able to tell us what to do. Maquila told us that boycotting Gildan isn't the best strategy.

The Maquila Solidarity Network recommends us folks here at Street Cents use our buying power.

Companies care about what we think of them. The last thing they need is bad publicity. Companies don't want to be connected to a sweatshop. Instead of changing suppliers immediately, Maquila told us we should write a letter to Gildan (the company charged with sweatshop abuses who made our boys t-shirts) and make them aware of our concerns.

• Knowledge is power. So, the first thing we should do is become informed.
• No, there's no master list out there with all the names of all the companies that use sweatshops. But, there is a ton of information available to help us make the best-educated decisions possible when it comes to buying clothes and fighting sweatshops.
• If we want to become better informed we need to find out more information about garment workers, sweatshop abuses, and company profiles.

Two important things to find out: Does the company reveal where they make the clothes? Does the company have a code of conduct that allows independent monitoring.

We should ask retailers lots of questions about the labour practices in factories that make their products and, how they monitor them. This let's companies know we care. As consumers, we expect high standards that don't include inhumane working conditions. It's probably best to write their head office. The salesclerk probably won't be able to answer these questions.