Esprit, Guess, Inc., J. C. Penney, K-Mart, May Co. Department
stores, Nike, Victoria's Secret, Wal-Mart and the Walt Disney Co. have been named to the
latest "neediest and greediest" list issued by the National Labor Committee in
Support of Worker and Human Rights. The companies made the list for failing to
effectively assure that Third World contractors they use to make goods sold under their
labels pay fair wages and provide humane working conditions.
The workers in those contractors' sweatshops are the list's "neediest"; the
U.S. companies are its "greediest."
The list is not a call for a boycott nor for taking jobs out of developing countries,
said Charles Kernaghan, the National Labor Committee's executive director. Rather, the
list is "a challenge" to U.S. corporations it names to "do the right
thing," Kernaghan said.
Reprinted from Label Letter January/February 1998. |