LA GARMENT WORKERS DEMAND: “ROSS, MAKE LA SWEATSHOP FREE!”
1) Fair Wages: Ross must ensure that the minimum wage, overtime pay, paid sick leave, and rest and meal breaks are respected in factories producing its clothing. Ross must accept responsibility for the rampant abuse of the piece rate system by paying a sufficient contract price for the garments produced in its LA suppliers. Ross must actively work with manufacturers to ensure good salaries for garment workers.
2) Health and Safety: Ross must ensure safe and clean working conditions at the factories it uses, which includes a workplace free from pest infestations, with adequate ventilation, clean drinking water and clean bathrooms.
3) Monitor improvements: Ross must work with the local and federal government, labor organizations, and the Garment Worker Center to ensure that conditions in factories producing their clothing improve. This means opening supplier factories to regular audits by independent, worker-led investigations.
4) Collectively Bargain: Ross must ensure that garment workers have the right to collectively bargain for good working conditions and fair pay with their employers free from retaliation.
5) End cutting and running: Ross must commit to make LA sweatshop free, which means maintaining production in Los Angeles and ensuring good working conditions and living wages in the factories they use. Ross must recognize that cutting and running from sweatshops only drives wages and conditions further down.