A Nicaraguan garment factory that supplies discounted clothing to US soldiers imposes sweatshop conditions and starvation wages on its workers, a lawsuit filed on Tuesday contends.
The lawsuit, filed by labor-rights attorneys in the US District Court in Los Angeles, seeks punitive damages against the Chentex
It contends Nien Hsing pays workers at the plant less than US$0.20 for each pair of blue jeans sewn. The jeans retail for between US$25 and US$30, but workers receive what amounts to less than US$0.30 an hour.
PHOTO: AP
At a Tuesday news conference, a sweatshop watchdog group said the jeans are sold to US military personnel through the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which supplies servicemen and women.
According to the National Labor Committee for Human Rights, the service imported 64 tonnes of blue jeans made at the Nicaraguan plant last July, August and September alone.
"This factory in Nicaragua actually presents the true face of the global economy," said Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the watchdog. "It's one of oppression, starvation wages, mass firings, blacklisting, union busting and enormous corporate greed."
Pentagon officials admit to doing business with the company, but they say they found no evidence of poor working conditions when a delegation visited the Chentex plant several weeks ago.
"We do business with them," said Captain Eric Hilliard, public affairs officer for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. "We went down there, checked it out, and we saw that things were up to par."
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service is one of the world's largest retailers, operating 1,423 stores on US military bases nationwide. It had US$7.3 billion in sales last year.
Kernaghan said he uncovered the link to the Pentagon while reviewing the company's sales documents. Several US department stores -- including Kmart and Wal-Mart -- also had garment contracts with the company.
Since last spring, the National Labor Committee has staged numerous demonstrations outside various Kohl's stores, demanding that the company cut its ties with the Nicaraguan plant.
Two congressional Democrats, Representatives Cynthia McKinney and Sherrod Brown, also attended the news conference. Brown traveled to Nicaragua in July and vouched for the deplorable treatment of the garment workers.
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