attention!
so at work the other day i was talking to my boss about how great forever 21 was cause they have cute clothes for cheap. then he started telling me about how they use sweatshops and that sort of stuff. since im highly against that, i did some reasearch. this is what i came up with.
and i found this too.
Justice for Forever 21 Garment Workers
19 Workers sewed Forever 21 clothes in 6 different downtown Los Angeles sweatshops and are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars
Nineteen garment workers joined together in September 2001 to launch a public campaign and a lawsuit against Forever 21, a popular retailer of young women’s clothing. They sewed the Forever 21 label in six different sweatshops in downtown Los Angeles under deplorable conditions. Some earned as little as $3-4 per hour. Forever 21, also called Fashion 21 and Forever XXI, is a multi-million dollar company based in Los Angeles, with now over 140 stores around the country and forty of those in California. An estimated 95% of its production is done in the U.S with a majority of that in Los Angeles. Do Won Chang is the company’s president and co-founder with his wife Jin Sook Chang.
“We worked ten to twelve hours a day for subminimum wages and no overtime,” says Esperanza Hernandez, one of the garment workers. “A lot of our factories were dirty and unsafe, with rats and cockroaches running around.”
The workers joined together to ask Forever 21 to pay their owed wages and to ensure that all the factories it uses abide by labor laws and respect the workers. The company has so far refused. The workers have launched a public campaign and a national boycott with the help of the Garment Worker Center to educate the public about sweatshops and ask for support in winning justice from Forever 21.
In September 2001 the workers filed a lawsuit with the help of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. Unfortunately the lawsuit went in front of Federal District Court Judge Manny Real in March 2002. Judge Real granted Forever 21’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. In hearing that motion, an attorney for Forever 21, from the law firm Latham and Watkins, actually said that Forever 21 is at the top of the “food chain.” He used that argument to say that Forever 21 should not be held responsible since the retailer did not hire the garment workers directly. However, the workers believe morally and legally that since Forever 21 is at the top, it should be held liable. Without the workers, Forever 21 could not make over $300 million in revenues like it did in 2002.
The workers are appealing this erroneous decision of Judge Real in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. They hope oral arguments will be heard at the end of 2003 or by the beginning of 2004.
Two days after Judge Real’s decision, Forever 21 and its president Do Won Chang filed a defamation lawsuit (also known as a SLAPP suit) against the 19 workers, the Garment Worker Center (GWC), Sweatshop Watch, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), and 3 staff members of GWC and Sweatshop Watch. Forever 21 and Mr. Chang claimed that the workers and their supporters had defamed and libeled the company and its president as well as that they had been a nuisance and were carrying out unfair business practices.
After a month of pressure from supporters around the country, Forever 21 and Mr. Chang withdrew this defamation lawsuit against the 19 workers but continue against GWC, Sweatshop Watch, CHIRLA, and the 3 staff members. We are confident this SLAPP suit will be dismissed in state court.
In the meantime, more workers who sew Forever 21 clothes have come forward since then to denounce sweatshop conditions in their factories, and they have joined the campaign to pressure Forever 21 to settle the workers’ lawsuit and to take responsibility for the conditions in these factories where their clothes are made.
More than 100 politicians, celebrities, organizations, and individual supporters have endorsed the workers’ boycott. Protests continue outside Forever 21’s Los Angeles-area stores as well as Koreatown’s Oxford Palace Hotel which is co-owned by Do Won Chang, President of Forever 21. Please endorse the boycott and join the workers at their protests.
so after reading all this and seeing these pictures makes me really sad. sad that they use sweatshops and sad that i cant shop there anymore. i didnt make this post to have you stop shopping there, but to be more aware. thanks for reading and caring whoever does.
and i found this too.
Justice for Forever 21 Garment Workers
19 Workers sewed Forever 21 clothes in 6 different downtown Los Angeles sweatshops and are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars
Nineteen garment workers joined together in September 2001 to launch a public campaign and a lawsuit against Forever 21, a popular retailer of young women’s clothing. They sewed the Forever 21 label in six different sweatshops in downtown Los Angeles under deplorable conditions. Some earned as little as $3-4 per hour. Forever 21, also called Fashion 21 and Forever XXI, is a multi-million dollar company based in Los Angeles, with now over 140 stores around the country and forty of those in California. An estimated 95% of its production is done in the U.S with a majority of that in Los Angeles. Do Won Chang is the company’s president and co-founder with his wife Jin Sook Chang.
“We worked ten to twelve hours a day for subminimum wages and no overtime,” says Esperanza Hernandez, one of the garment workers. “A lot of our factories were dirty and unsafe, with rats and cockroaches running around.”
The workers joined together to ask Forever 21 to pay their owed wages and to ensure that all the factories it uses abide by labor laws and respect the workers. The company has so far refused. The workers have launched a public campaign and a national boycott with the help of the Garment Worker Center to educate the public about sweatshops and ask for support in winning justice from Forever 21.
In September 2001 the workers filed a lawsuit with the help of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. Unfortunately the lawsuit went in front of Federal District Court Judge Manny Real in March 2002. Judge Real granted Forever 21’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. In hearing that motion, an attorney for Forever 21, from the law firm Latham and Watkins, actually said that Forever 21 is at the top of the “food chain.” He used that argument to say that Forever 21 should not be held responsible since the retailer did not hire the garment workers directly. However, the workers believe morally and legally that since Forever 21 is at the top, it should be held liable. Without the workers, Forever 21 could not make over $300 million in revenues like it did in 2002.
The workers are appealing this erroneous decision of Judge Real in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. They hope oral arguments will be heard at the end of 2003 or by the beginning of 2004.
Two days after Judge Real’s decision, Forever 21 and its president Do Won Chang filed a defamation lawsuit (also known as a SLAPP suit) against the 19 workers, the Garment Worker Center (GWC), Sweatshop Watch, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), and 3 staff members of GWC and Sweatshop Watch. Forever 21 and Mr. Chang claimed that the workers and their supporters had defamed and libeled the company and its president as well as that they had been a nuisance and were carrying out unfair business practices.
After a month of pressure from supporters around the country, Forever 21 and Mr. Chang withdrew this defamation lawsuit against the 19 workers but continue against GWC, Sweatshop Watch, CHIRLA, and the 3 staff members. We are confident this SLAPP suit will be dismissed in state court.
In the meantime, more workers who sew Forever 21 clothes have come forward since then to denounce sweatshop conditions in their factories, and they have joined the campaign to pressure Forever 21 to settle the workers’ lawsuit and to take responsibility for the conditions in these factories where their clothes are made.
More than 100 politicians, celebrities, organizations, and individual supporters have endorsed the workers’ boycott. Protests continue outside Forever 21’s Los Angeles-area stores as well as Koreatown’s Oxford Palace Hotel which is co-owned by Do Won Chang, President of Forever 21. Please endorse the boycott and join the workers at their protests.
so after reading all this and seeing these pictures makes me really sad. sad that they use sweatshops and sad that i cant shop there anymore. i didnt make this post to have you stop shopping there, but to be more aware. thanks for reading and caring whoever does.