Corporate America and the Poor
All that is needed for evil to triumph in the world…is for the good to do nothing.

Did you know…

Disney has its Mickey Mouse and Pocahontas pajamas manufactured in Haitian sweatshops where workers earn 12 cents per hour. A Haitian worker earns only 7 cents for every pair of pajamas she sews, which sell at Wal-Mart for $11.97. These wages amount to one-half of one percent of the sale price. The National Labor Committee found workers are mainly young migrant women who work up to seven days a week and 12-18 hours a day for about $4.20 per week (many working 112 hours). Workers have to sleep in slave-like chambers, on triple-decker bunk beds in overcrowded rooms (even fitting 8 women to a 5 by 10 foot room). Workers are also fined for violations such as failing to turn off dorm lights. CEO Michael Eisner made over $10 million last year.
For more info: www.nic.org (212) 242-3821 or coopamerica.org or sweatshop.org (510) 834-8990. To contact Disney: Michael Eisner 500 South Buena Vista Street; Burbank, CA 91521 (818) 560-1000

GAP Owning not only GAP but also Old Navy and Banana Republic, making it one of the most profitable and fastest growing clothing retailers, Gap Inc. was worth over $28 billion in 2000. CEO Millard Drexler made over $39 million. In Hong Kong, workers in Gap factories make between 13.5 and 36 cents an hour. Independent research groups in Hong Kong say a wage earner must make 87 cents an hour to meet even the most basic survival needs. The workers in Russia make 11 cents an hour and are kept in slave-like conditions. Honduran Gap workers earned less than $4 a day, which meets 1/3 of their basic needs. Despite Chinese labor laws which establish a maximum 49 hour work week, Gap workers in China must work 16 hour days, 6 days a week. Gap (along with Eddie Bauer) buy t-shirts from Mandarin International plants in El Salvador. The poor produce 1500 t-shirts a day at 16 cents each, and Gap and Eddie Bauer sell them for $20. The poor doing the work only made about 50 cents an hour.
For more info: www.globalexchange.org -or- www.adbusters.org To contact Gap: Gap Community Relations at 1 Harrison Street; San Fransico, CA 94105. !-800-GAPSTYLE

Guess? creates its terror right here in the U.S. In Los Angeles sweatshops, thousands of workers make significantly less than minimum wage (over 3000 workers). Guess has been found in violation of a number of labor codes, by the U.S. Department of Labor, who also have fined Guess contractors hundreds of thousands of dollars. A Labor Department investigation revealed that its workers were paid $170 for working 50-55 hours per week. The hourly wage averaged as low as $3.10, and consistently workers earn $110-130 for 40 hour weeks. Fortune magazine blasted Guess as a bad investment because of these sweatshops (which they depicted as "filthy, cramped, and overheated"), saying, "Guess became America's #1 designer jeans seller by creating huge retail demand for $70 garments that cost $15 to make" (Fortune, Oct. 14, 1996). Even after long hour workdays, many workers end up taking clothes home for "industrial homework" and make Guess clothes late into the night in their own homes, a practice banned decades ago (because of the very high probability of child labor). Workers are paid next to nothing, consumers pay high prices, and owners of Guess live in luxury. The three owners of Guess are the three multimillionaire Marciano brothers, Maurice, Paul, and Armand, who took home a quarter of a billion dollars over the last three years.
For more info: www.uniteunion.org (212) 265-7000 or (212) 819-1959 -OR- compugraph.com (202) 544-9355 or (212) 819-0885. To contact Guess: 1-800-39GUESS or 1444 S. Alameda St.; Los Angeles, CA 90021.

Lockheed Martin is the world's largest weapons corporation, the U.S.'s #1 international arms dealer, the U.S.'s chief nuclear bomb contractor, and one of the country's largest welfare profiteers (LM is making huge profits directly off human need, from "government privatization" of public welfare). Each year Lockheed Martin receives more than $32 billion from the public treasury. Norman Augustine, former CEO, made over $23 million each year. There are 190 independent countries in the world. Last year, 154 of them received arms produced by U.S. arms manufacturers, among which LM is the leader. That is 80% of the world receiving weapons made in the USA by arms manufacturers, the largest of which is Lockheed Martin.
For more info: www.geocities.com/brandywinepeace/index.htm (610) 544-1818

Nestle Corporation is the world's largest food manufacturer, with factories in over 80 countries and a turnover of $52 billion. Nestle has an annual promotion budget of nearly $8 billion (to counteract the desperate reality of babies dying from the conversion from breast milk to formula). Nestle controls about 40% of the world baby milk market, aggressively promoting their baby milk products in developing countries, and discouraging breastfeeding. Nestle gives free samples of formula, even through clinics (and in African countries [they] continue to distribute these samples despite government requests not to). The use of formula causes the mother's milk to dry up, rendering her incapable of nursing, even if she wanted to. Parents are then forced to buy the formula. In countries like Chile, breast feeding has declined from 90% to 5% since the introduction of these products. Formula milk lacks the immunological protection which breast milk provides. UNICEF reported that bottle fed infants are as much as 25% more likely to die than breast-fed babies (and are also prone to significant long term deterioration of intellectual acuteness and reading comprehension). Over 4000 babies die every day in poor countries because they are not breastfed. Moreover, many cannot read the directions to properly mix the formula (or must over-dilute it in order to prolong use), or they may not have sanitary water with which to mix it. The World Health Organization estimates that over a million babies die each year because they contract diarrhea from unhygienic bottle feeding (that's one baby every 30 seconds). Nestle continues to label products for infants as young as 2 weeks, despite The World Health Organization's insistence that complimentary foods only be introduced at 6 months (one marketing strategy in Malaysia boasted "ideal for delicate infants"). Nestle has even hired nurses as "health educators" to visit nursing mothers and encourage them to use Nestle products. (Not to mention the oppressive working conditions of Nestle workers themselves in areas like Magnolia and the Philippines). Sojourners, October 1989. Boycott,1996.
For more info: www.urban75.com or www.infant.org (617) 695-2525.

Nike makes 80% of its shoes in Asia, where the New York Times says Nike is committing "serious human rights abuses," ranging from torture to rape to murder. CBS reported on "48 Hours" that Nike workers in Vietnam have regularly been beaten and sexually abused. These workers struggle to survive each day, while Nike sees over $550 million in profits, revenue of $6.5 billion. Advertising is Nike's key to success. Through it, they can concentrate attention on Jordan or Agassi and off the injustice that are perpetuating. The cries of the oppressed are not stopping Nike, says the New York Times, for "each cry is a signal that their investment is paying off." Michael Jordan receives more money annually for advertising the products than all the workers combined earn for making them.
For more info: sweatshopwatch.org (510) 834-8990 or stopsweatshops.org, also Michael Moore's movie "The Big One" or book Downsize This. To contact Nike: Phil Knight at One Bowerman Drive; Beaverton, OR 97005-6453 1-503-671-6453

Taco Bell is part of Tricon Global Restaurants, together with KFC and Pizza Hut. They control more than 30,000 restaurants, forming the "world's largest restaurant system". Their sales reached nearly $22 billion in 1999, with Taco Bell alone reporting over $5.2 billion. And yet Taco Bell refuses to make sure its workers are not abused. Taco Bell's tomatoes are picked by migrant farm workers in Immokalee, FL who make less than $7500 a year. They make 45 cents for every 32 pound bucket they pick. So they have to pick nearly two tons of tomatoes a day to earn just $50. And this wage has remained virtually unchanged for over 20 years.
For more info: www.ciwonline.org (941) 657-8311. To contact Taco Bell: Mr. Emil Brolick, President Tocao Bell Corp. 17901 Von Karman; Irvine, CA 92614 (949) 863-4500

Wal-Mart and Kathie Lee Kathie Lee garments, which earn over $300 million in sales annually (and her over $9 million), are being produced by teenage girls working in abysmal conditions in Honduran sweatshops with Global Fashion. These girls as young as 13 work 15 hour shifts under armed guards, receiving 31 cents an hour to produce clothing sold under a label which promises that "a portion of proceeds from the sale of this garment will be donated to various Children's Charities." One of the workers, 15 year old Wendy Diaz, has exposed much of the horror. She started working in the factory when she was 13. She tells brutal stories of managers grabbing women and girls, and only being allowed to go to the bathroom twice in her 11 hour shift. She made $3.74 for each long day's work.
For more info: www.uniteunion.org (212) 265-7000 To contact Wal-Mart, David Glass CEO Wal-Mart Home Office @ 702 SW 8th Street Bentonville, AR 72716

May we keep in mind that TODAY:
over 35,000 children will starve to death
1.3 billion people live in absolute poverty (under $1 a day)
the average US citizen will consume the same amount as 520 Ethiopians
the US will use over 43% of the world's resources with less than 6% of the world's population
the richest 20% of the world have 83% of the world's stuff
the poorest 20% of the world have 1.4% of the world's stuff
358 people own the same assets as 45% of the world's poorest
In 1965 the average U.S. worker made $7.52 per hour while the person running the company made $330.38 per hour. Today, the average worker makes $7.39 per hour, the average CEO $1,566.68 per hour-trickle-up economics, the transfer of wealth from the increasingly poor to the increasingly rich.