Date: Sun, 20 Aug 1995 11:07:10 -0400
Subject: Neo-Imperial Assault 


   Ponder the parallels of this NYT article on the garment
   industry with Progressive Architecture's August articles on
   the rag-tattered architecture profession. Much of what Reich
   says about fashion industry trends is true of the
   art/design and construction industries, at least in New
   York City, with MBA mutually beneficial cultism, er, wise
   business plans, among the art-culture celebs and their
   financial-legal marionetteers who cheerfully disregard
   borders in art and design domains.

   These nitrite-loaded bacons club, inebriate, engorge and
   emflatulate in the Hamptons and Gstaad together, oinking 
tres
   amusant vanities of outfoxing local laws for losers, while
   underwriting resume-grants to academicize quaint
   ethnologies of primitive benevolence -- neo-traditionalist,
   iron-fisted civilists all -- Calvin uses neo-primitive sex
   and Trump HRH-prince-ily deploys faux-historicist
   preservation to mask disdainful, neo-imperial assault of 
ill-paid,
   ill-treated, illegal oh-so-colonial "immigrant" laborers.

----------

   The New York Times, August 20, 1995, Week In Review, p. 7.


   Conversations / Robert B. Reich. How an American Industry
   Gets Away With Slave Labor

      [Photo] Secretary Reich: a plan to prod manufacturers
      and retailers. The Labor Secretary, saying most
      Americans don't want clothes made in sweatshops, appeals
      to higher-ups in the 'garment food chain. ' 


   Just 10 days atfer about 70 illegal immigrants from
   Thailand were freed from a prison-like California garment
   factory, where they had worked in virtual slavery, Federal
   labor officials notified more than a dozen large retailers
   last week that goods from the sweatshop may have ended up
   in their stores.

   Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich said the retailers had been
   asked to attend a meeting in Washington next month to
   discuss ways of preventing apparel made by slave labor from
   being sold in American stores. The invitation came amid a
   widening investigation of the garment shop in El Monte,
   Calif., and debate about the many other, more traditional
   sweatshops that still fail to pay minimum wage or overtime
   and often ignore health and safety laws.

   In an interview, Mr. Reich elaborated on what the
   Government, retailers and garment manufacturers can do to
   curb abusive labor practices.

   By Alan Finder


   Q. Do stores know from whom they have purchased apparel or
   under what conditions it has been been produced?

   A. The garment "food chain" is fairly complicated.
   Manufacturers often subcontract with cutting and sewing
   shops. The retailers contract with the manufacturers.
   Retailers increasingly specify what kinds of garments and
   the particular designs they need. Manufacturers using
   just-in-time inventory techniques deal with a whole set of
   subcontractors. It's often difficult for retailers to know
   precisely where a garment is cut or sewn.

   Q. Was the women's garment industry fragmented this way so
   manufacturers could avoid responsibility for working
   conditions in shops? Or were economic conditions behind the
   creation of these complex networks?

   A. We see the same pattern in many other industries.
   Increasingly, industries are fragmenting into networks of
   contractors and specialized subcontractors. The old model
   of a large, vertically integrated mass-production
   enterprise is becoming outmoded simply because consumers
   can now have goods tailored to their particular needs.
   Technology permits a wider array of enterprises to create
   niche markets and to supply one another with specialized
   services.

   Q. Do you think consumers care whether clothing that they
   buy was made in a sweatshop or a factory that was abiding
   by all the labor laws?

   A. Undoubtedly consumers are interested first and foremost
   in price and quality. But most American consumers probably
   don't want to buy clothes made by slave laborers in the
   United States.

   Q. What can the Government do to make consumers more aware
   and force retailers and manufacturers to be more vigilant?

   A. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 authorizes the
   Department of Labor to bar interstate shipments of goods
   made in violation of the act, such as in sweatshops. That
   power was used rarely in the past. But it has proved to be
   an important instrument to get an industry to take
   responsibility for preventing these kinds of abuses. By
   barring shipments or threatening to bar them, we've managed
   to make significant progress. The numbers of workers who
   have been identified as working in sweatshop conditions and
   whose employers have been fined has grown by 50 percent
   over the last 2 1/2 years.

   Now in this instance we traced the invoices to several
   national retail chains, Mays department stores and so on.
   There's no evidence that these retailers knew that the
   garments that they bought were cut and sewn by slave
   laborers in the United States, but I don't think it's too
   much to ask them to take greater responsibility for helping
   prevent these kinds of abuses in the future.

   Q. You're planning to meet with a number of these national
   retailers. What do you want them to do?

   A. Let me give you an example. In June, we got the
   agreement of many brand-name manufacturers operating in Los
   Angeles County, representing about a third of the garment
   industry in Los Angeles, to voluntarily audit their cutting
   and sewing contractors for compliance with labor laws. This
   was a direct result of our enforcement efforts. Obviously
   the manufacturers did not want to run the risk of having
   their shipments impounded. By the same token I would expect
   that retailers don't want to run the risk of not having
   their orders filled because the garments they ordered were
   produced by sweatshops.

   Retailers are also concerned about their public images.
   They want to be good corporate citizens, I assume. The
   national retailers and brand-name manufacturers working
   together can police this industry because they are directly
   in the food chain.

   Q. The number of Federal labor investigators declined by
   about 20 percent in the last six years. Do you have enough
   resources to crack down on sweatshops?

   A. No. We've done a great deal with relatively few
   resources, because we've enlisted the help of manufacturers
   and we've used the legal authority in the Fair Labor
   Standards Act, which had rarely been used before. But
   obviously the industry has got to start taking a greater
   responsibility. There are nearly one million employees in
   the industry who are cutting and sewing garments. Almost 80
   percent are women. In Los Angeles County alone there are
   100,000 cutters and sewers in 4,000 separate cutting and
   sewing shops. It's extremely difficult for Federal
   inspectors to root out sweatshops. Manufacturers, however,
   know whom they are contracting with. Retailers are able to
   follow the invoice trail and assert some pressure on
   manufacturers and their subcontractors.

   Q. American manufacturers are often competing with foreign
   manufacturers who pay much lower labor rates. Is it
   reasonable to expect American companies to remain
   competitive, or should we consider abolishing laws like the
   minimum wage and allow the international marketplace to
   determine labor rates here?
             
   A. The garment industry in the United States is alive and
   well despite foreign competition. That's because there is
   an increasing demand for quick turnaround. Fashions change
   quickly, retailers want certain models, patterns, designs,
   immediately. It's often difficult for retailers to get the
   quick turnaround from foreign-sourced manufacturers.

   The amount of money we're talking about here, the
   difference between a sweatshop and a legitimate cutting and
   sewing operation, is relatively small considering the cost
   of the final garment. Remember, retailers are often marking
   up 60 to 100 percent.

   Q. Are you reasonably optimistic that the American garment
   industry will do a better job of policing itself?

   A. The cutting and sewing end of the garment industry in
   the United States has had a sad history of worker abuses
   for more than a century. Immigrants, some of them legal,
   some illegal, crowded together in unsafe, unsanitary
   conditions working for very little money have characterized
   cutting and sewing shops since the turn of the century.
   Sometimes there's a calamity like the Triangle Shirtwaist
   Factory fire in New York at the turn of the century, in
   which hundreds are killed. Laws are then enacted. But
   enforcement is always difficult.

   Unscrupulous employers and vulnerable workers in
   fly-by-night operations that can move from one location to
   another within days or hours make a difficult target for
   enforcement. The question is whether national brand-name
   manufacturers who contract with these small enterprises and
   large national retailers can have an impact. I'm cautiously
   optimistic.

   [End]

----------

   Supplement to Progressive Architecture, August, 1995 issue.

   New Directions in Architectural Practice

   A one-day conference conducted by Progressive Architecture.

   Listen to what firms, both large and small, are doing to
   adapt to the changing economics of architectural practice.
   Learn what impact the globalization of practice is having
   on the structure and operation of firms, as well as on the
   type of work they produce. Hear how strategic mergers with
   other firms can position your office to take advantage of
   opportunities. Find out how the structure of the medical
   and legal professions is relevant to architectural
   practice, especially that of small firms.

   Discuss with management consultants your own thoughts about
   where you see the practice of architecture going. Discover
   what they see as important trends in practice and how the
   profession might respond to them.

   Pursue with colleagues your ideas about restructuring
   practice and education. Share with others your work
   experiences and how you see the profession steering a
   course for the future.

   Earn 10 AIA continuing education credits for your
   attendance at the presentations and panel discussions and
   your involvement in the question and answer period. Take
   away ideas and information directly relevant to the
   successful operation of your own firm.


   Responding to New Client Demands

      The Impact of the Megafirm
      Larry Self, Chief Operating Officer and Executive
      Director of European and Middle Eastem Operations, HOK,
      St. Louis, Missouri

      What Mergers Mean to You
      Robert Hillier, Chief Executive Officer, The Hillier
      Group, Princeton, NewJersey

      The Rise of Small Firm Alliances
      Louis Marines, President, Advanced Management Group and
      Founder of the design-firm alliance Strategic Team of
      Allied Resources (STAR), San Francisco, California


   Responding to New Project Delivery Methods

      Revolutionizing the Small Firm
      Dale Mulfinger, Partner, Mulfinger, Susanka & Mahady
      Architects, Minneapolis, Minnesota

      Why Design/Build May Be in Your Future
      John Merkler, Practice Management Associates, Ltd.,
      Newton, Massachusetts.

      The Impact of Information Technology on Practice
      Jerry Albert Laiserin, Executive Director, Design
      Technology Forum and Design-Office-Technology Committee,
      Woodbury, New York










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