I am opposed to rewarding illegal immigration no matter where the immigrants come from, no matter what the color of their skin is and no matter what language they speak. It is unfair to those who do follow our immigration laws AND it makes it easier for the likes of Tyson to exploit the illegals who do want to work when they aren't aware of minimum wage and labor laws.
From: News and Views | City Beat |
Sunday, July 08, 2001
Sweat & Tears?
Still in Fashion in City
Clothing factories skirt labor laws,
exploit immigrants
By BOB PORT
Daily News Staff Writer
Hundreds of garment factories hidden away in buildings throughout New York City repeatedly violate labor laws and underpay their workers to make clothes that end up in major retail stores. Ignoring wage and hour laws is standard operating procedure throughout much of the city's garment industry, a three-month Daily News investigation found.
Some of the fashion world's biggest names, such as Nicole Miller and Henri Bendel, use sweatshops in Chinatown and Manhattan's Garment District.
Some retailers also contract directly with New York sweatshops, cutting out the middleman for their private-label clothes, which are shipped to stores across the country. Within New York's illegal clothing workforce, which is mostly Chinese, there also exists a slavelike subclass: men and women smuggled here by so-called snakeheads, then put to work in factories as indentured servants.
Some have debts of more than $50,000 for their passage. Immigration officials see a gradual worsening of their exploitation.
Unions began fighting sweatshop conditions here a century ago. By the 1960s, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union had won a decent living for most of New York's then 300,000 garment laborers.
But the last three decades have seen domestic garment jobs vacuumed away by cheap foreign labor, leaving an estimated 60,000 sewing workers employed in about 1,500 factories in New York.
SNIP Article HERE
Another article about the wonderful opportunities for illegal immigrants in the fashion industry
Smuggling Debts Bring Servitude Immigrants work 100 hours a week to pay loanshark
and, since the exploitation doesn't stop at the border, here's another:
Landmark Study Shows Mexican Maquiladora Workers Not Able to Meet Basic Needs on Sweatshop Wages
Wow, I'll bet all the honest and hardworking illegal aliens are just jumping for joy at the prospect of landing one of these jobs. Or maybe it's only the immigrants/nonimmigrants who exploit both them and the system who will be really happy.