Gap Exploitation Essay -- essays research papers

Gap Inc. was founded in 1969 by Donald and Doris Fisher in San Francisco, California, with a single store and a handful of employees. Today, they’re one of the world's largest specialty retailers with three of the most recognized and respected brands in the apparel industry - Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy. Gap Inc. has more than 153,000 employees supporting over 4,200 stores in more than 3,100 locations in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Japan and Germany. Their 2004 Sales were well over $15 billion, bringing in a net income of $1.03 billion, a 115.7% income growth from previous year. Gap Inc contracts factories in 64 Countries, allegedly also making clothes within the US . And by â€Å"Made in the USA,† they mean, â€Å"Made in the indigenous countries that, out of desperation, joined the United States in hopes of gaining more stable government regulations, yet remain excluded from basic employment rights and minimum wage laws.† The â€Å"guest workers† from countries like Saipan, who joined the United States in 1975 to be citizens of the â€Å"land of the free,â€Å" commit themselves to conditions that are simply shameful to basic human rights. Once committed, workers who toil for 12 hours daily behind barbed-wire fences, eat infested food, sleep on cots in dormitories that they are forced to pay more "fees" for, and work "off the clock" hours that they aren't paid for, can’t escape from the madness, unless they can pay a mandatory $10 thousand dollar fee for this â€Å"privilege.† Despite over 1,000 citations over a mere 5 years in Saipan, GAP remains stern on their refusal to pay a settlement with exploited workers. One worker was quoted: â€Å"Before 1997, we called for the strike because we were forced to work overtime with no opportunity to take a holiday, we wanted to go home for the holiday. But now we have so many holidays, and we have no money to go home. There is nothing in balance†¦ I have no question why people commit suicide.† Of course, not all of the factories that GAP contracts could possibly conduct themselves like that, right? They have model factories like the Shin Won factory in Guatemala, acclaimed by industry reps and retailers, as well as winning several exporting awards in recent years. From afar, Shin Won is just an average factory ... ...other loan for $20 from a loan shark.† To think that these are just individual problems or â€Å"special cases† is outright foolish. 24 of 27 factory workers in Lesotho said that they owed money to loan sharks. Even more shocking, many loan sharks are supervisors at the factories in which these people make a living. This means that the supervisors can deduct money from the checks of people who borrowed the money. What does this mean to the workers? Weeks of work without pay, and the need to, you guessed it, borrow more money. How could so much corruption ensue in these factories when the Gap’s 90 inspectors are paid to keep tabs on violations of their Code of Conduct? One Lesotho worker had this to say: â€Å"In our factory we have this policy that we have two separate time sheets, one for the buyer and for the owner. Whenever the buyer comes, they show that person a sheet which does not have our actual salary. The management does not show the buyer our original time sheet, the one which shows what we are actually paid. We have two time sheets, and we have to sign both sheets. If I don’t then I will get fired. I have no other option but to sign both sheets.†