The following is reprinted with permission from The New York Times. © Copyright 2026 The New York Times. All Rights Reserved.
Sweatshop fight off to good start
by Bob Herbert
April 20, 1997President Clinton's initiative in the fight against apparel-industry sweatshops around the world was announced this week. Given the scope and complexity of the problems to be addressed, it's not a bad start at all.
But it is only a start. It is much too soon to think about sewing those "No Sweat" labels into the clothing and footwear of the companies that have signed onto the
The Workplace Code of Conduct agreed to by the members of the president's task force prohibits forced labor and the employment of young children in apparel factories, requires apparel companies and their contractors to pay the minimum wage established by local law, recognizes the right of employees to associate freely and bargain collectively, and prohibits physical, sexual, psychological and verbal abuse or harassment.
THE TASK force, known as the Apparel Industry Partnership, is a coalition of labor, human rights and consumer groups, and several major apparel makers, including Nike, Reebok, Liz Claiborne and Nicole Miller. The coalition will now set up an association to begin implementing the code of conduct, and to address some of the many important issues still to be resolved.
The companies that have joined the partnership have agreed to allow outside monitors to inspect their factories. And while the monitors will be hired by the companies, they will have to be approved by the new association and will be required in the course of their inspections to consult with human rights organizations concerned about the plight of sweatshop workers.
"It's a historic and significant beginning," said Jay Mazur, a member of the task force and president of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. Referring to the apparel companies, Mazur said: "For a long time a large part of the world has been their oyster and they were able to do whatever they wanted. Now there are certain guidelines that are supposed to be followed."
PROBABLY THE biggest disappointment for people who have done pioneer work on the sweatshop issue was the inability of the task force to agree that all factory workers should be paid at least a subsistence wage. In places like Haiti and Vietnam, for example, the legal minimum wage is not enough to cover the most basic needs of a full-time worker.
"Until workers are paid a livable wage a sweatshop will continue to be a sweatshop," declared Medea Benjamin, director of Global Exchange, a human rights group based in San Francisco.
There are other concerns. Will the inspections be thorough and fair, and will abuses be made public? What good will it do to recognize that workers have a right to organize in, say, a country like China that has exhibited such contempt for the concept of freedom of association?
Will the "No Sweat" labels, so coveted by the companies, be meaningful guides for consumers when they are finally awarded, or will they become mere public relations devices that serve to obscure rather than eliminate workplace abuses?
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