Spring Break
Gap Inc. admits many of its overseas workers mistreated
Low pay, psychological abuse among problems disclosed in company report
By: MICHAEL LIEDTKE
Issue date: 5/13/04 Section: News
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In an unusual display of corporate candor, Gap Inc. on Wednesday acknowledged that many of the overseas workers making the retailer's clothes are mistreated and vowed to improve often shoddy factory conditions by cracking down on unrepentant manufacturers.
The San Francisco-based owner of the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic stores made the comments Wednesday in its first ever ''social responsibility'' report - a 40-page document that mixed contrition about the past with promises to do better in the future.
''We feel strongly that commerce and social responsibility don't have to be at odds,'' Gap CEO Paul Pressler told a small gathering of shareholders Wednesday at the company's annual meeting.
As the company strives to hold its overseas suppliers more accountable, Gap is uncovering thousands of violations at 3,009 factories scattered across roughly 50 countries. ''Few factories, if any, are in full compliance all of the time,'' the report said.
Workplace activists who have long chided Gap for making its clothes at so-called ''sweatshops'' praised the merchant for shedding light on rampant abuses that have been haunting the clothing industry for years.
''We think this goes far beyond the public relations fluff that other companies put out a lot of the time,'' said Bob Jeffcott, policy analyst for the Maquila Solidarity Network, a workers' rights group in Toronto. ''By making some very candid admissions, they are taking an important first step toward cleaning up the problems.''
Gap's commitment is particularly significant because the factories supplying the merchant may employ 300,000 workers combined, estimated Bruce Raynor, president of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. ''We have had our differences with Gap in the past and probably will again, but this is something that deserves to be applauded.''
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest company and a frequent target of sweatshop critics, plans to review Gap's report to get ideas on how it might improve conditions at the factories supplying its merchandise, said company spokesman Bill Wertz.
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