Sun Thyda works seven days a week at a GAP factory in Cambodia. She works at least ten hours each day. She is physically and verbally abused by her employers. She earns $40 dollars a week. She has no money left after food and rent. She has not seen her family in months. She eats and sleeps in a small room, along with 10 other workers. Sun Thyda is only 12.
Twenty-eight children working under similar conditions as Thyda’s were rescued from a GAP factory in New Delhi, India, on Oct. 30.
GAP operates over 12,000 factories in 42 countries, in search of cheaper labor and raw materials. According to the UK’s Socialist Worker newspaper, GAP’s Russian factory workers, many of whom are Chinese immigrants, are paid $0.11 an hour.
“Companies like GAP need to go to developing countries because that’s where they have a cost advantage and a competitive advantage,” said Deena Burris, assistant professor of business management, who teaches international business and money and capital markets. “They use a market where they can get cheaper labor and raw materials, because if they manufacture in the U.S. then they would go out of business, since their products would be much more expensive.”
Burris said that since companies like GAP use contract labor, they do not actually own the manufacturing factories that are making their goods, which allows many contractors, like the supplier in New Delhi, great control over who gets hired, how much they are paid, and how adequate the working conditions are.
After the British Sunday Observer published a report on the use of child labor at the factory by the Indian supplier, Indian police, labor officials and NGO Prayas raided the factory.
According to the Socialist Worker, similar journalistic interventions and personal activism led these allegations against GAP’s child labor policies to be examined in mainstream media.
“Because the mainstream media is paying attention to the issue, Americans are becoming more informed about the problem” said sophomore Laura Herman, an international relations and Spanish double major. “There is a big disconnect between the consumer and the corporation, but now since people are becoming more informed, then they might demand that GAP change and monitor their labor practices.”
James Shields, director of the Bonner Center for Community Learning, stressed the importance of personal activism which was essential in bringing GAP’s foreign policies into the mainstream spotlight.
“If you are trying to protest things like GAP’s child labor practices, you need to supplement that protesting with education,” Shields said. “You have to learn how to be an activist by taking your passion and turning it into action. This is the only way change will actually occur.”
According to the Socialist Worker, personal activism and awareness led newspapers like The Observer to cover the story. After the initial coverage, many others were quick to do follow-up reporting.
The Telegraph reported that the children were forced to work from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day and all lived together in a small room, with one window.
According to CNN News, most of the children found in the New Delhi factory were between seven and 12-years-old, and were sold to the sweatshop by their families in towns like Bihar and West Bengal. The children are not allowed to leave the sweatshops until they repay that initial fee.
Some had been working up to 16 hours each day but had not been paid for extended periods of time, because their employers still considered them to be trainees.
“Since GAP uses contract labor, they send quality-control employees sporadically, but they do not always have control over things like child labor, because who knows what happens when they are not there,” Burris said.Yet, according to the Socialist Worker, Neil Kearney from the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation said, “Major companies like GAP, Nike and other retailers have almost a daily presence in these companies . They insist on high standards as far as quality is concerned. There’s absolutely no reason why they cannot insist on the same standards for working conditions and why they cannot monitor those on virtually a daily basis.”
Even though Herman, who has served as an activist for Right Sharing of World Resources, a Quaker organization that works towards economic development in poor nations, believes that raising awareness is crucial to making a difference, she said “Sadly, the basic American consumer doesn’t care about things like working conditions or ethical practices abroad, because what they are looking for is the lowest price. Regardless of labor practices, people are still are going to shop at GAP.”
Even though children working in the New Delhi sweatshop were saved due to activist and media involvement, there are still countless child labor atrocities in countries like El Salvador, Indonesia, Honduras, Russia, and of course Cambodia, where children like Sun Thyda labor.
On the other hand, GAP’s quest for low prices in order to maximize profits is extremely successful.
According to the Socialist Worker, in 1999 GAP has made a $1.1 billion profit in and spent $550 million on advertising.
GAP Chief Executive Millard Drexler earns $172.8 million in salary, bonuses and share options.
Chairman and founder of GAP, Donald Fisher is worth $8 billion and is one of the 100 richest people in the world.