Labor issues in the garment industry are widespread around the world, and an investigation in Los Angeles has revealed it’s rampant among Made in the USA products as well.

More than $3 million in back wages are reportedly owed to more than 1,500 garment industry workers based in the Los Angeles area, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The investigation found that the back wages come out to $1,900 per laborer, “the equivalent of five weeks of typical pay,” reports the Times. “The cases revealed Los Angeles workplaces with ‘all the features of a sweatshop.’”

The situations were shocking: Some of the work environments included “shaky elevators with flickering lights” and the sewing employees “were paid 9 cents per piece of clothing stitched — a rate that often falls below minimum wage,” the Times reported, and some of the employees’ pay stubs “could be redeemed only at check cashing stores that charged fees.”

With much of the garment industry moving its labor to countries like Bangladesh, China and Vietnam, Los Angeles’ garment factories have dramatically decreased in the last two decades. But it’s still employing more than 46,000 workers, making it the second-largest manufacturing industry employer in the area, behind transportation equipment, and the wages are almost half the countywide average of $1,161, reports the Times.

The contractors cited for owing back wages work with some of the nation’s best known brands that boast their Made in the USA products, including Macy’s, JC Penney and Kohl’s, and according to the Times, “The Los Angeles garment industry runs on a system in which retailers order from manufacturers, who rely on a network of subcontractors to cut, dye, sew, trim and finish items. Profit margins are slim and competition is intense.”

Many of the contractors are willing to pay the penalties over labor issues because paying the penalties is cheaper than paying the people what they’re rightfully owed.  And even when the issue is identified through an investigation, workers aren’t guaranteed payment. According to the Times, a report released earlier this year by the UCLA Labor Center and the National Employment Law Center “found that it is very difficult for workers to recover unpaid wages, even when the state rules in their favor. From 2008 to 2011, workers recovered only 42% of about $390 million in unpaid wages verified by the state, the report concluded.”

Since 2009, there have been more than 1,600 Labor Department investigations of the garment industry in Los Angeles, with 89 percent of those investigated resulting in violations.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Image: marissa orton

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With 20,000 square feet of space and all the equipment emerging fashion designers need to produce their lines, Manufacture New York will help bring fashion production back to the U.S.

It is probably safe to say that most designers would prefer to produce their pieces close to where they live and work. While the need to keep costs and prices down are often given as a reason why some choose to manufacture overseas, access may be the real issue. The small, dedicated team behind Manufacture New York are trying to change that.

Envisioned as a fashion incubator and factory hybrid, Manufacture New York aims to provide independent designers with the resources and skills they need in order to streamline their production process and transform local manufacturing into the most affordable, innovative option available.

The new facilities, located in Brooklyn’s Industry City offers more than 20,000 square feet of space and will include a fully-equipped sampling room, manufacturing facilities, classroom space, private studios for rent and a state-of-the art computer lab complete with the industry’s latest software for design and production. Some of these spaces will be open to the public, and there will also be a dedicated area for experimentation with environmentally-friendly fabric washes, dyeing, finishes and special textile applications.

To fund this new venture, Manufacture New York is currently running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. The funds raised will go towards three necessary components of the organization: location, equipment and, most importantly, new jobs.

“In the last two decades, the United States has lost 80 percent of its apparel manufacturing jobs, and the decline of the Garment District in NYC is a visible sign of these crippling losses,” says Manufacture New York Founder and CEO Bob Bland. “There isn’t enough support available for emerging designers in the fashion industry currently. We need to join together as a community, engage the public and use our collective voice to resurrect apparel manufacturing for a new generation. Demand for affordable, consistent local production is high, and yet we continue to lose jobs to overseas factories that are facing worker unrest and a desire for higher wages themselves.”

Bland is leveraging a decade of practical experience as a designer, for her own label BrooklynRoyalty, as well as brands like Marc by Marc Jacobs, Triple Five Soul, Rugby by Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Banana Republic. She is joined by a dynamic team of organizers, including Tara St. James, designer of Study NY and 2011 Ecco Domani winner, as well as a growing community of more than 60 apparel and accessory designers.

Help make this a reality by lending your support to the campaign, which runs through March 31st. Awesome perks include eco-conscious, locally-made goods, tickets to the VIP wrap party, goodie bags, a custom-tailored dress or suit, a two-month membership to Manufacture New York, and tickets to a NYFW runway show.

All images courtesy of Manufacture New York

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Several large companies are bringing clothing production back to the USA, lowering unemployment rates and increasing our competitive ability. But at what cost?

Over the last year, several U.S. based companies have announced that they are bringing production back to American soil. These companies include Apple, Caterpillar, Ford Motor, General Electric and Whirlpool. Among apparel manufacturers, the likes of Karen Kane, hoodie producer American Giant, Keen Footwear, Brooks Brothers, Abercrombie, Opening Ceremony, Levi’s and even Walmart are ‘inshoring’ production to meet the ‘Made in USA’ apparel standard.

In the 1940s this country made 40 percent of the planet’s goods, but since then our manufacturing activity has shrunk to a minute 18 percent. The reason, although not one to be proud of, is the simple fact that labor and other resources became exponentially cheaper in other nations and were more “available” for use. Our material culture has become increasingly dependent on the manipulation of these resources no matter what the cost, mostly due to perceived obsolescence. While a most lucrative business for some of our nation’s richest has become the full exploitation of other countries’ resources and people, too many citizens of this nation wallow in the depressed towns that have been bereaved of the once heavily invested domestic industries. So why have these large companies decided to bring back manufacturing now?

Four main reasons:

1. Labor, transportation, and industrial-land costs are rising in China, one of our largest import countries. Wages are rising at a rate of 15 to 20 percent per year, while wages are stagnant in the U.S.

2. Local manufacturing allows for lower transportation costs and shorter turn-around times, allowing companies to respond to changing consumer demands much quicker. It also allows companies to produce smaller runs of items, cutting back on over-production, as well as increasing efficiency and thus lowering costs.

3. The USA is experiencing an energy boom – unfortunately it is in the name of natural gas. Thanks to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, North America produces more natural gas than any other continent, and is projected to become the world’s largest petroleum and natural gas exporter by 2020.

4. The move is a very political one, and especially tied to the recent elections and insourcing campaigns to decrease unemployment rates and serve a population that is placing more value on U.S. manufactured items.

When Ralph Lauren manufactured the 2012 U.S. Olympic uniforms in China, the label receiving endless amounts of criticism. Since that faux pas, it seems that more attention has been put on apparel manufactured in the U.S. Although domestic apparel manufacturing is still 40 percent more expensive than in China, the factors mentioned above are contributing to a shift, with orders rising by 30 percent from 2010 for several homeland factories. Demand may also have some effect on the shift, as a study from the American Research Group shows that in 2012, 75 percent of Americans were willing to pay more for U.S. made goods, up from the 50 percent in 2010. Consumers, especially in the late twenties/early thirties age bracket, are turning to U.S. made clothing, causing the trend to have taken off for those with an interest in fashion and a disposable income.

Outsourcing of apparel manufacturing was at its peak in 2010, when China made 40 percent of the clothing bought in the U.S. Since then, labor costs in China have been growing rapidly, but so has (rather ironically) Chinese consumer interest in U.S. made clothing. Manufacturing technologies that have not been previously available in the U.S. are also being implemented in our factories, such as the superwashing of wool. French textile processor Chargeurs opened a superwashing facility in South Carolina in the late 2000’s, surprisingly at the behest of the U.S. military. It seems that synthetics weren’t the choice material for soldiers, as their plastic qualities would cause the materials to melt onto their skin from the heat of explosives. In fact, the Kissell Amendment of 2009 requires all military apparel to be made in the USA.

But what about the labor force here? Are there really enough educated and skilled workers to put a highly functioning apparel production industry in place? Currently, no. Young people with the opportunity have sought careers in more lucrative industries, and our education systems do not cater to skilled craft instruction. This can hopefully shift, and will bring with it an appreciation for the crafts among younger generations.

Although production is moving back to the USA, increasing employment opportunities, injecting the economy with more value and creating infrastructure for a country that is seemingly beginning to come apart at the seams, what does all of this mean in terms of the environment?  As mentioned before, a large factor in homeland production is the local availability of  domestic fuel, but one that will give energy guzzling industries such as chemical producers and steelmakers the perfect ‘patriotic’ excuse to produce and pollute more. Fracking involves pumping pressurized fluids through rock formations that are a mile or more under the ground, to extract oil and gas. These rock formations are often surrounded by pure, clean groundwater aquifers that can become badly contaminated with the heavy metals and toxic chemicals used in the process, as well as with the oil and gas itself.  As “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas”, like Nancy Lazer, co-head of New York-based International Strategy & Investment declares, the U.S. will no doubt see be a plethora of investors ready to drive this potentially polluting cause of fracking under blind pretenses such as job creation, economic stability and global energy dominance. It would seem this current petroleum energy investment, production and dependency cycle is one “made in the USA” equation we could do without.

Yet, energy obtained via fracking is in fact a choice many manufacturers are leaning toward, especially in the energy-dependent apparel industry. But what happened to the creation of jobs through green energy investments? Why don’t our nations top researchers embark on studies for the viability of nationwide green energy schemes that can be utilized by cities and industries alike? Why aren’t we more aware of the implications of a Made in the USA? Most importantly, why can’t so many of these large manufacturers, our government and the people of this nation work together to bring honest, responsibly functioning, environmentally sound and highly efficient production systems into existence?

Made in the USA is definitely a direction we should be heading in, but not at a great cost to the environment or the long-term stability of domestic industries. Isn’t now the time to demand and input systems and methods that will work realistically to create a different view of true homeland security in an environmentally and culturally egalitarian country?

Check in next week to hear more about clothing labels that are realizing this and carrying it out.

Image: USDAgov

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