The GAP

At The Gap, the net annual profit is $877.5 million and the salary of a Cambodian worker is 21 cents and hours. A report by Unite shows patterns of abuse in 43 Gap factories across 3 continents. Some abuses were desperately low wages, unsafe working conditions, physical abuse, sexual harassment and harsh cruelty when they stand up for their rights. In El Salvador, Gap workers who tried to form a union called the STIT, lost their jobs when the Gap eliminated the work out of their factory. In Cambodia, a union leader was severely beaten with an iron pipe outside The Gap’s factory gates for leading a worker’s strike against harsh working conditions and low pay. In Bangladesh, Gap workers have been threatened by supervisors with physical harm and dismissal if they are believed to be union sympathizers. Workers are also forced to sign two sets of time sheets, one which overstates their wages for inspectors and potential buyers and one which reflects their actual wages. In Lesotho, over 60% of interviewed Gap workers said they had worked without protective face masks and close to half demonstrated a serious respiratory ailment during interviews. In Mexico, 70% of Gap workers interviewed had experienced serious needle punctures due to unsafe machines. In Indonesia, workers report that they work as many as 13 hours a day but are paid for only 40 hours of work a week.




http://www.dartmouth.edu/~greens/thefacts.doc