School uniforms = sweatshops

I'm 35, and I don't wish to dwell on the matter of mandatory school uniforms. But as the cancer of uniforms grows, I must - even as I attempt to ration the number of entries here about the topic.

SweatFree Communities is a Maine-based organization that fights the evils that define sweatshop exploitation. SweatFree has now issued a report revealing that sweatshop labor is found in the school uniform industry.

Many uniforms are made at a factory in Chittagong, Bangladesh, that dishes out ruinous abuses to its workers. The factory makes them work 19-hour days for only $20 a month - in clear violation of Bangladesh's minimum wage law. Employees are forced to stand for hours if they show up late. They are also beaten and verbally abused.

The sweatshop's biggest customer is...Wal-Mart. This despite the fact that Wal-Mart boasts in its ads that it prefers dealing in American-made goods (a claim that was long ago debunked). The retail giant sells the uniforms under the Faded Glory brand. The 19-hour days were introduced to meet Wal-Mart's orders.

SweatFree was more than fair. They sent Wal-Mart a draft of the report before releasing it to the public so the store chain would have time to mend its ways. But Wal-Mart pleaded and pleaded for the report not to be made public.

Too late, Wal-Mart.

(SweatFree was going to release the report anyway, but it was only fair to provide Wal-Mart advance notice.)

Wal-Mart is so influential in Bangladesh that if the company had taken steps long ago, sweatshop abuses could've been stemmed significantly. It's impossible for sweatshops to be so widespread there without Wal-Mart's approval.

School uniforms mean sweatshops and abused workers. Why should families be forced to buy extra clothes that were made in a ghastly sweatshop just to appease a school's diktat? Look hard enough, and you can find ordinary clothes that are certified sweatshop-free - and may cost less than the uniform your school makes you buy.

Is the media still going to claim uniforms are the world's great economic equalizer? They knew anyway it wasn't true, but are they going to keep getting away with it?

If you support school uniforms, you're supporting sweatshops.

Why should you let anyone force you to buy something made in factories where workers have to put in 19-hour days for subminimum wages and get beaten throughout?

(Source: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2008/db2008109_219930.htm)