Zara: Demand Driven Child Exploitation
Zara, the mostly vertically integrated retailer famous just as much for its supply chain as its fashionable threads, can now add another credit to its list of accomplishments: child labor exploitation (credit for the title and the hat-tip, by the way, goes to Pierre Mitchell). According to an article I just read, "The Spanish fashion chain Zara's parent company Inditex, had started an investigation into the "extremely grave" accusation that one of its sub-contractors is paying the children 20 cents to sew the interior of 50 pairs [of shoes] a day ... Children are being employed by the sub-contractor to make the shoes in Felgueiras, a depressed area where many textile factories have closed in recent years, stated a report." Zara is more famous for its fast, nimble supply chain than its choice in cheap labor. Perhaps this is how they can afford to air freight shipments to stores worldwide -- which they have been known to do.
- Jason Busch
- Jason Busch
:)
I was an employee of ZARA in the Netherlands, even in a country like this, where supposedly that cannot occur, the exploitation of workers takes place:
They do not pay the breaks nor the extra hours I worked, in seven hours of labour i could only get 15 minutes break, I was obligued to work in days such as 31st December and so on.
I had no rights whatsoever even though they were stipulated on my contract and what is even worse, most managers who are in charge are ignorant and sometimes mean. But what I found the most worse of all is that even on a day like the 31st one had to work just so that alienated consumers could buy what they do not even need.
We do not need cheap products what we need is a high conciousness, one cannot accept to be dressed and fed by means of exploted workers and meanly killed animals.