This preliminary report2 examines violations of women workers' human rights in the Choe factories3, located in the heart of New York City (NYC). The contractor, employing Chinese and Latina immigrant women workers, had been producing garments exclusively for Donna Karan International under extremely abusive and exploitative conditions for an estimated 12 to 13 years. A combination of monitoring through surveillance cameras, constant abusive supervision, restrictions on movements and bathroom use, coupled with forced, unpaid overtime created conditions that one worker equated to slavery.
This report finds that most of the human rights of workers under international law – namely the rights to: (1) organize, (2) fair wages, particularly for women, (3) overtime wages, (4) reasonable limitations on working hours, (5) rest and leisure, (6) vacation and holidays with pay, (7) special care and assistance before and after pregnancy and (8) safe and healthy working conditions – have been violated in the Choe factories. These violations are in addition to the violations of domestic labor laws governing overtime, minimum wage, family leave and health and safety standards.
The retailer-manufacturer, Donna Karan, the contractor, Chung Suk Choe, the federal New York State (NYS) Departments of Labor and the Union of Needletrades Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) are all responsible for human rights violations. Since Donna Karan International reaps the most profit and exerts the most influence on working conditions, we find the corporation bears the greatest responsibility for human rights abuses in the Choe factories.
This report is divided into six sections. Section II describes the sub-contracting system, which by its very structure leads to sweatshop conditions. Section III describes conditions in New York City garment factories. Section IV gives a brief background on Donna Karan International and describes the study results, based on standardized questionnaires administered to workers from the Choe factories. Section V discusses the Human Rights Framework, highlighting workers’ human rights and describing human rights violations in the factories. Section VI discusses responsibilities for violations and lists some preliminary recommendations.
2 The Center for Economic and Social Rights, along with independent NYC-based workers' centers, is documenting sweatshop conditions in NYC as part of a workers rights project.
3 Chung Suk Choe operated three different factories at 330 West 38th St., 6th Floor. East Point International, started in May 1986, was in business for the longest time and the workers in this study were employed for the greatest length of time in this factory. East Point was shut down in 1996 after the Department of Labor investigated it. Ms. Choe then created Couture Ltd. and moved East Point workers to the new factory. She also created Choe Ltd. in April 1997 and Choe Ltd. and Couture Ltd. operated simultaneously until one of the Choe Ltd. workers filed for backwages. The contractor shut down Choe Ltd. in December 1998, laid off the worker who had filed for backwages and moved some of the other Choe Ltd. workers to Couture Ltd. Finally, when workers filed a suit against the contractor and Donna Karan, Inc., the owner shut down Couture Ltd. also. All three factories operated in the same building and according to the workers, terms and conditions in all three factories were identical.