10 to 13-year-olds Sewing "I Love My Wal-Mart" Shirts

An undercover investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's "Zone Libre" program found children 10 to 13 years of age sewing blue "I love my Wal-Mart" shirts in several Bangladesh factories. The children were paid less than ten cents an hour and forced to work long hours in dimly lit and dirty conditions. The children also sewed t-shirts carrying Wal-Mart's "Simply Basic" private label.

When caught, feigning shock and outrage that its code of conduct had been violated, Wal-Mart pulled its work out of the factories that CBC exposed. This was the worst thing Wal-Mart could have done! It just further punishes the very kids Wal-Mart was exploiting. The right thing to do, the moral thing, would be for Wal-Mart to keep its production in these factories while seriously working with its contractors to clean up these plants and to guarantee that the fundamental legal rights of the workers are finally respected. Wal-Mart should be held accountable to provide monthly stipends to these children so that they can now attend school. Children belong in school, not in sweatshops. Surely Wal-Mart, as the largest corporation in the world with $10.5 billion in profit last year, could easily afford to do this.

WAL-MART OWES THESE CHILDREN!

TELL WAL-MART TO DO THE RIGHT THING!

Take Action Now! -- Download a Letter from http://www.nlcnet.org/news/walmart_cbc.asp to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott (Word Doc) or (PDF)and mail or fax it to him and tell him that this is NOT RIGHT!

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Last Modified: Monday, 03-Apr-2006 16:01:29 EST
This page: http://apheda.org.au/campaigns/child_labour/news/1144043895_16723.html