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USA : Daisy Fuentes blouses made in Guatemalan sweatshop
June 21, 2007 |  |
 Daisy Fuentes, TV host, model and actress, has been using a sweatshop in Guatemala to produce her clothing line, including blouses and other garments sold exclusively at Kohl's department stores.
According to Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the NYC-based National Labor Committee, conditions at the apparel factory, Fribo, S.A, in Santiago Sacatepequez are abusive and illegal under Guatemalan law.
Workers are paid twenty five cents for each Daisy Fuentes blouse that sells for $22-38 in the United States. This wage provides a below-subsistence standard of living for the young women who sew the garments.
Workers are routinely forced to work sixty hour weeks but believe that they often do not receive compensation for their overtime labor.
Workers are cheated of health care, maternity and pension benefits because the factory owner does not send the fees he deducts from workers' wages for these benefits to the Guatemalan Institute for Social Services.
Other labels for which the Fribo factory produces garments include Wet Seal, Filia and Dress Barn's Maurice's. | | | | National Labor Committee |  |
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