Most of us college aged girls and guys shop at Forever 21, H&m, Ross, Zara, and Marshalls. It’s affordable clothes that we can buy at a decent price, however most of us don’t think or don’t know better said where this clothes actually comes from. Around 80% of clothing is being imported from China. American companies find it cheaper to get it made overseas in sweatshops, many of them in terrible condition, letting underage children work there. There have been many instances where these factories were in such bad condition that they have exploded or burned down taking many lives. It is terrible that work like that for such a minimal amount of pay is allowed.
What is even worse is that work like that is still allowed and most importantly being ignored by the very people placed in positions to help here in Los Angeles. Yesterday I was able to be a part of a march to help bring awareness to this cause. The Garment Worker Center of Los Angeles gathered up alongside many volunteers in the community and students from the Fashion program from Cal State LA such as myself to march in front of Ross, which is one of the biggest culprits accused of paying workers hourly wages as low as 5.00 an hour and giving them poor insect ridden conditions to work out of.
The victims have to put up with terrible working conditions and low wages for many reasons, one of them being not being legal citizens yet they are the ones that contribute so much of the work done to benefit us middle and higher class citizens. Without them we would be in a crisis, and instead of appreciation our government treats them with disregard.
After the march we held in front of Ross, we marched to City Hall to see if Mayor Garcetti or elected official Jose Huizar would come out and at least hear us out, but they did not. This goes to show how little they really care about the people in their community. I am sharing this humbling experience with you guys because we are the future and it is up to us to make a difference! The Garment Workers Center has Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and on there you can find many ways to help!