You should read this Washington Post investigation of Ivanka Trump's clothing manufacturing practices for a lot of reasons—to hear from the workers, to be reminded how far Trump rhetoric on workers diverges from Trump practice, and to learn something about what goes into your clothes, Ivanka-branded or not. Sample:
A 25-year-old woman said PT Buma hires her as a fabric cutter on a day-to-day basis, paying her a monthly salary that ranges between $68 to $135 for as much as 24 days of work — far below the region’s minimum wage and a rate that workers advocates say is probably a violation of local law.
The fabric cutter and her husband have to borrow money to cover their daily expenses and those of their 10-year-old son, who lives 45 minutes away with his grandmother. She sees him about once a month.
Their possessions consist of her husband’s motorbike and their clothes. “I have nothing,” she said.
Inside the factory, workers said supervisors berate employees if they fall behind their targets or if stitches need to be redone. “Work faster, these clothes are urgent,” one 30-year-old employee said she was told. “Why do you work slow?”
Erik Loomis summarizes:
… if anything, the Ivanka brand is even worse than the average American apparel manufacturer in caring about conditions in their supply chain. And let’s be clear, the average American apparel manufacturer is far worse than the average European manufacturer …
● Can workers at a Mississippi Nissan plant unionize?
Publicly, Nissan boasts that it invests millions on plant safety while paying relatively high wages to its workers, ranging from about $12 to $26 per hour (a living wage for a single parent and a child in Mississippi is roughly $20). But workers want more than a paycheck; they want their work to feel valued and to build their community.
“Money is not the main issue at all,” said Patricia Ruffin, in comments published in a recent union report. Ruffin says that, having worked at the plant since it launched, she was more concerned about declining safety than whether their campaign will drive the plant out of Canton. “The main issues are our healthcare and safety. It’s gotten to the point where there’s an injury every day. It wasn’t that way in the beginning. They showed more concern back in 2003.”
● Homecare workers have our lives in their hands. They're paid only $10 an hour.
Barrett first came to the US via New York in 2001 and then moved to Miami to join her sister, going straight to her first job interview from a 20-hour Greyhound bus ride. Stepping in to greet her new client, she was met with a racial slur. “I worked my magic and I ended up staying with her for about four months,” she says.
Shortly thereafter, she settled into a live-in job with another elderly couple. At first, she moved her things into the only spare bedroom in the house. But when her client asked where she was sleeping, and Barrett told her, “she said: ‘You must be out of your cotton-picking mind.’ That was the first time I was hearing those words, ‘cotton-picking’. She took everything out from that room. And for five and a half years, I spent those nights sleeping in the study – and I am a tall girl – on a sofa with my feet hanging over.”
● Churches, nonprofits worry about poor amid federal budget cuts.
● Sears managers to get huge bonuses while laid-off workers don't even get severance.