Oh L.L. Bean You Are Worse Than Suspected.
In preparation for tomorrow morning’s Corporate Responsibility Mondays . . . L.L. Bean seems to have modified their Wiki and took down the information I posted about their company’s questionable labor ethics. My write up here. Their Wiki here. I mean who likes the truth anyway? And who really wants to correct a bad situation? Let’s just ignore and/or modify history. Sounds a bit revisionist to me. But don’t worry. I’ve remedied the situation.
[tags]L.L. Bean, Corporate Responsibility[/tags]
Corporate Responsibility Mondays.
I think I’m going to start a new little thread around here. On Mondays I’m going to start highlighting a company each week that has poor ethics in regards to environmental standards, labor practices, customer service, and/or product quality. This started recently with me as I’ve been attempting to become more aware and knowledgeable about the things that I buy. Which is certainly not easy to do in our age of marketing and (mis)information. But I’ve decided that if I’m going to give a company my money . . . then it might be a wise decision to at least be familiar with how they handle their business. It doesn’t make very much sense for me to financially support someone or something that goes against the grain of what I value. So with no further ado . . . I present to you this week’s company.
L.L. Bean is a clothing retailer that attempts to appeal to outdoor enthusiasts. In 2005 alone, the company brought in more than 1.4 billion dollars in revenue and had over 3,900 employees. L.L. Bean has often portrayed an environmentally friendly image in it’s advertising. And while it is true that they have formed partnerships with various conservationist groups, they have a laundry list of labor violations.
The National Labor Committee (NLC) documents a series of workers’ rights violations in their Saidan factory (a factory in Jordan), which sews t-shirts for L.L. Bean (the average shirt for L.L. Bean costs between $15-$29). The lack of respect for workers’ basic human rights include:
1. Human trafficking and involuntary servitude of guest workers
2. Confiscation of workers’ passports and denial of legally required identification cards
3. Routine work shifts of 16 to 17.5 hours, with workers typically logging 118 hours of work a week
4. No sick days, paid vacations, or government holidays allowed. Workers received only one Friday off every other month
5. Wages below the legal minimum without overtime pay
6. Workers denied 60 percent of the wages legally due to them
7. Sporadic pay
8. Inadequate and unsanitary working conditions
9. Workers subject to pay reduction, humiliation, violence and threats if production goals not met
This hardly sounds like a company with fair labor practices. The question has to be . . . is paying $29 for a t-shirt worth 30 days a month, 16 hours a day, of another human’s life?
Sources: The National Labor Committee & Responsible Shopper
You can also check out L.L. Bean’s Wiki (which I updated to include this information at Eric’s suggestion)
Tags: Corporate Responsibility, Labor Violations, L.L. Bean, National Labor Committee, Sweatshop Labor