Life Isnt Great for the Overseas Factory Workers Making Ivanka Trumps Shoes
by Sirin Kale JAN 20 2017 6:30 PM
Today, Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States. Online betting sites are offering even odds that he'll be impeached at some point during his first term, but let's not get too hopeful. Whatever happens from this day out, one thing is certain: that Ivanka Trump will sail, serenely as a swan, through it all without a hair or hemline out of place.
The first daughter has built a lucrative and profitable lifestyle brand predicated on a loosely feminist, late-capitalist vision of the working woman. She sells cropped blazers, strappy sandals, and totes. Surprisingly, Ivanka didn't wear her own designs for her father's inauguration, preferring a white Oscar De La Renta dress. Perhaps her velvet-covered cocktail bag wasn't big enough for a spare copy of her father's allegedly self-penned inaugural address. Around the world, people watched and noted what she wore. Some of them might even have been the garment workers in Ivanka Trump's factories, the very women who help stitch her clothes.
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump threatened a trade war with China, to international alarm. And in his inauguration speech, President Trump pledged to rebuild the nation using "American hands and American labor." But the Chicago Tribune reports that his daughter's $100 million fashion label isn't manufactured at home, using homegrown labor. It's made abroad, in Asian countries. According to one Racked investigation, Ivanka Trump-branded footwear has actually been manufactured in China's industrial heartland, the Pearl River Delta.
According to Racked, one factory—Xuankai Footwear Ltd.—has produced over 130,000 pounds of Ivanka shoes to date. Workers at the factory alleged systematic malpractice at the factory, including underpayment for overtime hours and the withholding of wage payments. "I couldn't bear it anymore," said a former worker called Tian, who complained of only being able to sleep six hours a night. "It's a garbage factory," said another ex-employee. Entry-level workers earned, on average, 3,000 yuan ($436) a month—barely enough to get Tiffany Trump and Marla Maples a blow-out.
In a statement to trade publication Footwear News, a business affiliate of Ivanka Trump's line—responsible for the brand's production and sourcing—confirmed that they used the Xuankai factory. "Earlier this year, the factory Xuankai was audited by our consultant with no compliance violations," a spokesperson said.
https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/life-isnt-great-for-the-overseas-factory-workers-making-ivanka-trumps-shoes
= new reply since forum marked as read
