Don't You Just HATE Getting Caught Before The Christmas Rush?

Gap cancels shirt order after child labour report

BloombergPublished: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
NEW DELHI (Bloomberg) -- Gap Inc., the biggest U.S. clothing retailer, cancelled an order for girls' blouses Sunday after a newspaper reported that a subcontractor in India had used child labor to make the clothes.
The line was scheduled to be in stores in the U.S. and Europe before Christmas, the Observer newspaper said yesterday. Gap said it will meet with suppliers to reinforce its manufacturing policies. The newspaper's investigation found that children working in slave-like conditions in New Delhi were making garments with serial numbers matching those for a line Gap had ordered for sale later this year, the London-based Observer reported.
"Under absolutely no circumstance is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments. It's a non-negotiable for us," Dan Henkle, the company's senior vice-president of social responsibility, said in a statement.


The company said it began a probe after being told of the newspaper investigation. Gap stopped the blouse order and sent letters to 2,000 suppliers calling for a meeting to reinforce its policy on child labor.
Gap requires suppliers to guarantee that they don't use children to produce garments, and has a team of 90 employees monitoring compliance through unannounced visits and other means, Henkle said.


Blah blah blah. It all comes down to "too bad we were caught before our Christmas rush! We could have sold all those shirts and been apologetic later!"

In case you are interested, a list of Gap companies from Wikipedia:

Gap
Gap Outlet
GapKids
babyGap
GapBody
GapMaternity
Love Me Gap
Love (Gap Accessories)
Old Navy
Old Navy Outlet(All stores converted to Old Navy on October 2, 2007)
Banana Republic
Banana Republic Factory Store
Forth & Towne (discontinued)
Piperlime
Gap Warehouse (discontinued)
Brands (discontinued)
Hemisphere (discontinued)
Pants %ff (discontinued)
Pottery Barn (sold to Williams-Sonoma)
SuperGap (discontinued)
Tagg's (discontinued)
You & You (discontinued)

Now so far, I haven't found anything on Loblaws (superstore and affiliated companies) and child labor, and I hope I won't because I love their new lines and have weaned myself off Old Navy and onto Joe the last few months. (that hurt, it REALLY hurt) HOWEVER, said lines of clothing are pretty new and I am just waiting for an expose on where these new Joe clothes are made....sigh. The article below says they are made in Asia...who knows.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/arts/story.html?id=05bbea15-5a36-4812-b982-5617da42afd5

Quote:

Next on Mimran's plate is swimsuits, which will debut next spring. He also wants
to improve product quality while maintaining low prices. Quality, he says, can
vary with the Asian factories where the products are made, although he
emphasizes that all of them have strict manufacturing processes, respect
workers' rights and are inspected regularly.

We shall see says I....