How to know if a product was made in a sweatshop

December 14, 2008 Cleveland Plain Dealer

By Sheryl Harris

Sheryl Harris writes this column in The Plain Dealer on Sundays.

PLAIN DEALING
A weekly column about consumer affairs

Q: I found a rug at a local chain that looks to be very poor quality, and I'm afraid it was made in a sweatshop. The only label I can find is a piece of tape that says it was made in India.

I asked the store buyer about it, and he said it wasn't made in a sweatshop. Things like that are harder to find out than I would have thought. I don't know what I expected -- a tag that said, "Made by bonded children," perhaps?

-- Bonita Kale, Euclid

A: It is hard to find out the conditions under which imported goods are made.

The RugMark Foundation certifies imported rugs as being made without child labor. RugMark requires certified manufacturers to sign legally binding contracts forswearing child labor and allowing unannounced inspections.

The organization's Web site, rugmark.org, has a "Purchase a Rug" search engine that allows you to search for stores near your ZIP code that carry RugMark-approved rugs. A number are in Northeast Ohio.

The manufacturers who sign agreements tend to make high-end to midprice handmade rugs, says Biko Nagara of RugMark.

He suspects from your description that the rug you saw may be machine made. "Machine made rugs tend to be lower quality but tend to be made without child labor," he said. "That's generally the case."

Just because a rug was machine made, though, doesn't guarantee it was made in decent working conditions or that workers were paid decent wages.

To know whether a rug was made in a sweatshop, he said, you'd need to know the chain of custody -- the hands the rug passed through on its way from loom to retail store.

U.S. law requires most textiles, including rugs, to bear a label listing the fiber content, the country of origin and the identity of the manufacturer or another business responsible for importing, marketing or handling the item.

It's possible you missed the ID for the business: Companies are permitted to use a government-assigned Registered Identification Number, called an RN number, instead of putting their names on the label. (You can find out who has an RN number by visiting www.ftc.gov/bcp/rn/index.shtml.)

But companies also can meet the identification requirement, says Federal Trade Commission attorney Steve Ecklund, just by putting the store's label on the item. "Retailers don't have to reveal the source," Ecklund said.

Fair-trade advocates say it's difficult for consumers to track backward from a product at the store to find out the conditions under which it was made.

"There's no law that prohibits the importation of stuff made in sweatshops," says Jonathann Giammarco of the National Labor Committee, which exposes big-name companies that operate or deal with sweatshop factories abroad, including in Asia.

Bills introduced this year in the U.S. House and Senate would have prohibited the import or sale of sweatshop goods, but they didn't get much traction.

Still, anti-sweatshop groups are optimistic: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were both among the co-sponsors, a factor that could sway the incoming Congress.

Sarah Sommers of the InterReligious Task Force on Central America, a fair-trade group based in Cleveland, says that, for now, if you can't track down the manufacturer or importer to inquire about working conditions, you should do exactly what you did: Contact the store's owner or corporate offices and ask.

The supply chain gets so convoluted, she said, "even large retailers sometimes don't know," especially if they buy through an intermediary.

But contacting a retailer lets its management know the issue is on consumers' radar, she said, and that carries a great deal of weight with store owners.

Some stores have their own sweatshop-free policies that they'll share with you if you ask.

Ohio has a long and proud history of embracing fair-trade products. In 1997, North Olmsted became the first sweat-free community in the country. The local grocery chain Heinen's was one of the first to agree to carry Fair Trade coffee, Sommers said, and grocery stores across the country have since followed suit. Most recently, Gov. Ted Strickland signed an executive order prohibiting state agencies from purchasing products made in sweatshops.

Of course, if you want to buy without qualms, you could look for union or "Made in the USA" labels. Admittedly, that's easier in some product categories than others.

Consumer Wise If you're looking for fair-trade or sweat-free products, here are a few places that may help:

The InterReligious Task Force on Central America lists local shops that sell sweat-free goods and local grocery stores that sell Fair Trade coffee at www.irtfcleveland.org/economicjustice/fairtrade. (You'll see a link to its sweat-free buying guide.)

SweatFree Communities offers its annual shopping guide at www.sweatfree.org/shoppingguide. You'll find online offerings and, way at the bottom, labels that local stores may offer.

Co-Op America keeps a list of union-made products and a link to its National Green Pages business directory at www.coopamerica.org/programs/sweatshops/sweatfreeproducts.cfm. It's searchable by state or by product category.

E-mail your consumer problems to sherylharris@plaind.com, call 216-999-6344 or write to Sheryl Harris, c/o the Plain Dealer, 1801 Superior Ave. Cleveland 44114. Any question submitted may appear in the paper.