An intimate look behind Gelmart's sweatshops

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Background

In 2003, 33 year-old Pearly Gonzales¹ collapsed from heat exhaustion while working a 13-hour shift at a garment factory in the Philippines. The day was hot, and as usual, the industrial fan was broken. Sweating and working through the heat, she was working furiously to finish assembling as many bundles of bras as she could - which was essential because her wage was set on a piece rate scale.

After almost a year of recuperation, Pearly has finally been able to return to work at the factory, where workers assemble bra pieces for Gelmart Industries Philippines, a larger factory three hours away in Manila. She hoped that things would be better, only to find that conditions were still the same. Pearly still has to work 13-hour shifts and occasionally even 22-hour shifts. Her piece rate is so low that even for 13 hours of work, Pearly receives less than the legal minimum wage stipulated by Filipino labor law. She receives no overtime pay or night pay, and the heat inside the factory is still unbearable - especially during the summer.

Three hours away, at Gelmart Industries Philippines in metro-Manila, the working conditions are different. An independent labor union with a collective bargaining agreement represents workers, safeguarding the rights of workers. Yet, for the hundreds of other workers manufacturing Gelmart orders in facilities outside of Manila, they do not have the protection of a union. Instead, they suffer the consequences of Gelmart's greed and cost-cutting ways.

Gelmart Industries, Inc., which is headquartered in New York City and owns Gelmart Industries Philippines, is a privately owned company that specializes in the manufacturing and distribution of intimate apparel. Gelmart generates estimated revenues of $150 million annually through the sale of its products at discount retail stores like K-mart, Wal-Mart, and Dollar General and specialty retail stores.

Gelmart assembles intimate apparel for brand name companies like Jockey and Frederick's of Hollywood, Gelmart's own name brand bras like Lady Marlene, and for its retail brand customers like K-mart and Wal-Mart. Using Gelmart Philippines as the manufacturing flagship, Gelmart makes some of these goods in its facility in metro-Manila and distributes other orders to subcontract facilities that exploit workers like Pearly Gonzales.

The president of UNITE HERE sent letters of concern to Gelmart's clients regarding the labor conditions. Wal-Mart and Jockey responded by saying they were going to investigate the situation. Frederick's of Hollywood's attorney responded by enclosing Gelmart Philippines' Certificate of Compliance issued from the Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production² (WRAP), a certification program where the factory contracts with an independent monitor to investigate its factory to verify compliance to standards. Rather than refute or acknowledge the issues, Frederick's of Hollywood used Gelmart's WRAP certification as a shield to elude responsibility. Yet, if they did their homework, they would know that a factory WRAP certification does not extend to its subcontractors.

So far K-mart has not responded to our letters.

Gelmart Industries and its business partners need to take responsibility for the labor conditions and improve working conditions immediately.

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¹Worker name is a pseudonym to protect the individual from retaliation.

²WRAP's [Its] appeal for manufacturers and retailers is in its lower workplace standards and the shifting of the responsibility especially financial responsibility on to the factories themselves rather than themanufacturer or retailer. Maquila Solidarity Network, "Critique of the Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production (WRAP) Program" April 2000.

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