Activists Allege Kohl's, Others Use Sweatshops

M I L W A U K E E, Aug. 22 -- Rosa Esterlina Ocampo Gonzalez says she used toendure daily indignities simply to make cheap outfits forAmericans.

The Nicaraguan woman recently worked for a sweatshop in her homeland that she says mistreated her and her fellow workers. Aftershe tried to help form a union, she alleges she was fired.

Gonzalez was one of two workers invited Monday to recountconditions at two Nicaraguan factories that human rights, religiousand labor groups claim supply Kohl’s Department Stores with cheapgarments.

“They mistreated us physically and verbally,” said Gonzalez,22, who worked at the American-owned Mil Colores plant. The secondplant was identified as Tawainese-owned Chentex.

Kohl’s spokeswoman Susan Henderson said the company sentindependent auditors to Mil Colores this spring, and they did notfind sweatshop conditions.

The company, based in Menomonee Falls, will be conductinganother third-party audit of the factories, she said. Kohl’s has298 stores in 25 states.

The Chentex factory produces Sonoma jeans for Kohl’s, and MilColores produces High Sierra, a label owned by the Target Corp.,which owns Target Stores.

K-Mart spokeswoman Michele Jasukaitis said that chain also doesbusiness with Chentex and sent inspectors to the factory on a“very regular basis.” The company will look into the newallegations, she said.

Stores: ‘We Found No Evidence’

Patty Morris, spokeswoman for Target Stores, says the companydoes business with Mil Colores and has done four audits on thefactory in the last year, with the most recent in April.

“We found no evidence of abusive working conditions or overtimeissues,” Morris said.

Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee of New York, anonprofit group that focuses on workers’ rights worldwide, saidworkers at the sweatshops have been verbally and physically abused,live on “starvation” wages and work more than 90-hour weeks.