First daughter and uncomfortably ambiguous advisor to the president Ivanka Trump is a vocal supporter of her father’s “buy American, hire American” initiative, but she’s now having to answer for a damning report of labor violations at the Chinese factory that produces her clothing line.
The Washington Post reports that dozens of violations of international labor standards have been cited in an audit of the factory, which is owned by the G-III Apparel Group. The company owns the exclusive rights to manufacture and distribute Ivanka’s fashions.
The Post makes note that the inspectors’ report, “comes as the president’s daughter has sought to cast herself as both a champion of workplace issues and a defender of her father’s ‘buy American, hire American’ agenda.”
To add to the farce, Ivanka has also just released a book called Women Who Work.
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“We can add billions to the global economy by creating an enabling environment, increasing women’s labour force participation and business ownership, and improving the productivity of their work,” Trump wrote in a Financial Times essay Monday.
Workers at the G-III factory were expected to work 57-hour weeks “on a regular basis” to achieve production targets, exceeding Chinese laws that limit overtime.
And Ivanka’s brand is all about productivity. For factory employees’ hard work, workers were paid between 1,879 and 2,088 yuan per month — about $255 to $283 — coming in at below minimum wage in some parts of China.
On top of that, the factory fell short on its obligations to provide “social insurance” benefits as well as housing assistance.
Then there were the safety concerns — the factory failed to properly train workers, putting theme at serious risk of injury.
Earlier this week, Ivanka was booed by a crowd after making the assertion that her father is a “tremendous champion of women.”
It looks like the apple doesn’t fall far from the orange.
NateOcean
Smarmy Bitch.
KaiserVonScheiss
Sweetshops are a necessary evil, and every developed society has gone through the sweetshop stage.
Developing countries like China are labour-intensive. As their workforce becomes more productive through capital accumulation, working standards will improve and wages will rise. The good news is that they don’t have to invent new technology like we in the developed world had to do back in the day. All they have to do is buy capital equipment. They will move from a labour-intensive economy to a more capital-intensive one like we have in the West.
FYI, I think protectionism is stupid. Free trade allows societies to specialise in what they are better at producing.
NateOcean
“sweet shops” ?
(she’s still a heartless, self-absorbed, bitch)
KaiserVonScheiss
*sweatshops
DMRX
Since they’ve had 4000+ years to figure that out (and have been the world’s largest economy for most of the past 2000 years) I’m not going to hold my breath. But you go ahead and defend them. Idiot.
natekerchel
Ah the ‘classical liberal’ – who as a self claimed member of a group never get anywhere near real political power because we don’t live in 1890 any more – is doing his best to justify yet more inhumane trump behaviour. To claim that sweatshops are a ‘necessary evil’ is as absurd as it is untrue, as is the Reaganite/Thatcherite 1980’s economic claims of the ‘trickle down’ effect. It was discredited as promoting greed and selfishness then and nothing has changed. ‘We can add billions to the trump fortune…’ is a more appropriate line for her ‘essay’.
KaiserVonScheiss
You forgot to mention I’m a monarchist.
There’s nothing absurd about my claim. Every developed society went through that stage. People in sweatshops generally choose to work in sweatshops because it’s better than the alternative.
It may sound good to shut them down, but what is the alternative? People choose the sweatshops because they see it as an opportunity to improve their lot in life and provide a better future for their children. Removing sweatshops robs these people of that opportunity.
These developing economies don’t have the productive capacity to ban sweatshops. But as the society saves and accumulates capital, the marginal product of labour shall increase. With it, there will be a rise in wages and improvements in working conditions. As I stated previously, these countries are lucky in the fact that they don’t have to invent this technology anew. As the wealth accumulates, capital will be purchased and the marginal product of labour will rise.
Note: by “capital” I mean the economic definition of capital — plant and equipment, etc.
1EqualityUSA
Greed leads to the exploitation.
jckfmsincty
She’s just a less crude version of her inept father.
Jack Meoff
Despite anything that comes put of her mouth at the end of the day she is just an opportunistic cow who is only interested in making money like her father. The whole family is vile.
MediaGuy
Oops. Looks like the Washington Post retracted this story. The sources were discredited and the retraction was issued. Time for due diligence Queerty. You really oughta check your sources. You guys are a victim of the out of control media hubris. The joke is on you really, you’re way too sure that the media’s bullshit is true. But even the progressives can be victim of fake news.