Celebrity Fashions International Limited is a shop sewing shirts for Abercrombie & Fitch, Timberland and Indian Terrain (an Indian brand of clothing). This shop had a goal that day of putting together four hundred shirts. During our briefing, the managers gave information on cotton grown in India, harvesting and some history of cotton in India and Pakistan. We started our tour in another building where fabric was rolled out and cut with precision. From there the pieces were brought into the main building, assembled and processed for shipment. As we entered the gates, there was a sign saying that only those over the age of eighteen years would be considered for employment. Both men and women worked in these buildings with mostly women using sewing machines. There was signage saying that all overtime was voluntary. It was explained to the group that the business ran six days a week with an average work day of eight hours. There were several buses in the backyard that the managers explained were for transporting employees to work. We were told that the average time it took an employee to come to work was thirty miles or one hour of travel. This site employed 1400 employees. There was a lot of signage throughout this building with an employee bulletin board in the front explaining HR policies, etc.
We were not shown any recreation at this site to garner camaraderie amongst the employees. There was no visit to a break room or cafeteria. The average employee was making $100 USD per month. The price tag being snapped into the fabric of an Abercrombie & Fitch man’s shirt showed $78.50 (USD). Most surprising as we departed was the sight of all of the women’s handbags on shelves outside of the building (inside the gates of the shops but untended by any of the security guards).
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