let’s talk about forever 21
No major corporation is perfect – all of them do some degree of polluting or pricing out smaller independent businesses or such. But forever 21 is a really nasty corporate entity, and it’s clear that a lot of people don’t understand just how bad they are, and just what they’re supporting when they pop in for a cheap blouse or dress. This is information that you should know and consider, whether or not you still choose to shop there.
Sweatshops
Most of the clothing sold by Forever 21 is made in factories here in Southern California. In 2001, a number of women who worked in those factories came to the Garment Worker Center, a local legal center helping apparel workers, alleging they were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages. They were being paid less than minimum wage and were not paid overtime wages, but were required to work between 9 and 13 hours a day, without being allowed meal or rest breaks. They were required to work in factories that were unsafe and unsanitary, infested with cockroaches and lacking drinking water or bathrooms. After months of attempted negotiations with CEO Do Won Chang, the Asian Pacific Legal Center filed wage claims on behalf of 19 workers. (forever 21 campaign timeline, pdf)
So far, all of this is pretty standard. The GWC and APALC file hundreds, if not thousands, of wage claims every year. But what happened next was totally unexpected – CEO Do Won Chang filed suits for defamation and unfair business practices against not only the individual workers who had made wage claims, but also against the attorneys representing them. It is impossible for me to overstate how far out of the ordinary this is. This is Chang saying that when the attorneys claimed that forever 21 owed the workers unpaid wages, they made false statements with intentional malice, with the goal of harming Forever 21.
The entire Los Angeles public interest legal community freaked out. First, we needed more lawyers to represent the individual workers. Next, we needed lawyers to represent the original lawyers. The ACLU had to shut down intake to take on the case, and pretty much every legal aid organization in the area was helping pool resources to defend the organizations. Because while the defamation charges were outrageous and unfounded, and the cases were eventually dismissed because the 1st Amendment protects the workers and their original attorneys, it took two solid years of litigation before they were dismissed.
This had a huge effect on the legal community in LA. Workers were terrified that filing wage claims would result in them being sued for defamation (and finding low-income workers confident enough to file wage claims was already an issue). The public interest legal community was not only stretched for resources but concerned that their staff would get hit with lawsuits for doing the work we do. (For example, during that time period I filed suit against the CA state welfare administration for discrimination against domestic violence victims, theoretically opening myself up to suit from them that my allegations of discrimination were libelous. Again, I can’t overstate how scary that is.)
Eventually the lawsuit was settled (settlement press release, pdf), and the amount paid out is sealed. LA now has anti-sweatshop ordinances that do a better job of preventing such conditions in the first place (as a direct result of this campaign.) But the main message of this whole story was, for me, that not only was CEO Chang content to have his workers undergo sweatshop conditions and deny them wages, he was also willing to go through four years of litigation, including coming up with new and innovative scorched earth litigation methods, to defend his right to do so.
Copyright
Forever 21 has been sued up, down, and sideways for knocking off the designs of existing designers, and thus infringing on their copyrights. Now, I know the reason a lot of people go there is to find trendy stuff at low prices, and knocking off existing designers is part of the appeal. While most of the past cases have settled (which means Forever 21 paid the designers some money), a current case may be going to a jury soon.
The Slightly Creepy Religious Aspects
You may have noticed that there is a bible citation on the bottom of every Forever 21 shopping bag. This is because the company, and CEO Chang and his wife, are strongly religious. Their designers go on Christian missions around the world and the company donates significant amounts of money to churches and Christian educational institutions.
“Mrs. Chang, who attends pre-dawn services every day and strongly encourages her vendors to do the same, makes it a point to give Christians in the industry a leg up, too. “She plucks young designers out of the companies she’s working with,” he says. “And if they’re Christian and religious, she puts them in business.” Rowena Rodriguez, a 33-year-old fashion consultant and one-time “unbeliever” who was born again with Mrs. Chang’s help, may be one of those lucky designers. “In the short time I worked with Mrs. Chang, my life was transformed, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior,” she recalls in an email interview. “Mrs. Chang prayed me into the Kingdom! Rodriguez says she has been approached by executives looking for the secrt to Forever 21’s phenomenal success. “I usually say, ‘If you really want to know, I’ll tell you. But you won’t believe me…The Changs love Jesus!”
Current controversy – South Central Farm land
You may have heard a bit about the South Central Farm – an urban farm and community garden in an industrial area of South LA (typically a non-white and low-income area). There was a big controversy when the land was sold, with farmers disputing the validity of the sale. There were tons of vigils around the closing, with Daryl Hannah sitting in a tree, and the whole thing was an Oscar-nominated documentary, “The Garden.”
Currently, the litigation over the sale of the land continues. But Horowitz, the man who claims he owns the land and who wants to develop it – see if this sounds familiar – filed suit against the protesters for $700,000 for “abuse of process.” Thankfully, the judge dismissed that suit quickly, but the same litigation techniques are clearly in play. Now Horowitz and Forever 21 are working out a deal to build a warehouse and distribution center on the site, despite the fact that litigation continues and ownership of the land is still very much in question. The company has threatened to pull manufacturing out of Los Angeles if they are not allowed to build on the site, and have donated nearly $1.3 million to Mayor Villaraigosa. It’s still very unclear what’s going to happen with all of this.
OH SHIT. i used to work there.
