IRI-L/CARE-L
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WParch/1997-02/16/136F-021697-idx.html
Reaping Abuse for What They Sew
Sweatshops Once Again Commonplace in U.S. Garment Industry
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 16 1997; Page A01
The Washington Post
After an arduous trek across the border from her native Mexico,
Aurora Blancas made her way to New York City and took the first
job she could find: sweeping floors and packaging clothes sewn
by other illegal immigrants at a sweatshop in the garment
district.
No experience -- or documents -- necessary.
"I started working the same day I asked for the job," she said.
"The boss asked me my name and how old I was. Nothing more."
But unlike her fellow workers, Blancas, 28, did not accept
quietly the exploitation and abuse that followed when she was
hired last summer to work in the dilapidated Eighth Avenue
building.
Although her willingness to speak out makes Blancas unusual,
the place that employed her and the conditions she found there
are not.
Despite a ledger of laws against them and periodic pledges by
government and business leaders to crack down, sweatshops have
made a remarkable comeback in America, evolving from a relative
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Article-ID: 04_1997&1175413
Score: 78
Subject: new to a.s.d., need advice/support