Description

This phony time card was maintained for Hang Ngoc Tan for the week of May 10th, 1996. This time card, along with others seized from El Monte by U.S. Department of Labor investigators, shows an employee working eight hours a day. Further investigation revealed that she actually worked much longer hours.

On August 2, 1995, police arrested eight operators of the clandestine El Monte garment shop and freed seventy-two Thai nationals who had been working in a form of modern slavery. Workers, recruited in Thailand, were promised good pay and good working conditions. After signing an indenture agreement for $5,000 they were smuggled into the United States with fraudulent documents. The workers were paid about $1.60 an hour with sixteen-hour workdays in horrifying conditions. They were held against their will in a razor wire enclosed complex with an armed guard and were jammed into close living quarters. By 1999, eleven companies Mervyn's, Montgomery Ward, Tomato, Bum International, L.F. Sportswear, Millers Outpost, Balmara, Beniko, F-40 California, Ms. Tops, and Topson Downs, agreed to pay more than $3.7 million dollars to the 150 workers who labored in the El Monte sweatshop. As in most cases of sweatshop production, these companies contend that they did not knowingly contract with operators who were violating the law.

Location

Currently not on view

date made

Late 20th Century

place made

United States: California, El Monte

Measurements

overall: 9 in x 3 1/2 in; 22.86 cm x 8.89 cm

ID Number

1997.0279.12

catalog number

1997.0279.12

accession number

1997.0279

See more items in

Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering

Work

Sweatshops

El Monte

Data Source

National Museum of American History