Letter from El Monte sweatshop
Letter from El Monte sweatshop
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- Description
- This letter, written in Thai, belonged to a worker in the El Monte sweatshop. On August 2, 1995, police officers raided a fenced seven-unit apartment complex in El Monte, California. They arrested eight operators of a clandestine garment sweatshop and freed 72 workers who were being forced to sew garments in virtual captivity. Smuggled from Thailand into the United States, the laborers’ plight brought a national spotlight to domestic sweatshop production and resulted in increased enforcement by federal and state labor agencies. The publicity of the El Monte raid also put added pressure on the apparel industry to reform its labor and business practices domestically and internationally.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- Letter, With Envelope
- date made
- 1993
- place made
- Thailand
- place found
- United States: California
- Associated Place
- United States: California, Los Angeles
- United States: California, Los Angeles
- Physical Description
- paper (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 10.5 x 8;
- ID Number
- 1997.0268.12
- accession number
- 1997.0268
- catalog number
- 1997.0268.12
- Credit Line
- U.S. Department of Justice. Immigration and Naturalization Service
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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