Colgate Toothpaste, 1990s

Colgate Toothpaste, 1990s

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Description
This toothpaste was sold at the El Monte company store. Shop operators forced workers to buy food and personal items from them at inflated prices. The toothpaste was seized during a well-publicized 1995 sweatshop raid and is part of a larger Smithsonian collection of artifacts documenting apparel industry sweatshops, focusing on the El Monte operation.
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
Toothpaste
date made
Late 20th Century
1990s
place made
United States
Associated Place
United States: California, Los Angeles
United States: California, Los Angeles
Measurements
overall: 1 3/4 in x 9 in x 2 in; 4.445 cm x 22.86 cm x 5.08 cm
ID Number
1997.0268.17
accession number
1997.0268
catalog number
1997.0268.17
Credit Line
U.S. Department of Justice. Immigration and Naturalization Service
See more items in
Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
El Monte
Work
Sweatshops
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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