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Your Call

Today on Your Call: What is the real cost of cheap fashion?

On today’s Your Call, we’ll have a conversation with Elizabeth Cline author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. She says because the clothing industry being so labor intensive, in order to make cheap clothes, you need cheap labor. According to government statistics, the average wage of sewing-machine operators in the United States is now $1,660 a month compared to just $38 in Bangladesh. How is the clothing industry taking advantage of cheap labor in other countries? And what will it take to ensure fair wages and safe working conditions in the garment industry at home and abroad? It’s Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:

Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion

Ben Hensler, general counsel and deputy director of the Worker Rights Consortium

Web Resources:

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion

Worker Rights Consortium

 

Golden Gate Express: Bangladesh safety monitor trumpets workers rights at SF State

Rebecca Burgess: Fibershed Project

The Wild: Bangladesh Worker Rights and the Fast Fashion Appetite
Clean Clothes Campaign
The Guardian: To Die For – Is Fashion Wearing out the World? Book review
My Year Without Clothes Shopping: To Die For – Is Fashion Wearing out the World?

The Washington Post: U.S. retailers aren’t signing a new safety agreement for Bangladesh. Here’s why.