Victoria’s dirty little secret

Victoria has a secret.

Victoria’s Secret subcontractor, D.K. Garments, in its Jordan factory is employing 150 guest workers from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka who put in 14 to 15 hours of work each day, seven days a week, with only one day off every three or four months, according to a report from the National Labor Committee.

Since all overtime is mandatory, workers put in about 100 hours each week, and they have virtually no option but to continue in this job, since without residency permits, they dare not venture outside the industrial park.

This might come as a shock to many who attended Victoria’s Secret PINK Nation B-Town Bash on Thursday. The low status of these workers seems a troubling contrast to the fine products marketed by Victoria’s Secret, but this isn’t the first of its secrets.

During the reign of Queen Victoria in Britain in the 19th century, railway workers routinely worked shifts of 16 to 18 hours per day. But then, that was only six days a week.

Though we would like to think that social justice and worker’s rights have increased in the century and a half since then, today’s Victoria’s Secret workers are virtually abused on the job, since workers who lag behind in production or who make a minor error can be slapped and beaten, the National Labor Committee says.

Further, supervisors scream at workers to keep up with production goals, like completing one bikini every 3.3 minutes. Six workers who protested a speed up demand were arrested.

While overworked railway laborers at least made an attractive wage in their era, today’s Victoria’s Secret workers make only four cents for each woman’s bikini they sew. This amounts to less than 0.3 percent of the product price of $14. Even more, workers are regularly cheated of up to $18.48 each week in legal overtime wages – the equivalent of three regular days’ wages.

Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas argues that “the rights and dignity of man are derived from his condition as worker.” By that criterion, the rights of these workers are being flatly demeaned.

Although those working on railroads, in factories and in mines in both Britain and the United States more than 100 years ago put in long shifts, they had the option of seeking better employment.

Today’s Victoria’s Secret workers, however, are tied to their jobs almost like slaves tied to their master, since their three-year work contract cost $1,500 to $3,000, money often borrowed at 5 to 10 percent interest per month. If the workers choose deportation, they will not likely be able to pay off their debts, and their families would be ruined.

This unfairness was made possible in part by the U.S.-Jordan “free trade” agreement, approved by a voice vote in the Senate in 2001. The agreement serves to protect capital – but working conditions seem to be an afterthought. The generally-held belief by those responsible for the agreement’s construction was that free-trade agreements could later be improved with labor provisions.

Thus, the agreement made Jordan a “free-trade” nation and a magnet to sweatshops and factories, such as the one utilized by Victoria’s Secret, seeking to export to the U.S. under “free-trade” laws.

This unfairness was also made possible in part by those who once purchased goods produced in a reprehensible fashion. But now you know Victoria’s secret.

While we commend the efforts of Victoria’s Secret to better our Bloomington community by raising about $5,000 for Middle Way House, it is important to not be ignorant about the practices of Victoria’s Secret and other companies, as well as the effects of policies like the U.S.-Jordan “free trade” agreement.