Gap Inc. Admits To Sweatshops

By admitting they haven't done enough to ensure humane working conditions and wages at the factories around the world that make their clothes, Gap Inc. has turned a lot of heads and ears its way.

Gap has also compiled, for the first time, a 2003 Social Responsibility Report detailing how it will work to improve the lives of the people who make their clothing. Click HERE to download and read the report (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).

Gap is moving in the same direction more and more companies are: that is, AWAY from the asinine theory that doing whatever it takes to make a buck is more important than taking care of your employees and customers.

As Gap's CEO states, "We feel strongly that commerce and social responsibility don’t have to be at odds." In fact, a company that practices social responsibility and ensures its employees are happy will see much higher productivity and profits than those that don't.

This requires a company to see a bigger picture that is difficult to create in today's intense environment of meeting quarterly short-term goals. The Gen-X founders of Google.com so eloquently said that running your company on the basis of quarterly short-term goals demanded by the stock market is like someone who is trying to lose weight stepping on a scale every half-hour--it just doesn't work! Long-term goals including taking care of employees and customers is what delivers big returns for everyone, including stockholders.

It's time more American companies realize that GREED IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE and understand the value of happy employees. They should take a lesson from Gap, Costco, Ben & Jerry's, or any of the other companies making social responsibility a priority--it's the future of American business.



Here's an article from this morning's Boston Metro newspaper:

IN AN UNUSUAL display of corporate candor, Gap Inc. acknowledged that many of the overseas workers making the retailer’s clothes are mistreated and vowed to improve often shoddy factory conditions by cracking down on unrepentant manufacturers.

The San Francisco-based owner of the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic stores made the comments yesterday in its first ever “social responsibility” report — a 40-page document.

“We feel strongly that commerce and social responsibility don’t have to be at odds,” Gap CEO Paul Pressler told a small gathering of shareholders yesterday at the company’s annual meeting.

Gap is uncovering thousands of violations at 3,009 factories scattered across roughly 50 countries. “Few factories, if any, are in full compliance all of the time,” the report said.

Workplace activists who have long chided Gap for making its clothes at so-called “sweatshops” praised the merchant for shedding light on rampant abuses that have been haunting the clothing industry for years. AP