Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry / Edition 1

by Edna Bonacich, Richard Appelbaum

Overview

In a study crucial to our understanding of American social inequality, Edna Bonacich and Richard Appelbaum investigate the return of sweatshops to the apparel industry, especially in Los Angeles. The "new" sweatshops, they say, need to be understood in terms of the decline in the American Welfare State and its strong unions and the rise in global and flexible production. Apparel manufacturers now have the incentive to move production to wherever low-wage labor can be found while maintaining arm's-length contractual relations that protect them from responsibility. The flight of the industry has led to a huge rise in apparel imports to the United States and to a decline in employment.

Los Angeles, however, remains a puzzling exception in that industry employment has continued to grow, to the point where L.A. is the largest center of apparel production in the nation. Not only the availability of low-wage, immigrant (often undocumented) workers but also the focus on moderately priced, fashion-sensitive women's wear make this possible. Behind the Label examines the players in the L.A. apparel industry, including manufacturers, retailers, contractors, and workers, and evaluates the maldistribution of wealth and power. The authors explore government and union efforts to eradicate sweatshops while limiting the flight to Mexico and elsewhere, and they conclude with a description of the growing antisweatshop movement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520225060
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/28/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	413
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	1440L (what's this?)

About the Author

Edna Bonacich is Professor of Sociology and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and the author of many books including Global Production: The Apparel
Industry in the Pacific Rim (1994). Richard Appelbaum, Professor of Sociology and Global and
International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the author of States and Development in the Asian Pacific Rim (1995).

Table of Contents

	List of Figures and Tables	ix
	Preface	xi
	Acknowledgments	xvii
	Introduction: The Return of the Sweatshop	1
Part I	Capital
Chapter 1.	Manufacturers	27
Chapter 2.	Offshore Production (with Melanie Myers)	53
Chapter 3.	Retailers	80
Chapter 4.	The Power Elite	104
Part II	Labor
Chapter 5.	Contractors (with Ku-Sup Chin)	135
Chapter 6.	Workers (with Gregory Scott)	164
Chapter 7.	The Distribution of Wealth	200
Part III	Fighting Back
Chapter 8.	Government Enforcement and Retention Efforts (with Goetz Wolff)	221
Chapter 9.	Worker Empowerment	262
Chapter 10.	The Antisweatshop Movement	295
	Afterword: the Larger Questions	317
	Notes	321
	Bibliographic Note	361
	Index	367

Editorial Reviews

Bonacich and Appelbaum have done an expert job of deciphering the social, political and economic lineaments of L.A.'s manufacturing underside, and they argue convincingly that sweatshops will not disappear through governmental intervention or unionization.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

A provocative examination…a compelling look at L.A. County's largest-and perhaps most infamous-manufacturing industry.

Los Angeles magazine