The threat of being arrested or deported is very real, and employers of sweatshop workers know it. They have the power to hold down wages, sexually abuse employees, or not pay wages for months, or forever. And they use that power, because many who have come into a different country, do not know of the few rights they do have, or do not know the language, can be easily exploited. Combined with extremely low wages, this large debt keeps the worker in indentured servitude to the employer, possibly for life. Disclosure is a release of basic information on the origin of products, and the situation surrounding the production of those commodities.
Full disclosure seeks other information like workers' wages, benefits, and ages.
Because the sweatshop industry thrives in secrecy. Factories can evade inspection by locating themselves in secret locations. They can evade transparency by blocking public access, often in South and Central America by surrounding their sites with armed guards and barbed wire fencing. Disclosure is crucial to our ability to pressure corporations to acknowledge responsibility for sweatshops and taking action against violations. One of them is on fire.