El Monte sweatshop tip letter envelope, 1995
date: label: date made
content: 1995
notes: label: Description
content: This envelope contained a letter and a map from the boyfriend of an escaped sweatshop worker. The map and letter outlines the security measures enacted by the shop, and pleads for swift action. Acting on the tip, investigators from the California Department of Industrial Relations staked out the apartment complex and gathered enough information to obtain a search warrant. On August 2, 1995, authorities raided the site. The working and living conditions they found horrified even these seasoned professionals.
label: Description
content: On August 2, 1995, police officers raided a fenced seven-unit apartment complex in El Monte, California. They arrested eight operators of a clandestine garment sweatshop and freed 72 workers who were being forced to sew garments in virtual captivity. Smuggled from Thailand into the United States, the laborers’ plight brought a national spotlight to domestic sweatshop production and resulted in increased enforcement by federal and state labor agencies. The publicity of the El Monte raid also put added pressure on the apparel industry to reform its labor and business practices domestically and internationally.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
label: See more items in
content: El Monte
label: See more items in
content: Work
label: See more items in
content: Sweatshops
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: State of California. Department of Industrial Relations. Division of Labor Standards Enforcement
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1996.0292.42a
label: catalog number
content: 1996.0292.42a
label: accession number
content: 1996.0292
objectType: label: Object Name
content: letter
label: Object Name
content: envelope
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 7/8 in x 8 1/2 in; 27.6225 cm x 21.59 cm