Airtime shirt, 1990s
date: label: date made
content: 1990 - 1995
notes: label: Description
content: This unfinished Airtime brand boys shirt was in production when authorities raided the the infamous El Monte, California sweatshop in 1995. It is part of a larger Smithsonian collection of artifacts documenting apparel industry sweatshops, focusing on the El Monte operation.
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.
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: El Monte
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content: Work
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content: Sweatshops
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content: Many Voices, One Nation
label: Exhibition
content: Many Voices, One Nation
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
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: 1996.0292.08
label: catalog number
content: 1996.0292.08
label: accession number
content: 1996.0292
objectType: label: Object Name
content: shirt
label: Object Name
content: Airtime brand shirt
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fabric (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 30 1/2 in x 18 1/2 in; 77.47 cm x 46.99 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 30 1/2 in x 18 1/2 in; 77.47 cm x 46.99 cm