Pay Envelope
notes: label: Description
content: This white envelope contained the pay for Aquelina Gaspar and was seized as part of the well-publicized 1995 El Monte sweatshop raid. The envelope 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 arrested eight operators of the clandestine El Monte garment shop and freed seventy-two Thai nationals who had been working in a form of modern slavery. Workers, recruited in Thailand, were promised good pay and good working conditions. After signing an indenture agreement for $5,000 they were smuggled into the United States with fraudulent documents. The workers were paid about $1.60 an hour with sixteen-hour workdays in horrifying conditions. They were held against their will in a razor wire enclosed complex with an armed guard and were jammed into close living quarters. By 1999, eleven companies Mervyn's, Montgomery Ward, Tomato, Bum International, L.F. Sportswear, Millers Outpost, Balmara, Beniko, F-40 California, Ms. Tops, and Topson Downs, agreed to pay more than $3.7 million dollars to the 150 workers who labored in the El Monte sweatshop. As in most cases of sweatshop production, these companies contend that they did not knowingly contract with operators who were violating the law.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Associated Place
content: United States: California, Los Angeles
label: Associated Place
content: United States: California, Los Angeles
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
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1997.0336.28
label: accession number
content: 1997.0336
label: catalog number
content: 1997.0336.28
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Envelope
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 6.5 x 3.625;