Levi Strauss, 1991 Terms of Engagement (German)
date: label: date made
content: 1990 - 1998
notes: label: Description
content: Levi Strauss & Co. pioneered supplier workplace codes of conduct with its Terms of Engagement in 1991. This pamphlet was published in German. Levi’s commitment to workplace responsibility was tested in 1992 when a news report revealed that a supplier in Saipan was abusing its workforce. Mostly immigrants, the workers were working as much as 11 hours a day, seven days a week, for as little as $1.65 an hour with no overtime pay (the minimum wage in Saipan was $2.15 an hour). The story was especially embarrassing because the Northern Mariana Islands, a protectorate of the U.S., was allowed to label the goods Made in the USA. Levi’s canceled their contract. In the late 1990s the practice of workplace codes of conduct became relatively common in the garment industry.
label: Description
content: The trend towards offshore production provided the opportunity for large cost savings but at the same time presented new problems of control. Manufacturers and retailers who worried about poor conditions in subcontractors’ factories issued codes of conduct. Enforcement of the codes of conduct was uneven.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Work
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content: American Enterprise
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Levi Strauss and Company
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1998.3024.10
label: catalog number
content: 1998.3024.10
label: nonaccession number
content: 1998.3024
objectType: label: Object Name
content: brochure
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 3/8 in x 5 1/2 in; 21.2725 cm x 13.97 cm