A controversial new Smithsonian exhibit called “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” focuses on 178 years of sweatshops and sweatshop laborers, and opened today at the National Museum of American History. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman was present at the opening of the exhibit. Herman said that she hoped the exhibit would help educate the public about “what we have to do to eradicate sweatshops once and for all in our nation today.”
Show sponsors include the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, Levi Strauss & Co. and Kathie Lee Fashions. A National Labor Committee (NLC) report released earlier this year revealed an increase in the use of sweatshop labor. Companies cited in the report included Kathie Lee Gifford, Ann Taylor, Wal-Mart, and J.C. Penney.
The exhibit will run until October 30th in Washington, D.C. and is tentatively scheduled in California, New York City, Chicago, and other Midwestern cities.
U.S. Department of Labor No Sweat Campaign
Feminist Against Sweatshops
