Wet Seal Actions Held in Major Cities

Posted June 11, 2004

A report back from U.S. Labor Education Project in the Americas

On Thursday May 27th, activists handed out flyers at The Wet Seal stores asking for The Wet Seal management to stop doing business with the Tarrant Apparel Group due to Tarrant’s violation of labor rights at its Ajalpan factory in Mexico. These actions, organized by the Campaign for Labor Rights (CLR), Sweatshop Watch, the U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project (US/LEAP), and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) took place in Berkeley, California, Chicago, and Washington D.C. while at the same time activists held a successful action at the Wet Seal shareholder meeting in Costa Mesa, California.

At The Wet Seal shareholder action activists held up a giant clothesline with cardboard garments hanging on it, each marked with one of the violations committed by Tarrant, along with other signs. They also leafleted to shareholders and tried to talk to people after the meeting until they were thrown out.

In Berkeley, Washington DC, and Chicago activists passed out a cumulative 600 flyers to Wet Seal customers and those who passed by. Letters were given to the local store management as well as faxed to The Wet Seal CEO, Peter Whitford calling on The Wet Seal to take responsibility for worker rights' violations of one of their primary suppliers, Tarrant.

These actions all called on The Wet Seal to take the proper steps to ensure justice for Mexican workers and let The Wet Seal know that this issue is of national interest and that their stores are vulnerable. The Wet Seal has known about worker rights violations by Tarrant since the summer 2003, yet has failed to take adequate action to resolve the situation. Other industry leaders, including Limited Brands, Levi’s, and Charming Shoppes have all stopped doing business with Tarrant due to their abuse of worker rights, causing an estimated $75 million in losses for Tarrant.

As of June 3, 2004 activists had not received letters back from The Wet Seal in regards to the Mexican workers requests.