[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 16 (Monday, April 21, 1997)]
[Pages 518-520]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Apparel Industry Partnership

April 14, 1997

    Thank you very much. I would like to begin, first of all, by 
thanking all the members of this partnership, the cochairs, Paul Charron 
of Liz Claiborne and Linda

[[Page 519]]

Golodner of the National Consumers League, Jay Mazur of UNITE. I thank 
Kathie Lee Gifford, who has done so much to bring public attention to 
this issue. I thank the Members of Congress who are here: Congressman 
George Miller, Congressman Bernie Sanders, Congressman Lane Evans, 
Congressman Marty Martinez, and especially I thank my good friend 
Senator Tom Harkin, who first brought this issue to my attention a long 
time ago. Thank you very much, sir, and thank all of you for your 
passionate concern. I thank the former Secretary of Labor, Bob Reich, 
and Acting Secretary Cynthia Metzler and Secretary-designate Alexis 
Herman, who is here. And I thank Marie Echaveste and Gene Sperling for 
their work.
    The announcement we make today will improve the lives of millions of 
garment workers around the world. As has now been painfully well 
documented, some of the clothes and shoes we buy here in America are 
manufactured under working conditions which are deplorable and 
unacceptable--mostly overseas, but unbelievably, sometimes here at home 
as well.
    In our system of enterprise, which I have done my best to promote 
and advance, we support the proposition that businesses are in business 
to make a profit. But in our society, which we believe to be good and 
want to be better, we know that human rights and labor rights must be a 
part of the basic framework within which all businesses honorably 
compete.
    As important as the fabric apparel workers make for us is the fabric 
of their lives, which is a part of the fabric of our lives, here at home 
and around the world. Their health and their safety, their ability to 
make a decent wage, their ability to bring children into this world and 
raise them with dignity and have their children see their parents 
working with dignity, that's an important part of the quality of our 
lives and will have a lot to do with the quality of our children's 
future.
    Last August, when the Vice President and I brought together the 
leaders of some of our Nation's largest apparel and footwear companies 
and representatives of labor, consumer, human rights, and religious 
groups, I was genuinely moved at the shared outrage at sweatshop abuses 
and the shared determination to do something about it. That led to this 
apparel industry partnership. This partnership has reached an 
agreement--as already has been said--that will significantly reduce the 
use of sweatshop labor over the long run. It will give American 
consumers greater confidence in the products they buy.
    And again, I say they have done a remarkable thing. Paul Charron 
said it was just the beginning because even though there are some very 
impressive and big companies represented on this stage, there are some 
which are not. But I would like to ask all the members of the 
partnership here to stand, and I think we ought to express our 
appreciation to them for what they have done. [Applause]
    Now, here's what they agreed to do: first, a workplace code of 
conduct that companies will voluntarily adopt, and require their 
contractors to adopt, to dramatically improve the conditions under which 
goods are made. The code will establish a maximum workweek, a cap of 12 
hours on the amount of overtime a company can require, require that 
employers pay at least the minimum or prevailing wage, respect basic 
labor rights. It will require safe and healthy working conditions and 
freedom from abuse and harassment. Most important, it will crack down on 
child labor, prohibiting the employment of those under 15 years of age 
in most countries.
    It will also take steps to ensure that this code is enforced and 
that American consumers will know that the tenets of the agreement are 
being honored. The apparel industry has developed new standards for 
internal and external monitoring to make sure companies and contractors 
live up to that code of conduct. It will also form an independent 
association to help implement the agreement and to develop an effective 
way to share this information with consumers, such as labels on 
clothing, seals of approval in advertising, or signs in stores to 
guarantee that no sweatshop labor was used on a given product line.
    Of course, the agreement is just the beginning. We know sweatshop 
labor will not vanish overnight. We know that while this agreement is an 
historic step, our real measure of progress must be in the changed and 
improved lives and livelihoods of apparel workers here at home and 
around the world. That

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is why we need more companies to join this crusade and follow its strict 
rules of conduct.
    One of the association's most important tasks will be to expand 
participation to as many large and small companies as possible. And I 
urge all of America's apparel companies to become part of this effort. 
If these people are willing to put their names, their necks, their 
reputations, and their bottom lines on the bottom line of America, every 
other company in America in their line of work ought to be willing to do 
the very same thing.
    We have spent a lot of time trying to find jobs for everybody in 
America who wants to work, and we have spent a lot of time saying that 
people who are able-bodied, who can work, should be required to work. 
Now, we are also reminding ourselves that no one, anywhere, should have 
to put their safety or their dignity on the line to support themselves 
or their children. This is a great day for America, a great day for the 
cause of human rights, and I believe a great day for free enterprise. 
And I thank all of those who are here who made it possible.
    I'm proud that this agreement was industry-led and wholly voluntary. 
Like the TV industry's decision to rate its programming, like the new 
private sector effort to help move people from welfare to work, like the 
high-tech industry's efforts to wire our schools and our classrooms to 
the Internet, all of them, by the year 2000--which we will continue this 
Saturday--this is further evidence that we can solve our problems by 
working together in new and creative ways.
    The apparel industry understands that we all share a stake in 
preparing our country for the 21st century and preparing the world to be 
a good partner. Reaching across lines that have too often divided us in 
the past, this new partnership will create more opportunity for working 
families. It will demand more responsibility for working conditions. It 
will build a stronger community here in America and bind us to the 
community of people all around the world who believe in the value of 
work but who also believe in the importance of its dignity and sanctity.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 1:05 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to entertainer Kathie Lee Gifford and 
the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).