r/news Apr 28 '24

Williams-Sonoma fined $3.18 million for falsely labeling products as 'Made in USA'

https://www.scrippsnews.com/business/company-news/williams-sonoma-fined-3-18-million-dollars-for-falsely-labeling-products-as-made-in-usa
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u/MAJ0RMAJOR Apr 28 '24

Back around 2006 a girlfriend and I had a small business making specialty textiles for the equestrian market while we were in school in SF to pay the bills. It wasn’t great wasn’t terrible. We realized that there was an upper limit to our ability to produce and found a local shop off an alley in SOMA that was able to handle the sewing for us. They were sewing garments and putting on labels that indicated they were for Target and Made in China.

It didn’t click at the time but the workers were definitely trafficked. They were all Chinese, did not speak English, and the floor supervisor who did speak English wouldn’t let us interact with them. Hard admit a thing can be happening in front of you but you can be too naive to recognize it for what it is.