WaPo Investigation Finds Worker Protections Wanting In Ivanka’s Factories

Ivanka Trump’s clothing brand does not provide industry-standard oversight for its factory workers, the Washington Post found. Image by Getty

By Ari Feldman July 14, 2017

“The time to change the narrative around women and work once and for all is long overdue; in fact, it’s become my life’s mission,” Ivanka Trump wrote in her book “Women Who Work.”

While Trump works on the “narrative,” the thousands of women in Bangladesh, Indonesia and China who make garments for her eponymous clothing brand work in under-regulated conditions.

Trump has not ensured that industry-standard regulation of worker conditions takes place at factories contracted with her company, according to an investigation from the Washington Post. While major brand’s like Levi’s and Adidas, and smaller brands like Everlane, routinely employ investigators to check on treatment of workers at their factories in poor countries, Ivanka Trump’s brand does not. The company is also shirking the emerging trend of clothing companies disclosing their factory locations.

While her father boasts about bringing jobs back to the U.S., Ivanka Trump faces scrutiny over her company’s use of overseas factories. By basing her factories overseas, Trump is able to save over 70% on manufacturing costs.

“As a leader and a mother, I feel it’s as much my responsibility to cultivate an environment that supports people… as it is to post profits,” Trump wrote in her book. “One cannot suffer at the expense of the other — they go hand in hand.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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