Object Details
Description
Workers in the El Monte sweatshop used this spool with the Juki industrial sewing machine seen in object 1996.0292.29a. The spool was seized during a well-publicized 1995 sweatshop raid and is part of a larger Smithsonian collection of artifacts documenting apparel industry sweatshops, focusing on the El Monte operation.
On August 2, 1995, police officers raided a fenced seven-unit apartment complex in El Monte, California. They arrested eight operators of a clandestine garment sweatshop and freed 72 workers who were being forced to sew garments in virtual captivity. Smuggled from Thailand into the United States, the laborers’ plight brought a national spotlight to domestic sweatshop production and resulted in increased enforcement by federal and state labor agencies. The publicity of the El Monte raid also put added pressure on the apparel industry to reform its labor and business practices domestically and internationally.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
State of California. Department of Industrial Relations. Division of Labor Standards Enforcement
date made
Late 20th Century
1990s
ID Number
1996.0292.26
accession number
1996.0292
catalog number
1996.0292.26
Object Name
spool
Measurements
overall: 4 3/4 in x 1 1/4 in; x 12.065 cm x 3.175 cm
See more items in
Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
El Monte
Work
Sweatshops
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1431937