Gymboree Corporate Website

Signing petitions works!

This just in from Change.org –

Children’s clothing manufacturer Gymboree is the latest company to take a stand against child labor by refusing to buy cotton from Uzbekistan. Their web announcement of the policy change comes after over 3,000 Change.org members sent in letters asking for the company to stop buying Uzbek cotton. This victory is part of an ongoing series of campaigns asking international clothing brands to stop buying cotton from Uzbekistan, where forced child labor is used to harvest the crop.

Thanks to International Labor Rights Forum for organizing the petition and to everybody who signed.

Gymboree has placed a statement on their corporate website:

“Gymboree prohibits the use of cotton sourced from Uzbekistan and textiles produced using Uzbekistan cotton because of Uzbekistan’s history of forced child labor.”

Gymboree, the children’s clothing retailer,  has blocked critics from its Facebook page who have been trying to get the company’s attention about the sourcing of cotton from Uzbekistan, which is produced through the exploitation of child labor, the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) reports.

ILRF has called attention to Gymboree in the past, urging the company to break its silence about the Uzbek cotton issue and leading a petition calling on Gymboree and Abercrombie to stop forced labor.

In an article on change.org, Tim Newman of ILRF says Gymboree has blocked his organization’s critical comments from the corporate Facebook page. Other users have reported that their comments were also erased.

ILRF calls for supporters to email the company or go to the Gymboree Facebook Wall and ask them to “stop the censorship and start speaking out against forced child labor in the cotton industry.”

Meanwhile, it seems that the active campaigning by ILHR and other groups concerned about forced child labor in Uzbekistan may be starting to have some effect on Gymboree.

Apparently Gymboree has just updated its corporate responsibility page with a statement about Uzbekistan added to the paragraph containing the company’s policy barring child labor from its factories:

Gymboree prohibits the use of cotton sourced from Uzbekistan and textiles produced using Uzbekistan cotton because of Uzbekistan’s history of forced child labor.

Activists are now researching this new statement to see exactly what the policy is and how it is being implemented and monitored.

Gymboree’s policy also says it will not do business with suppliers found to use cotton produced by forced child labor, who fail to take corrective measures.

Uzbek boy, 2010. (c) Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights

The ILRF has launched a petition at Change.org to call on Gymboree to join other major garment companies in taking a stand against forced child labor in Uzbekistan by publicly opposing the abuse of children in the cotton harvest.

The petition has already gathered 2,800 signatures, but so far, Gymboree has not responded.

When concerned activists posted  some photographs of children working in the fields at the Gymboree Facebook fan page,  they were swiftly removed by company representatives.

Newman says Gymboree executives are profiting from ignoring the child labor issue in Uzbekistan.

The children’s clothing store was recently acquired by a private investment firm, Bain Capital; current and former executives of Bain Capital raked in $49 million in stocks from the deal.

Gymboree began coming to the attention of labor and human rights groups when it failed to join the top global clothing companies in opposing the widespread use of forced child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry and pledging to work toward removing Uzbek cotton from their supply chain.  Now, Gymboree has been named one of the “Human Trafficking Zeroes” for failing to do anything to stop the problem.

-Original Message–
From: cassandra_cavanaugh@yahoo.com
Date: 1/4/2010 4:34:58 PM
To: customer_service@gymboree.com
Subject: Fw: Happy New Year From Our Chairman & CEO [#144624]

Dear Mr. McCauley,

Support for a children’s hospital in no way excuses the misery your corporation is bringing to the children of Uzbekistan , forced by their authoritarian government to pick the cotton that goes into Gymboree clothes.

You have been contacted several times by the International Labor Rights Forum, asking you to pledge, as many other corporations (Gap, J. Crew, Walmart) have, to exclude Uzbek cotton from your supply chain. Why have you not responded?

If in 2010 you pledge to become part of the solution for Uzbekistan ’s exploited children, instead of part of the problem, I can go back to purchasing Gym Mart’s clothes for my small daughters. When I look at them, I often think of their age-mates in Uzbekistan , missing school from September to December, and there’s no way we can support a company that inflicts this upon them.

Sincerely,

Cassandra Cavanaugh

www.cottoncampaign.org

Some customer service drone at Gymboree finally sent of a formulaic response to my queries about its Uzbekistan policy (see the email below).  Though Eric talks of “minimum standards” that vendors have to meet, he refuses to answer the question–do they use Uzbek cotton? Sounds like Gym Mart brands doesn’t know…and doesn’t want to find out.  In which case, their “minimum standards” don’t mean a thing.

RE: Happy New Year From Our Chairman & CEOTue, January 5, 2010 12:49:56 PM

Dear Cassandra,

Thank you for contacting Gymboree Customer Service.

As we research prospective vendors and factories, we select companies that make compliance with laws and labor standards a top priority and whose policies and practices are consistent with our corporate mission to celebrate childhood. Gymboree does not allow forced child labor anywhere in the organization, nor anywhere in the supply chain. For all factories or vendors that we work with, we set forth the minimum standards and ethical requirements that they must comply with in order to conduct business with Gymboree.

As a condition of doing business with Gymboree, we require each factory and vendor to sign a product purchase agreement as a commitment that it will adhere to our Terms. Specifically, our Terms require, among other things, full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations including, but not limited to, environmental, wage and hour, and worker health laws, and the child labor, minimum wage and overtime requirements of those laws. All factories and vendors must also certify, among other things, that goods will not be produced with any use of child, forced, or prison labor, and that all employees will be provided with safe, clean working conditions.

Additionally, for many years now, Gymboree has used a reputable, independent auditing firm to evaluate factories prior to engagement and to routinely perform on-site inspections in order to actively monitor and assess factory operations to ensure compliance.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us and for giving us the opportunity to provide you with information regarding Gymboree’s production standards and practices.

Sincerely,
Eric
Gymboree Customer Service
877 449 6932
www.gymboree.com

This last email has gone unanswered for a few weeks now, which tells us all we need to know about the seriousness of Gymboree’s pledges.  If they won’t come out, either publicly or privately, specifically rejecting Uzbek cotton, all protestations are pretty meaningless.

Re: Happy New Year From Our Chairman & CEO

Tue, January 5, 2010 1:26:15 PM

From:	Cassandra Cavanaugh <cassandra_cavanaugh@yahoo.com> Add to Contacts
To:	orders@gymboree.com

Matt McCauley just doesn’t seem to get it.  More on that soon.

When I go to buy school and play clothes for my 5 and 6 year olds, the last thing I want to think about are their Uzbek coevals shivering out in the fields getting dysentery from canal water.  So in addition to returning the clothes I’ve bought from Gymboree lately, I’ll be sending this email to Matthew McCauley, Gymboree’s CEO, as well as his callous colleagues.  Please join me.