El Monte sweatshop raid film negatives, 1990s: Museum Object and Cultural History
El Monte sweatshop raid film negatives, 1990s: Date Made: 1995. maker: Bonner, Phil. Object Name: photograph.
The object in the museum catalogue
These negatives illustrate the inhumane working and living conditions of people that worked in sweatshops
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.
Materials, dates and provenance
- Date Made: 1995
- maker: Bonner, Phil
- Object Name: photograph
- Object Name: negative
- Physical Description: plastic; gelatin (overall material)
- Measurements: overall: 3.5 cm; 1 3/8 in
- ID Number: 1997.0268.24.04.7
- catalog number: 1997.0268.24.04.7
- accession number: 1997.0268
- Credit Line: U.S. Department of Justice. Immigration and Naturalization Service
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.
Sources
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