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Published on 12/29/1999 All articles from this issue

LAHS student leads Gap protests, cites clearcutting, sweatshop issues

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By Melissa Leavitt / Town Crier Staff Writer

The Bay Area Action Schools Group, led by Los Altos High senior Olya Milenkaya, completed the last of four protests against the Gap Inc. on Dec. 18. Approximately 25 students from Los Altos and Mountain View participated in the protests.

The schools group, a division of Bay Area Action (BAA) has criticized the Fisher family, owners of the Gap Inc. in recent weeks, citing human rights and environmental abuses. Members of the Fisher family own the Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy clothing stores as well as the Mendocino Redwood Company. John Fisher, the son of Gap founders Don and Doris Fisher, manages the Mendocino Redwood Company, but is not an employee of Gap Inc.

The group began staging protests outside local Gap stores the day after Thanksgiving.

"We chose to do the protests this month because we can affect the biggest group of shoppers," said Milenkaya, the schools group project coordinator.

The students stood outside the stores passing out fliers detailing their reasons for protesting the Fisher family's practices.

Among other charges, the fliers list the wages that the Gap's clothing manufacturers pay their workers. It reads, in part, "workers on the U.S. territory island of Saipan are working 12-hour days at $3.03 an hour."

The fliers direct the reader to visit www.gapsucks.org for more information.

Addressing the Fisher family's environmental practices, the flier reads that the "Mendocino Redwood Company ... is clear-cutting 235,000 acres of redwood forests in Sonoma and Mendocino counties."

Members of the schools group also held signs with anti-Gap slogans.

\Among these were "Gap: Just can't get enough money," "Save Redwoods" and "No Sweatshops."

The schools group plans to mail a petition to the Fisher family, demanding it change its business practices.

The petition asks that "all workers be paid a living wage," and that "all workers have safe, sanitary living and working conditions." It also asks that the Fisher family attempt to restore the forests the Mendocino Redwood Company has damaged.

BAA has nearly 750 signatures on the petition. The group gathered these signatures at both the store-front protests and at local high schools, where environmental clubs have been publicizing the Gap issue.

BAA has also been collecting Gap clothing tags and plans to mail these to the Fisher family as an indication of public support for their efforts.

According to protesters, people have been receptive to BAA's information about the Gap.

"We've gotten a lot of signatures and informed a lot of people," said Eileen Hlavka, a senior at Mountain View High School who attended BAA's first protest at Stanford Shopping Center. "Not too many people were annoyed with us."

Because the protests target both the Gap's labor and environmental practices, activists with a broad range of concerns have joined in the protests.

In addition, the high visibility of Gap products, especially among high school students, has allowed the schools group to illustrate the relevance of their cause.

"This issue totally hits home because everybody wears clothes from the Gap, but nobody knows what they really cost," Milenkaya said. "We're not necessarily trying to start a boycott of the Gap, we just want people to be aware of what they are buying."

The Gap Inc. has written two letters addressing the protestors' concerns.

Regarding the Mendocino Redwood Company, the Gap officials wrote "Mendocino Redwood Company has no affiliation with Gap Inc. or its brands, stores or employees."

Concerning its labor practices, Gap officials wrote that "the fair and respectful treatment of workers is an essential ingredient of our relationship with the independent vendors that make our products."

The letter says that the Gap Inc. only hires vendors that meet the requirements of its "Code of Vendor Conduct."

Two of the code's provisions are "factories must treat all workers with respect and dignity and provide them with a safe and healthy environment" and "factories shall set working hours, wages and overtime pay in compliance with applicable laws."

In a separate statement titled "No Sweatshops," Gap Inc. denies any unfair labor practices.

The statement reads, in part "if factories don't share our commitment to maintaining safe conditions and treating workers fairly, we'll quit doing business with them altogether."

The statement is available on the company's corporate Web site at www.gapinc.com.

"The vendors we conduct business with must pay local minimum wage or the prevailing industry wage, whichever is higher," said Gap spokesman Alan Marks.

"We aggressively and actively monitor the manufacturers we do business with to make sure they comply with our codes."