How Dangerous is the Garment Industry?

The garment industry provides more than 50,000 jobs in Los Angeles County, including many that are tied to a commercial underground where safety rules don't apply, there's no minimum wage, and a labor pool of illegal immigrants keeps quiet about violations out of fear of deportation. Legitimate garment makers, meanwhile, face a disadvantage in battling underground competitors who skip workers compensation payments and other safety standards, and often shift locations suddenly in order to stay a step ahead of the state’s handful of inspectors. How big and dangerous is this floating world of the garment underground? Miguel Morales of the Garment Worker Center, a Downtown-base advocacy group, Garment Contractors Association Executive Director Joe Rodriguez and T.A. Frank, New America Foundation fellow and editor at The Washington Monthly, visit Zócalo to sort it out. (This event was sponsored, in part, by The California Wellness Foundation.)