Ethics Newsline®

NEW YORK
Thousands of Salvadoran women last week petitioned television star Kathie Lee Gifford to investigate alleged sweatshop conditions at a factory used to produce Gifford’s line of clothing.

A human-rights group representing the women charged that they labored under intolerable conditions — 11-hour, six-day workweeks for a base wage of 60 cents an hour — to produce Kathie Lee-brand clothes, the Associated Press reported.

Gifford, who pledged three years ago to help end sweatshop labor in the garment industry, has said that she will pull out of the Salvadoran factory if the allegations are substantiated.

Gifford and her husband, former football star Frank Gifford, both spoke out publicly against the charges last week. Kathie Lee used her talk show to claim that she was doing everything within her power to improve conditions at the shops, and Frank held a sometimes heated news conference during which he said that his wife was one of the few celebrities connected to clothing lines to actually do something about the sweatshop problem.