Gap Gets Shagged In Sheffield
Activists set up alternative recruitment stand
4th February 2001
A group of ardent Sheffield activists, calling themselves SHAG, distributed information of a different kind at a recruitment fair run by the clothing firm GAP in mid January.
The SHAG (Sheffield Against Gap) activists set up a 'GAP Information Point' outside the Sheffield Novatel Hotel where GAP management were trying to recruit staff for a new store due to open in the city in March.
SHAG activists distributed information about dire employment conditions suffered by workers in GAP clothing factories in countries like Indonesia and Honduras where union representation is banned and workers are paid £2.50 a day. A delegation from the Honduran National Labour Committee recently reported that GAP's female workers were forced to have pregnancy tests and that the toilets in their Honduran factory are locked during working hours.
GAP is owned by the Fisher family, an American corporate clan reported to be worth $7 billion dollars. With the profits from their GAP empire they recently bought 25 per cent of Mendocino county in California and intend to chop down some of the last of California's redwood forest.
Following their alternative recruitment action in Sheffield a SHAG spokesperson said: "Almost all the prospective employees came to us first. Whilst some people obviously couldn't give a shit, most people listened intently to what we had to say. Quite a few were so shocked they didn't even bother to go into the hotel."