You Decide

The day after I posted that I had had no response, I got a reply.

Dear Ms. Stephens,

Thank you for your note, as well as your kind words regarding Limited Brands' philanthropy and cotton sourcing practices.

You also asked some specific questions about our labor standards.  As you can tell, these are extremely important issues to us.

As we state explicitly on our website, "Limited Brands sources goods from countries all over the world, and we insist that our suppliers comply with our labor and other standards. If they don't, we support them in making the necessary changes so that they do. We cannot and will not work with those who don't work to meet our standards."

Let me reiterate: we require that our vendors verify that they meet a list of standards, including that they do not - and will not - use forced labor or prison labor or child labor.  As we state, "Prison, indentured, bonded or involuntary labor shall not be used."  Period.

Specific to our internal auditing process, we use a team of auditors, accountants and attorneys to assure that Limited Brands' associates fully understand and comply with our sourcing policies and procedures, and we maintain a function within our company called Independent Production Services (or IPS), which oversees compliance protocols for our vendors based on specific standards and protocols.  We also participate in a number of multi-stakeholder initiatives that work to enhance the rule of law and labor standards, as well as support international institutions and advocate for policies that benefit many of the communities in which our products are produced.

I recognize that you had also asked some specific questions about the details of our work.  Please understand that, for competitive reasons and in order to ensure the greatest compliance with our standards, we cannot further itemize some of those details.

It seems, at first glance, like an ok response. But it was not quite satisfactory, and that bugged me. So, I responded.

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your taking the time to respond, and I'm pleased to hear what your company has already done. I am still very interested in a few things. What does your company do when it finds its vendors to be out of compliance with your standards and regulations? And did these standards and regulations exist prior to 2007, when the National Labor Committee reported on the abuses (including debt bondage and alleged rape) at the D.K. Garments factory in Jordan? If so, how can you assure me that there is no prison, indentured, bonded, or involuntary labor, period? And if not, it alarms me that a company that has been in business since 1963 would be so far behind the human rights curve that it would wait until late in the last decade to enact better policies. I am not trying to be combative, but I admit I am at best suspicious that there has not been nearly enough attention paid to the rights of Limited Brands factory workers overseas. Please prove me wrong. I would love to shop at the chains owned by Limited Brands again, but for now, it is still impossible for me to do that in good conscience, and I certainly don't feel comfortable recommending that others shop there, either. On a more personal note, Brooke, I realize that this is your job, and that I am asking about the company that hired you. I wonder if your employers told you about any of the abuses I've been learning about. I think that if consumers and employees worked together, we could make our companies really stellar, and good for each person that is affected by their existence. Thanks so much for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.