The National Labor Committee--an organization that fights to defend the human rights of workers in the global economy--has released a new study finding evidence that the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) has facilitated the development of sweatshops in Central America. In 2005, West Michigan Representative Vern Ehlers supported CAFTA.

The National Labor Committee's most recent investigation has found that Salvadoran women sewing $165 jackets for The North Face and $54 shirts for Eddie Bauer cannot afford to pay for basic necessities on the wages paid at the Korean owned Youngone S.A. de C.V. factory. There, workers report being paid only 94 cents for each $165 North Face jacket that they sew while enduring sexual harassment, forced overtime, and verbal abuse. An effort to form a union failed when the organizers were all illegally fired.

While these conditions are ostensibly illegal under CAFTA, the limited enforcement mechanisms have allowed the conditions to persist. The National Labor Committee has previously documented other instances in which CAFTA has contributed to the development of sweatshops in the Americas.