In many third world and American apparel factories, there have been reports of intimidation of workers who try to speak out.

As of 2010, 350,000 women are employed in the country's 850 apparel factories, or 85% of the industry's workforce.

Labor officials believe that about 200 of the more than 1,100 apparel factories in New Jersey are sweatshops.

Five years ago, monitoring groups say, apparel factories in Honduras often employed children under 14, but now it is rare to find workers under 16.

Last December, he was hired at an apparel factory at $4 an hour.

Many one- and two-story apparel factories are in renovated produce warehouses.

Over the next 12 years, Tekbilek honed his craft and had three children, continuing to work in an apparel factory.

Foreign-owned apparel factories came with thousands of jobs for a people famed throughout the region as hard workers.

The sewing rooms of most apparel factories are similar in overall appearance.

But more likely, experts say, such a requirement would raise costs for the apparel factories and prompt many of them to move out of Africa.