Gifford Facing New Sweatshop Charges

Kathie Lee Gifford is facing new allegations that her clothing line was made in sweatshops under conditions that the state’s top prosecutor said “resembled something out of a Charles Dickens novel.� The owner of three Lower Manhattan factories that made the clothing has agreed to surrender on charges of failing to pay minimum wage and overtime. Through a spokesman, Gifford acknowledged that her line, sold at Wal-Mart, was made in the factories where Chinese immigrants allegedly toiled 60 to 80 hours a week for low wages and sometimes no pay at all. She said her own monitors looked into the factories months ago but failed to turn up abuses because they could not speak Chinese.