On last night's episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart riffs on recent allegations that Ikea's American factory in Danville, Va., is one big, fat, modern-day sweatshop. (The company has offered this statement in response.) "They're treating these workers as if it's a third-world country," a union organizer tells corespondent Jason Jones, who later visits a "Swedish business expert" named Lars who's "dominant, arrogant, and so much more beautiful." Aiming to answer the question, "If Sweden was us, then who are we?" Jones visits a American Hickory Chair factory that "can't compete with our Swedish-run Mexican factories." Noticing workers putting furniture together, he muses, "the customers should be assembling it themselves." After a four-minute-long segment in which Jones breaks no fewer than two Ikea chairs, he comes to this conclusion: if the Danville factory does in fact unionize, "Ikea could ship down to South Carolina. And those guys work for pork rinds and horse vaginas."
Video: A Visit to Ikea's Danville, Va., Factory:
Video: A Visit to America's Hickory Chair Factory:
· Swede Dreams, Made in America [The Daily Show With Jon Stewart]
· Is Ikea's U.S. Factory One Big, Racist, Modern-Day Sweatshop? [Curbed National]
· Ikea Responds to Discrimination and Labor Conditions Charges [Curbed National]