Child labor haunts Redford; Myers over the line

Providence Journal/April 10, 2001

What is it about child laborers that, wittingly or unwittingly, seem to involve honchos in the news? Kathy Lee Gifford and Michael Jordan come to mind. Now Robert Redford?

The New York Post reports a mail-order firm owned by the actor sold items made by a company using unpaid child laborers to make some of its products. The children reportedly are members of Twelve Tribes, a controversial cult based in New York.

The paper described the sect as a racist, isolationist religious group that forces young children to work alongside their parents in its various cottage industries.

"We are as surprised and distressed as everyone else to learn about this and are taking steps to immediately address the issue and sever ties with this group," a Sundance spokesman said.

And Twelve Tribes? It denied that it violated U.S. labor laws.