Champion spokesperson Peggy C. Carter last week said she could not confirm whether the T-shirt came from the plant in Chihuahua, Mexico--a Mexican state located close to the Texas border--or even whether there is a factory in Chihuahua at all.

Without help from Champion, only a few nuggets could be gleaned about Champion's factory in Chihuahua from Genaro Fernandez, an employee in the local department of industrial development in Chihuahua.

Fernandez says he is familiar with the factory. About 500 people are employed there, and it is expanding, he says.

"It's a big one here in Chihuahua," Fernandez says. "It seems to be a good place to work."

Armando N. Correa, a director of industrial development in Chihuahua, says the city is experiencing a rapid industrialization.

While he says he does not know the Champion factory well, he says all of the factories in the city have high standards, better than the conditions in other cities in Mexico such as Mexicali or Tijuana to the west.

In most Chihuahua factories, the lowest-paid worker earns about $10 per day, including benefits, he says. Doctors are on hand in some factories in case employees get hurt, and day care is available for children. For lunch, companies provide cafeterias that charge a negligible amount for food, he says.