Armed with banners, flags and bull horns, a crowd of approximately 100 anti-sweatshop demonstrators rallied outside Kohl`s Department Store, 3360 Olentangy River Road, Wednesday night in protest of the alleged use of Nicaraguan sweatshops.The demonstrations eventually forced police to threaten protesters with mace.Demonstrators displayed banners for passing motorists at the parking lot entrance of Kohl`s, persuading some cars to turn around and go home, rather than shop at the store.Members of the Jobs for Justice organization, the Ohio AFL-CIO, the United Steelworkers, and Ohio State students were among the protesters.”It`s really all about justice, period,” said Aral Sezginisi, an OSU senior who attended the rally.The National Labor Committee for Human Rights, along with other organizations, allege that Kohl`s purchase blue jeans from Chentex, a Taiwanese-owned company located in the free-trade zone in Nicaragua.Three fact-finding delegations to Nicaragua, spearheaded by Charles Kernaghan, an anti-sweatshop activist, assert that Chentex has unjustly fired several hundred union workers. The workers, who are paid about 20 cents per pair of pants sewn, asked Chentex to increase wages by eight cents, but the company refused.”This is Kohl`s,” said Kernaghan as he addressed the crowd signaling to a pair of Kohl`s jeans outreached in one hand. “In Nicaragua, when the workers asked for an eight cent wage increase so they could climb out of misery, out of poverty, and 700 women were fired. The factory looks like a prison now. It looks like a concentration camp,” he said.Chentex produces jeans under the label Sonoma for Kohl`s, which sell for about $30 off the rack. Documents “smuggled” out by workers from Chentex show that Kohl`s pays $7.15 per pair of jeans.Local Kohl`s representatives refused to comment on the protest.In a released statement by the company, Kohl`s states that it “will only do business with vendors whose workers are treated fairly, are on the job voluntarily, are not put at risk of physical harm, are fairly compensated and allow the right of free association and not exploited in any way.”According to Kohl`s, two independent, third-party organizations are employed to monitor and examine manufacturing facilities.”If a violation is discovered, the company takes immediate and firm action, up to and including no longer purchasing goods from the vendor,” Kohl’s said.