Jack Truitt

Looking through ones wardrobe, the tags reveal a variety of countries where our clothes are made, most of which have developing economies.

The working conditions for people who make our garments are something most of us would like to avoid thinking about, because we know that most countries do not have the strictest of labor laws. But one brand is attempting to prove that a company can remain competitive in the apparel industry while also providing ethical working conditions and livable wages. In an event put on by United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) two of its garment workers came to Savery Hall at the University of Washington to share their story on Oct. 16.

Sobeida Fortuna and Maritza Vargas are touring college campuses, hoping to enact change and awareness of workers rights issues and the success that unionized work can have in developing nations.

Alta Gracia, named after the village in the Dominican Republic where its garments are made, started in 2010 in a factory that had been a sweatshop. Owned by Knights Apparel, a major producer of collegiate-logo apparel based in South Carolina, the company claims to be the only clothing factory in the developing world that provides its workers a living wage.

In a globalized economy where companies are quick to locate operations where wages are as low as possible, it’s hard to imagine a company being competitive without joining the race to the bottom. But one study found that doubling the salary of sweatshop workers would increase consumer costs by only 1.8 percent, a fraction of the 15 percent cost increase consumers said in the same study they would be willing to pay to know a product did not come from a sweatshop.

For Vargas and Fortuna, a living wage provides enough income to cover their healthcare costs, build a new home and cover the cost of their children’s education.

But before Knights Apparel purchased the factory, paying for a college education or even three meals a day seemed like a distant luxury. Both Vargas, 49, and Fortuna, 36, worked at the factory when it was owned by a Korean company named BJ&B, where they made baseball caps for companies such as Nike and Reebok.

They said shifts often went as long as 12 hours on a wooden bench where they were subject to verbal and physical abuse from their ever-present supervisors. Fortuna remembers being pregnant and being forced to bend over to retrieve a garment a supervisor threw on the ground because of a sewing mistake.

Bathroom breaks and drinking water were limited to twice a day, and dehydration was exacerbated by the poorly ventilated space shared by 600 workers who had access to only one emergency exit.

No medical leave was given, and when a worker did visit the doctor they had no way of paying because management would pocket the public health-care funds that were supposed to pay for health care. Because wages they received were barely enough to cover rent and food expenses, paying for their own medical care was almost impossible.

The deplorable work environment wasn’t the end of it. Often workers would be forced to stay and work overtime if production levels didn’t satisfy the management, only to have their extra work left out of their paycheck.

For Fortuna, this was one of the most difficult aspects. Working long days all week only to be told by the supervisor that she must not have reported her hours. “No, I reported them. What was going on was they were robbing me of my overtime pay,” she said.

“For a time the only recourse I had was to go home and cry,” Fortuna said.

Through collective action and perseverance, workers today at Alta Gracia enjoy conditions that are a stark contrast to the sweatshop BJ&B ran. Something Vargas, who played a major role in the closing of BJ&B, doesn’t want to be forgotten.

“Everything we enjoy at Alta Gracia didn’t just appear one day. It really is the victory of a hard won fight fought by groups of students and workers coming together,” she said.

Previous attempts to unionize resulted in workers getting fired. In 2001, with the work of factory employees, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), and the free trade zone union in the Dominican Republic (FEDOTRAZONAS), the employees formed one of the strongest workers unions in the Caribbean.

Six years later, BJ&B announced the closure of the factory. Their business was eventually relocated to Vietnam. Despite the working conditions, it was the only job they had. “We felt powerless. The economy just evaporated from villa Alta Gracia,” she said. “We poured our sweat and blood into this factory for all these years and they were just leaving without even following the law of what they owed to us.”

USAS, the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), and FEDOTRAZONAS came together and demanded due process. Through protests and meetings with the brands they made clothes for, they ultimately won back some of what they were owed, and Vargas said the workers made sure that if another factory come into town it would be fair and right.

These vows were kept three years after BJ&B left town, when Knights Apparel bought the factory and Alta Gracia came into existence in 2010.

Today, Vargas, Fortuna and all other employees make wages three times the local minimum. Employees can negotiate their schedule to spend more time with their family, there is a health and safety committee that runs emergency drills and everything is independently monitored by the WRC, and independent labor rights monitoring organization with a focus on collegiate-licensed clothing.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t the usual tensions between the workers and their bosses, Vargas said. But if an issue arises there is someone on site they can speak with. The management at the factory is mostly made up of women, reflecting the demographics of the workforce.

“I feel like we’re understood,” Vargas said with a chuckle.

Alta Gracia continues to grow and be sold in college bookstores across the United States, but its workers want don’t want their story to be unique.

“We need to come together in solidarity across the supply chain,” Vargas said

“We as workers, and you as people who buy apparel can make this into a global change. Not just in the Dominican Republic, but the world over. “It’s high time that things change, we can make this shift.

“Si se puede.”