Article: Sweat Shop Workers Tour US Colleges That Sell Their Products

The Mex Mode factory does what most are now required to do: "the complete package." The factory buys the thread and machines; it weaves and dyes and prints and assembles and packages for export. And Mex Mode was doing well until a year ago, when Nike reduced its orders from 100,000 pieces per month to 25,000.

Nike argues that Mex Mode is too expensive. When the WTO's quota system ended in January of 2005, Nike and others began shifting more work to China and Vietnam, and other countries that openly violate workers' rights. Nike has work in 152 factories in China and 12 in Mexico. In 11 of the factories in Mexico, workers have few if any rights.

"We're not against workers from anywhere else," Hernandez Ponce said. "I met a woman from Los Angeles who said we were stealing jobs from the United States. Well, you cold also say that about immigrants who come here. We want to earn a living where we are and not have to emigrate."

JOAQUIN ALAS SALGUERO

If unionizing a Mexican factory seems like a victory, what about this one? Workers at a factory in El Salvador own a majority stake in the factory and work with no managers. That's better than most workers have it in the United States. But the wages are far lower and the whole operation is in danger.

Joaquin Alas Salguero is a worker and union leader from the Just Garments factory in El Salvador. He serves as Secretary General of the Textile Workers Union in his country.

Photo of Joaquin Alas Salguero
http://www.davidswanson.org/sites/davidswanson.org/files/images/usas1_0.jpg

Audio of Joaquin Alas Salguero with translation by Allie Robins of USAS
http://www.davidswanson.org/sites/davidswanson.org/files/downloads/audio/salguero.mp3

Alas Salguero said El Salvador lost 17,000 garment industry jobs between 2004 and 2005.

The Just Garments factory is not looked on favorably by the owners of other factories or by the government, because it is run by the workers. The workers own 56% of the factory, having won compensation for wrongdoing from the Gap and Lands End, and having invested the money in ownership.

But Just Garments does not have the extra capital to buy materials and machines in order to provide a "complete package." So it works only on subcontracted projects and makes less profit.

Just Garments is in search of a loan of, or numerous small loans totaling, $120,000 so that it can buy the fabric needed to fulfill a contract with a large t-shirt distributor.

To find out how you can help, go to www.justgarments.net or write to info@justgarments.net

Alas Salguero said that CAFTA is only benefiting large businesses while hurting the people of El Salvador. If there is an epidemic, he said, the government is forbidden to buy inexpensive medicines.

Hernandez Ponce said "free trade" is similarly bad for Mexico, which is now considering an agreement with China. While small businesses in Mexico are heavily taxed, she said, transnational companies are given free land and tax breaks and utilities.

The tour that these and other workers are making has stops planned in these towns:
http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/workertour.php

Thursday February 23: Durham, Chapel Hill (Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill)
Friday February 24: Iowa City (University of Iowa)
Saturday February 25: Madison (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Sunday February 26: Urbana-Champaign (University of Illinois)
Monday February 27: West Lafayette (Purdue)

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