Labor & Employment Law

Alta Gracia Plant Shows Fair Practices Possible in Apparel

By James Parks

The first-known apparel factory in the developing world to pay a living wage is operating in  Villa Altagracia, a small impoverished town in the Dominican Republic. For the first time, the 120 workers at the factory will be paid enough to support themselves and their families.

The factory and brand, Alta Gracia, is named after the town and is owned by Spartanburg, S.C.-based Knights Apparel, the leading supplier of college-logo apparel to U.S. universities, according to the Collegiate Licensing Co. Alta Gracia pays the workers about three-and-a-half times the average pay of the country?s apparel workers?and allows workers to join a union without interference.

Knights CEO Joseph Bozich tells The New York Times:

We?re hoping to prove that doing good can be good business, that they?re not mutually exclusive.

For two years, Knights worked closely with the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), a group of 186 universities that press factories making college-logo apparel to treat workers fairly. Scott Nova, the consortium?s executive director, says the WRC reached an agreement with Knights last year to create a model apparel plant, which pays a living wage, is neutral in union elections and allows union organizers full access to the plant.

Nova says:

This is a victory for the student activists and the sweatshop activists in the labor movement who have been advocating for better conditions in the apparel industry. This factory is a powerful symbol of what is possible. 

He says it shows that the present model of low-wage, anti-union, poor conditions apparel sweatshops is not one we have to live with?it?s the choice of the employers.

The workers formed a union and held the founding meeting last month. The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center assisted the workers in forming a union and establishing labor standards at the factory.

The factory already has orders to make T-shirts and sweatshirts for bookstores at 400 American universities. The T-shirts will cost about $18 retail?the same as brands like Nike and Adidas. United Students Against Sweatshops plans to distribute fliers at college bookstores urging freshmen to buy the Alta Gracia shirts.

The T-shirts will be marketed with tags depicting Alta Gracia employees and the message: ?Your purchase will change our lives.? The tags also will contain the WRC endorsement, the first-ever for the group. Knights is preparing a video for bookstores to show and a Web documentary, both highlighting the improvements in workers? lives.

The factory previously was owned by BJ&B, a Korean company that supplied baseball caps and other university logo apparel to Nike and Reebok. The plant closed with no notice in 2007, throwing hundreds of workers, mainly women, out of work.

Nova says the main benefit of the factory is that it gives hope to the workers:

It?s the difference between life and misery. Now they can make enough to support a family.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on July 19, 2010 (boomark / email).