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October 12, 2011 | Download PDF | Share
Dressing Babies in Sweatshop Clothing: Dallas Cowboys, Ohio State and a Creepy Business
Spanish Version / Versión Español
Executive Summary
- NFL and NCAA garments sewn under gross sweatshop conditions at the Style Avenue factory in El Salvador.
- Workers paid just 10 cents for each $15 Dallas Cowboys and Ohio State infant and toddler creeper they sew. Workers' wages amount to less than one percent of the garment's retail price.
- Enormous NCAA mark-up on sweatshop goods. The total cost of production for collegiate logo creepers is just $1.80, which means the mark-up on the $15 NCAA garments is over 800 percent!
- Dallas Cowboys' owner, Jerry Jones, wants to monopolize the production of all NCAA licensed goods. United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) is fighting to protect the rights of workers.
- Workers are locked in the Style Avenue factory.
- Women drenched in their own sweat, with factory temperatures routinely in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mandatory all-night 19-to-25-hour shifts when NFL/NCAA garments must be shipped to the U.S.
- Workers are paid a base wage of just 78 cents an hour, and 99 cents an hour if they receive their attendance bonus. No one can live on these wages. Women report borrowing $40 every two weeks from a member of management at a 20 percent interest rate, meaning they have to pay back $48 every 14 days, including $8.00 in interest.
- Under the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement real wages have actually fallen by 13 percent for El Salvador's 73,000 export garment workers.
- Filthy drinking water and dirty bathrooms lacking even toilet paper.
- Constant verbal abuse: "You are like shit," the workers are told.
- Workers are at the factory 60 hours a week, forced to work 11 ¾ hours of overtime, much of which is unpaid.
- Six workers illegally fired for attempting to exercise their legal right to organize. The Salvadoran Labor Ministry has demanded their reinstatement, but management refuses. The government fined Style Avenue a pitiful $57. There is no response from the U.S. Government.
- Despite spending over $142 million to "enhance respect" for worker rights, the U.S. Government seems either unable or unwilling to assure respect for the basic worker rights protections afforded under the U.S.-Central America/Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement. Despite zero protection for workers' rights, the corporations are the big winners, able to important their goods to the U.S. duty-free.
Preface
An Appeal to the NFL and NCAA
By a Single Mother with Two Children,
Fired from Style Avenue for Asking for Her Legal Rights
"...I feel like a prisoner in a maquila [factory]... I would tell [Cowboys and Ohio State] that they should pay more attention, not only to the product for export, but to the wages. That they should verify that we are not earning well, that we have a starvation wage, a wage of poverty, of misery. That maybe they could be a little more conscious, because they don't know how much we sacrifice to make the garments with 100 percent efficiency and with quality-and they should value this. That they should keep more of an eye on the bosses here, how they maltreat us, and the ability [we have] that is not paid and they should pay for it."
Like any good mother, she wants a better life for her children
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| A four-year-old daughter of a working mom at the Style Avenue factory |
"But I don't want a job in the maquila for my children, because it is a job where they exploit you. Even if one does things, they shout at you. Even if you do your work carefully and are caught up, you're always shouted at. They always ask more of you. It's not a normal lunch time. They let us out for 45 minutes, and we finish eating in half an hour, because we have to be there before the bell rings."
"I tell them [my children] that I feel like a prisoner in a maquila, and this is my punishment because I didn't get an education, and I tell them, even if we have to eat grass I'm going to give you studies so you can be professionals-because one wants the best for one's children even if you continue being the same..."
Style Avenue S.A. de C.V.
Style Avenue S.A. de C.V.
Calle Jiboa Oriente, Bodega 5
San Bartolo Free Trade Zone
Ilopango, El Salvador
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Ownership |
Philippine factory owned by Ms. Joan Olivar Cascaño, Ms. Lina Manzo Banca |
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Workers |
Approximately 300, 75% of whom are women |
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Licensed to produce NFL and NCAA |
Style Avenue is one of six factories in El Salvador officially licensed by Reebok to produce the United States National Football League (NFL) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) apparel. |
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Production |
80% of production is NFL and NCAA creepers for infants and toddlers up to 36 months. |
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| Front gate of the Style Avenue factory | A cell-phone photo of a Detroit Lions creeper taken by workers |
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| NFL labels smuggled out from the Style Avenue factory |
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| Dallas Cowboys creepers made in Style Avenue, sold at $15 in Cowboys stores. | |
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| Style Avenue produces 3-pack bodysuits sold at $24.99 for NFL teams including the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Green Bay Packers, the Minnesota Vikings, the Tennessee Titans, the Arizona Cardinals, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Orlando Raiders, the San Francisco 49ers, the Chicago Bears, and the Miami Dolphins. | |
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NFL creepers sewn under illegal sweatshop conditions at the Style Avenue factory are also sold at Wal-Mart. The Style Avenue workers immediately recognized the NFL blanket sleeper for sale at Wal-Mart. Reebok appointed Outerstuff as their sole licensee to produce Reebok/NFL children's wear (except for the Dallas Cowboys, which is handled by their own Dallas Cowboys Merchandising). |
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Enormous NCAA Mark-up
Boise State and Utah creepers
Total production cost per creeper is just $1.80!
The same NCAA/NFL creeper retail at the low end of $8.00 up to $20.00
Sweatshop workers paid just 10 cents to sew each creeper
| Shipping Document smuggled out of Style Avenue factory (March 30, 2011) |
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| NCAA production order smuggled out from the Style Avenue factory |
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Starvation Wages
Women Paid Just 10 Cents for Each $15 to $20 Cowboys or Ohio State Creeper They Sew
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| A Dallas Cowboys 3-6 month bodysuit made in Style Avenue factory, bought in a Cowboys store in Texas, U.S. |
This is how the system works. There are ten modules, or production units, producing for the NFL and NCAA. On average each module has 17 workers-14 sewing operators, two quality controllers and one supervisor. Management sets a mandatory production goal of completing 1,500 creepers during the regular nine-hour shift. This means the 17 workers must complete 166.7 creepers per hour, which gives them 6.12 minutes per creeper. The workers can make up to 99 cents an hour if they receive their attendance bonus. Assuming that wage, since 6.12 minutes equals 10.2 percent of an hour, the workers earn just 10 cents for each pair of creepers they sew. This means the workers' wages to sew the $15 to $20 NFL and NCAA creepers amount to less than one percent of the retail price! (The workers' wages actually amount to between half and seven-tenths of one percent of the creepers' retail price.)
On the other hand, one can be well assured that the mark-up going to the Cowboys/NFL and Ohio State/NCAA is exponentially greater than the pitiful 10 cents the workers earn for sewing the garment.
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| Dallas Cowboys official 2011 catalog |
"Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?"
One would think the NFL and NCAA were broke, slouching around in rags with a tin cup, desperately pleading for a hand-out, no matter how small, to pay the workers in El Salvador their 10 cents for each NFL/NCAA garment they sew.
But there is something seriously wrong with this image.
For one thing the Dallas Cowboys football team is worth $1.85 billion. Jerry Jones, the Cowboys' owner, is himself worth $1.9 billion. Annual revenue for the Cowboys was $406 million in 2010. The NFL estimates its revenues in 2010 at $8.3 billion, with $4.1 billion coming from television alone.
The NCAA is no slouch either, with annual sales of $4 billion in collegiate licensed merchandise. Ohio State alone has 125 official licensees to produce its Ohio State logo garments. The University of Southern California (USC) estimates its retail sales of USC logo merchandise at over $20 million a year.
The truth of the matter is that the sale of NFL and NCAA licensed merchandise is big business. It is a business largely run on exploited sweatshop labor in El Salvador and elsewhere in the developing world. And it isn't a pretty picture.
By the way, suppose the NFL and NCAA agreed that the workers in El Salvador should earn a minimum wage of $2.00 an hour, which would allow the women and their children to climb out of misery and into poverty. Instead of paying the women ten cents to sew each garment, they would now earn 20.4 cents. Do you think the NFL and NCAA could spare the extra dime?
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College Kids label smuggled out of Style Avenue factory matches the label of Ohio State creeper sold for $19.98 at OSU bookstore. |
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| Ohio State creeper sells for $24.98 at OSU bookstore. | |
| Violation of University Codes |
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"Outerstuff" and "College Kids" are both official collegiate licensees. However, both "Outerstuff" and "College Kids" have failed to disclose the Style Avenue factory as one of their collegiate producers, which is a serious violation of university codes. |
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NBA label smuggled out of the Style Avenue factory. In addition to its major production for NFL and NCAA, Style Avenue also produces creepers for NBA, MLB and NHL. |
| The red, Reebok label of the NHL 3-pack bodysuits matched with the label smuggled out of the Style Avenue factory |
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| NCAA order sheet smuggled out of the Style Avenue factory |
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A Glimpse inside the Style Avenue Sweatshop
NFL/NCAA Production
“I haven’t bought anything, because it has always been a wage that is only enough to survive.”
- Style Avenue worker
Locked in
The workers are locked in the Style Avenue factory compound, which itself is located in the fortress-like San Bartolo Free Trade Zone, replete with high walls, rolls of razor wire and armed guards. The Style Avenue workers are not even allowed to leave the factory during their lunch period. Management says this is "for their own protection."
Drenched in Sweat
By 9:30 a.m. one August morning, the temperature inside Style Avenue was already a steamy 90 degrees. By 11:30 a.m., the temperature had soared to 102.2 degrees, leaving the women drenched in their own sweat. (The factory has some dust extractors, but no real ventilation.)
Mandatory 19 to 25-Hour Shifts
The standard shift Monday through Thursday is 9 hours and 45 minutes, from 7:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., including a 45-minute lunch break. On Friday, the shift is 8 hours and 45 minutes, from 7:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The regular workweek in El Salvador is 44 hours.
However, in practice, it is common for the workers to be kept to 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. unpaid, until they reach their mandatory and excessive production goals. At least three Saturdays a month, it is common for the workers to put in a nine-hour shift, from 7:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
It is routine for the workers to be at the factory 60 1/4 hours a week, while working 55 3/4 hours, including 11 3/4 hours of mandatory overtime, a good portion of which is unpaid.
However, when shipments must leave, it is typical for at least two lines to be kept for grueling 19 ¾ to 25 ¾ hour shifts. For example, on Saturday, July 23, two production lines "had to work all night because the shipments had to go out." The shift stretched from 7:15 a.m. on Saturday straight through to 9:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, a 25 ¾ hour shift. On Monday, July 18, a line of 17 workers was also forced to work a 19 hour and 25 minute shift, from 7:15 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. Tuesday morning -and then they still had to show up for work at 7:15 a.m. that same day.
Two women who tried to escape from the locked factory-pleading they had to take care of their children and an elderly sick mother-were immediately fired.
Filthy Drinking Water
We tested the drinking water at a professional laboratory, which found high levels of "heterotrophic bacteria" and the bacteria "pseudomonas aeruginosa." Drinking water contaminated with these bacteria can have long-term consequences, including stomach infections and parasites. Even washing with such polluted water can cause skin rashes, or infections if one has an exposed cut.
| Water analysis results show high levels of "heterotrophic bacteria" and the bacteria "pseudomonas aeruginosa." |
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You're like shit!
This is a constant refrain by management and supervisors, who yell and curse at the women to work faster, demanding they meet their excessive production goals.
"You're a piece of garbage. You don't know how to work and you're good for nothing."
"Hurry up, stop pissing around."
"I don't get it. Why can't this old son-of-a-bitch hurry up. You're shit. You're like a mule."
Drinking water or daring to use the bathroom results in reprimands.
"What do you think you're doing? You're not in a park here. Get back to your seat."
"Hurry up; we need to complete the goal."
"If you have to use the toilet, hurry up and don't waste time."
"Work fast! You have to reach the goal. Remember, we work for and depend on our clients. So help us. There are people who are trying to damage us."
"It's your duty to stay for overtime, because if you don't stay working, the shipment is not going to go out on time and we'll lose the work. And you're the ones who will get fired."
Below Subsistence Wages
For all this-forced overtime, all-night shifts, 100-degree temperatures, excessive mandatory production goals, the constant taunts, curses and humiliation-the Style Avenue workers can earn a base wage of just 78 cents an hour, sewing garments for NFL and NCAA. If the workers receive their attendance bonus they can earn 99 cents an hour. No one can survive on this.
A single mother with two children told us she borrows $40 every two week period from factory management in order to survive, but she has to pay a 20 percent interest rate over the 14 days, meaning she has to pay back $48, including the eight dollars in interest. This almost borders on indentured servitude. She allows her family to eat chicken just once a month. Otherwise it is a sparse diet of rice, beans, tortillas, eggs and cheese.
| Style Avenue workers' pay stubs | |
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Base Wage 78 cents an hour $6.24 a day (8 hours) $34.32 a week (44 hours) $148.72 a month $1,784.64 a year
With the Attendance Bonus (if a worker does not arrive late or miss a day) 99 cents an hour $7.94 a day (8 hours) $43.68 a week (44 hours) $189.28 a month $2,271.34 a year * Overtime is paid at premium rate of $1.54 per hour.
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Workers Are Going backward as Real Wages Plummet
under the U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement
Real wages for Salvadoran garment workers have actually declined 13 percent, with monthly wages dropping $24.83 since 2003.
Nominally maquila garment industry wages have increased 24 percent, or $36.40 a month, from $151.20 in 2003 to $187.60 in August, 2011.
However, the rate of inflation over that same period was 40.5 percent.
There have been no real wage gains for El Salvador's garment workers under the Free Trade Agreement. In fact, in real terms, the workers are earning $24.83 less each month in August 2011 than they did 8 ½ years ago in 2003.
| El Salvador Maquila Minimum Wages and Inflation 2003-2011 |
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| * May, 16, 2011 through August 30, 2011 | |||
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Year |
Wages in Dollars |
Inflation Rate |
Wage Increase |
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2003 |
$151.20 |
2.5% |
5% |
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2004 |
$151.20 |
5.4% |
0% |
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2005 |
$151.20 |
4.3% |
0% |
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2006 |
$157.25 |
4.9% |
4% |
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2007 |
$162.00 |
4.9% |
3% |
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2008 |
$167.10 |
5.5% |
3% |
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2009 |
$173.70 |
(0.2%) |
4% |
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2010 |
$173.70 |
2.1% |
0% |
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2011 |
$187.60 |
5.4% |
8% |
Multinationals and Sweatshop Factories are the Big Winners
Under the U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement
While real wages for garment workers in El Salvador are plummeting, trapping them in poverty, the big winners under the Free Trade Agreement are the multinationals, like the NFL and NCAA, who sew their garments in sweatshops like Style Avenue and then import their goods to the U.S. duty-free. This has been going on since January 1, 2004. The NFL/NCAA sweatshop infant creepers made in El Salvador enter the U.S. duty-free, saving the companies the regular 14.9 percent tariff duty, which adds up to no small amount of money for the companies.
The Free Trade Agreement was meant to function as a quid pro quo, with the corporate privilege of duty-free access given in return for compliance with internationally recognized worker right standards. That never happened. The corporations gobbled up the tariff breaks and ignored any responsibility to respect worker rights.
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God Help Us If CAFTA Labor Rights Are the Model "Only CAFTA has a robust labor capacity-building mechanism. CAFTA includes the most robust mechanism yet. The Jordan FTA only recognizes the appropriateness of capacity building." Office of the United States Trade Representative
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U.S. economic assistance to El Salvador, from 2007 to 2009, totaled $603,768,196. One would think that U.S. Government officials could use the over $600 million in aid as leverage to demand respect for worker rights. |
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The United States Government spent over $142 million between 2005 and 2010 to enhance "Labor Capacity Building in the CAFTA countries." (See full list of programs) All this help would come as a great surprise to the women at the Style Avenue sweatshop sewing garments for NCAA and NFL, just as it would shock all garment workers across Central America and the Dominican Republic. Across El Salvador, with 73,000 mostly women workers sewing garments for duty-free export to the U.S., there is not one single factory with a union. Real wages are also falling, trapping the women and their families in extreme poverty. Forced overtime, often without pay, is the norm. So are harsh and humiliating treatment, filthy drinking water, extreme heat and excessive production goals. In short, these workers have no rights. Apparently the big winners under the U.S. Government's largesse are the well-heeled mainstream NGOs that operate more like businesses, focused on securing lucrative grants. Here's a question: Do you think that out of the over $142 million in worker rights funds the U.S. Government could allocate even 10 percent of this money directly to empowering workers so they can organize, form a union and bargain collectively? That would still leave 90 percent to fund the NGO business. This seems a do-able bargain.
We didn't know. We never heard that the United States had given so much money to protect the rights of workers. The rights of workers and working conditions in the maquila [export factories] have not changed, nor have they improved even in the slightest. The rights of the workers are not respected. They [factory owners] are not willing to respect our legal right to organize. The minute they suspect we are organizing, they fire us." - Style Avenue factory worker who sews garments for NFL and NCAA "That is an enormous amount of money that the United States Government has sent to improve the rights of workers. Maybe the Ministry of Labor has been benefited by these funds. But the reality is that neither changes nor improvements have been seen regarding respect for workers' rights." -FEASIES union leader
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Routine Working Hours at the Style Avenue Factory
"There is no slow season at Style Avenue.
The factory never stops!"
-A Worker
On average, workers are at the factory 60 ¼ hours a week, while working 55 ¾ hours, including 11 ¾ hours mandatory overtime, much of which is unpaid.
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Monday - Thursday |
7:15 a.m. to 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. (A 10 ¼ to 10 ¾ hour shift with one 45 minute break for lunch.) |
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Friday |
7:15 a.m. to 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. (A 9 ¼ hour shift, with one 45 minute break for lunch.) |
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Saturday |
7:15 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (An 8 ½ hour shift three Saturdays each month, with one 45 minute break for lunch. One Saturday a month, they work a 4 ¾ hour shift, from 7:15 a.m. to 12:00 noon.) |
Examples of All-night Shifts
(The all-night shifts are mandatory and have been going on since at least 2009.)
July 23, 2011 (Saturday)
Two production lines were informed that they "had to work all night because the shipments must go out."
They were kept working from 7:15 a.m. Saturday morning straight through to 9:00 a.m. Sunday, forced to work a 25 ¾ hour shift. The workers received just 1 ½ hours of breaks: 45 minutes for lunch; 30 minutes for supper and a 15 minute snack at midnight. Their working hours totaled 24 ¼ hours, including 15 ¼ mandatory overtime hours.
Moreover, the same workers were ordered to return to the factory Sunday afternoon to work an additional four hours, from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. So on Saturday and Sunday the workers were at the factory 28 ¾ hours.
On Monday morning, July 25, the exhausted workers still had to show up at 7:15 a.m. The workers told us that the Saturday overtime was recorded on their pay stubs until 7:00 p.m., but not the Saturday night or Sunday hours, which were paid in cash, off the books. The workers were paid just $15 in cash, while they should have earned $21.45.
During the all-night shifts, the Style Avenue factory gates remain locked so workers cannot attempt to escape the factory.
July 18, 2011 (Monday)
Just a few days earlier, another production line of 18 workers was forced to work an all-night 19 ¾ hour shift from 7:15 a.m. Monday morning straight through to 3:00 a.m. Tuesday morning.
The workers were told they had to remain working so that they could meet their shipping date (so that the NFL and NCAA creepers could arrive in the U.S. on time).
The Great Escape
This time, three women could not stay for the all-night shift-two because there was no one to take care of their children, while a third woman had to care for her sick mother. They ran to the factory gate, but security guards blocked them. It was only when the women threatened to call the police that the security guards opened the gate. In retaliation, management fired two of the women under false charges. (The third woman, who was not fired, had worked at the factory for a number of years and was owed considerable severance pay. Workers believe management is just waiting for a chance to fire her without paying severance.)
When the women work an all-night shift to 3:00 a.m., they are unable to leave the factory when they are done, since the first buses only start running at 4:15 a.m. So the women either lay cardboard down on the floor to try to sleep or sit at their work benches slumped over their sewing machines.
Mothers with young children have to wait until 4:15 a.m. to catch a bus to their homes so they can feed and dress their children for school. Then they have to rush back to the factory to begin working again at 7:15 a.m.
Locked in for Lunch
If the women were at least allowed to leave the Style Avenue factory -though they would still be locked inside the San Bartolo FTZ- they could purchase cheaper and better food in the free trade zone. At Style Avenue, management charges $1.40 to $1.80 for lunch with a soda, which is far more than the workers can afford. So the workers are forced to bring their lunch, spending about 50 cents for three small corn tortillas, beans and some fresh cheese. Often they skip the cheese to keep their lunch cost down to a quarter.
Even more important, if the women were allowed out of the factory they could run to the main gate at the San Bartolo Free Trade Zone. If there are problems at home, it is custom for older children to come to the gate to tell their mothers what is happening.
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The United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) chapter at Ohio State has taken the lead in exposing Ohio State's backroom sweetheart deal to hand over the production of collegiate licensed goods to, of all people, the Dallas Cowboys, who are not well known for their commitment to human rights around the world. On September 26, 2011, USAS students demonstrated in front of the office of Ohio State's president, Gordon Gee, wearing only cardboard boxes and chanting: "I'd rather go naked than wear Dallas Cowboys' sweatshop apparel." The Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, now wants to dominate the production of licensed university goods. Ohio State and the University of Southern California have been the Cowboys first two targets. More will follow. Please help USAS stop this sweatshop grab by the Cowboys.
"Students Battle a Dallas Cowboys Unit Over College Apparel" "Ohio State & Dallas Cowboys Caught Rigging Bid Process for Monopoly Apparel Deal" USAS Contact Information
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The CAFTA-DR and Salvadoran Labor Law
Guarantee the Workers’ Legal Right to Organize
In theory anyway. In practice the garment workers have about as much a chance to organize a union as a snowball has in hell.
The 73,000 garment workers in El Salvador who sew clothing for duty-free export to the U.S. are not represented by a single functioning union. Only once, at the Industria Gama apparel factory, have workers organized "50 percent plus one," that gave them the right to negotiate a collective contract. But on June 17, 2011, the factory was abruptly closed and all 270 workers were fired and then blacklisted. For days, workers camped out around the factory, but management refused to reopen. Had they not been fired and blacklisted, this would have been the first collective contract ever in the export garment industry in El Salvador.
In July 2011, a small group of five workers initiated steps to organize a local union at the Style Avenue factory. With the help of the FEASIES union federation (Federation of Independent Associations and Unions of El Salvador, or Federación y Asociaciones y Sindicatos Independientes de El Salvador), the workers formed a small union local of the Union of Workers of the Garment Industry, STIVES. On July 25, the Salvadoran Ministry of Labor legally recognized the small union local. Under Salvadoran law, these five union leaders were legally protected and could not be fired or suffer any reprisals whatsoever by factory management. In theory, this should allow a small core group to begin organizing a union with majority support that can serve as a voice for workers to improve factory conditions and wages.
On Friday, August 19, management at Style Avenue found out that a legal union organizing drive was underway. Immediately, a human resource manager, Ms. Wilda Quintanilla, told the workers on line #10: "You shouldn't be involved with these people of the unions. They're lazy. They walk in the streets waving banners over their heads, but they are only good to shut factories down." If a few workers go forward with this union, she said, "that will be the end of the factory."
By the end of August, management had illegally fired all of the union leaders, giving several conflicting reasons why they were being let go. The human resource chief said they were fired because of "low productivity." Management also said they had "violated company internal rules" and simply that, "the company has decided to set aside your service."
On Monday, September 12, a Ministry of Labor inspector, Mr. Eduardo Marchena, informed "Style Avenue management that they had violated the labor code" and that they must "reinstate the illegally fired workers to their former jobs."
Style Avenue management blandly informed the Ministry of Labor inspector that: "No, that's out of question. We will not reinstate the fired women workers."
Right now, the situation remains in a stalemate. Salvadoran labor law is so antiquated that the only weapon the Ministry of Labor has to enforce the law is to threaten Style Avenue management with a fine of $57.14 for failing to reinstate the illegally fired union workers!
Workers' Demands
Every demand by the workers is in full compliance with both El Salvador's labor laws and the country's worker rights commitments under the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement.
- Immediately reinstate the six illegally fired union workers: The six workers were illegally fired by Style Avenue management, claiming that "the labels [NFL, NCAA] don't like unions and would cut their orders if a union is formed."
Twice, in September and again in October, Salvadoran Ministry of Labor inspectors ordered Style Avenue management to reinstate the "illegally fired workers," stating that the factory is "in violation of the Labor Code."
Law or no law, Style Avenue management refuses to reinstate the illegally fired union workers. The Ministry of Labor has ordered management to continue paying the wages of the illegally fired workers, as per Salvadoran labor law, but management refuses this as well.
The six fired workers are:
- Ada Jackeline Molina, fired on August 30, 2011
- Marta Teresa Alvarez, fired on August 31, 2011
- Reyna Navidad Muñoz, fired on August 31, 2011
- Lucia Saravia Arevalo, fired on September 26, 2011
- Miriam del Carmen Gutierrez Cuellar, fired on September 26, 2011
- Jose Reynaldo Mejia Gonzales, fired on September 26, 2011
- (Another union member, Isabel Rivas Escobar, died on August 3, 2011)
- Style Avenue management must begin good faith negotiations with the FEASIES union federation: The workers, together with the FEAIES union federation, are ready to sit down at any time for good-faith negotiations with Style Avenue management with the goal of improving working conditions while guaranteeing the success of Style Avenue going into the future. Compliance with El Salvador's labor laws will benefit both the workers and factory management.
As things stand now, Style Avenue management is refusing all attempts at negotiations, including ignoring the demands of the Ministry of Labor.
More pressure must be placed on Style Avenue management by the NFL, NCAA and the Salvadoran Government to comply with its obligations under the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement and Salvadoran labor law.
- Stop locking the workers in the factory compound: They are not prisoners. The workers must be free to leave the factory in order to take lunch inside the Free Trade Zone and to communicate with their families in case of emergencies at the free zone gate. Moreover, the locked exits at Style Avenue constitute a serious fire hazard.
- End the all-night shifts and forced overtime: The workers are ready to work overtime several times a week, but they must be paid correctly and all overtime must be voluntary. Even in extreme cases, when clothing shipments must go out, the workers are willing to work overtime to help the factory as long as they are notified in advance and paid correctly. The workers are willing to bend over backward to help the factory, but they also want to be respected and treated as human beings.
- Workers must be paid correctly: Production goals must be set at a fair and reasonable level, and all work must be paid. Management must immediately stop the routine practice of forcing workers to work unpaid in order to reach the excessive mandatory production targets set by management.
- Provide clean drinking water: At present, the drinking water available at Style Avenue is filthy and unsafe. Management must have the water tested regularly at a professional laboratory and establish a schedule for cleaning the cistern and replacing water filters. Until this is done, the workers should be provided with bottled water.
- Immediately stop the abusive treatment: The factory's human resources chief, Ms. Wilda Quintanilla, is particularly crude and vicious, and must be terminated immediately. The constant maltreatment and humiliation of the workers at the hands of supervisors must end. Supervisors must receive training on El Salvador's labor laws and proper, respectful treatment of the workers.
- Workers drenched in their own sweat: Factory management must take drastic steps to improve ventilation and end the extreme heat in the factory, which routinely exceeds 100 degrees by 11:30 a.m. The factory should undergo regular health and safety inspections.
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Transcripts Interview with NFL/NCAA Garment Worker
Fired from Style Avenue Factory in El Salvador
Part 1
Can you tell me your name and experience in the maquila?
My name is Carmen [Pseudonym] and I have worked in the maquila for 18 years in different places in the Free Zones and San Marcos [FZ].
In which factories have you worked and which products have you made?
I've worked in Evergreen [Nike, Adidas, Columbia], Brooklyn, BCTC [Puritan, No Boundaries, Faded Glory] factories that are already closed, in Products Department, in Style Avenue and in some small shops.
What do you sew in Style Avenue?
In Style Avenue we sew t-shirts and creepers, but [on the line] where I work we only make creepers.
Do you remember some names of the creepers that you sew?
We work for teams-football, basketball--those kinds of creepers, like Dallas, Texas, New York and those kinds of creepers we make.
How much do you earn a month there?
In a month the minimum [maquila wage], $187.50 a month. We don't earn more.
How often are you paid?
We're paid every two weeks.
How much do you earn every two weeks?
$79
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| Four-year-old daughter of Carmen |
How do you distribute that money? How do you spend it?
Buying the most basic, because we have to make it last for two weeks, and because I have two children. I invest more in one of them because she's bigger, and the other one, also, right, only the most necessary for the little one. It's not enough; we always end up borrowing. When we're paid we owe half of it, or almost all of it.
Who lends you the money?
There's a general supervisor who lends money at a [rate] of 2 percent.
Two percent rate every two weeks. For example she lends me $40, I have to give her $48, after two weeks. [This is actually 20%-but she says 2.]
And that's the way we get along.
And about food? What do you eat every day, daily?
The common [foods]: beans, rice, eggs, cheese, [sour] cream and what I cook for them I take to the factory for my lunch.
What about meat, pizzas, chicken?
Meat once in a while. Once every month, chicken; but no pizzas. Pizzas, no.
Hamburgers?
No, nothing like that.
Apart from food what expenses do you have? Do you owe this house?
[The house Carmen and her daughters live in measures 14 x 23 feet. In the house are 2 single bunkbeds.]
No, this house belongs to a friend who rents it to me. Before she rented the house for $100 [a month]. But because she's my friend and she sees I'm alone she rents it for $60. I pay her at the end of every month, and I pay water, electricity... that's another [bill].
I pay $5 for water, and up to $12 for electricity, because we save. We don't like to waste electricity.
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| Carmen's house | |
And how much do you spend in food every two weeks? What do you buy, in detail?
To have something for [the whole] two weeks, we buy four pounds of beans, that cost us up to $4.50, because beans are expensive now. The rice, if we buy two pounds it costs $2 or $1.80 depending where we buy it, because sometimes we go to the market and it's cheaper. We buy eggs. Sometimes I buy a "carton" of eggs [15], for $3.50 at the cheapest, the smaller ones. We buy tomatoes, onions.
You have been working in the maquila for 18 years. What have you been able to buy? A house? A plot?
I haven't bought anything, because it has always been a wage that is only enough to survive. [I went to the [government housing] Fund I went to ask for a home [loan], and the first time I went they said to me that I had to give a down payment ["prima"]. I didn't have anywhere to get it. One woman was selling a house but I had to give the down payment. I didn't have anywhere to get the money. I went another time and they told me that the company where I worked didn't...what I mean is that the minimum [wage] is not enough to receive a loan. You have to earn two minimum wages [double the minimum wage] to receive a loan for a house. I couldn't buy anything. If you see [I have] only the basic, beds and where to sit. We don't have anything more.
But labels in USA say that wages are enough, that you live well, and you have everything necessary to live. What are your comments about that?
No, because, there have been times we've earned a bonus, to call it like that, a [production] goal. But they call it a gift from the company. We're paid $2.00 [bonus] for producing 1,500 creepers. But it's paid every two weeks, we can't say we earn $2.00 daily, but rather two goals a week, or three goals every two weeks, which is $6, that we maybe use to pay the interest on what we've borrowed, it's not enough for anything more.
What else have you bought? You tried to buy a house, but furniture?
Yes, from the companies where I have worked I haven't bought anything, never. I couldn't even get a loan to buy a plot. But in a workshop where I worked, a friend of mine had a friend that was a carpenter and he made a bed [camarote], a small wardrobe [closet]. The things I have made of wood because he was a carpenter. So they [the workshop] were deducting. They were paying me and deducting for furniture; that's the way I have some things.
Part 2
With your small daughter what expenses do you have, and where is she during the day?
I send her to a Maternal Parish School [Church owned and free]; ......because I don't have anywhere to leave here at home, and my daughter who goes to ninth grade, she takes her and she picks her up, and in the afternoon they're both alone while I'm working.
In the kindergarten [the parish school] we pay a quota of $60 a year and $1 a month as collaboration. We go to cook [on weekend] so they get something as a snack, and we spend more on paper when they have to do homework. And we spend up to $20 [a year] because they ask for a lot of paper.
And are you asked to get uniforms or to make contributions?
I got the uniform from the kinder. This year they gave me the shoes and the uniform. Last year they gave me only the uniform. We had to buy them the bag. They gave me two notebooks and a [libreta], that's all they gave me. They [the school] asks us and we have to buy paper. At the beginning of the year they ask [each student] for paper and toilet paper.
And if your wage is so low how do you manage to do it? Do you borrow money?
I borrow money or I ask credit - there's a women that gives credit.
Like?
Chicken, sausages, toilet paper, soap, washing powder, we try to ask [credit] to survive, because on pay day they deduct that amount.
We don't sign anything they only ask us our number of badge. The cafeteria belonged to the sister of the factory owner where I work, Joan...Gina was her name, she went back to her country...and she left the cafeteria to the cook, and we get the deduction, and everything is, maybe, [property] of the company.
Part 3
Carmen, what is your free time like with your children? Where do you go?
Well in my free time, they leave off watching TV and amusing themselves with TV. I have a sister that lives in [the town of] Cojutepeque, in the rural area because she's peasant. We go to her, and when they're on vacation I send them [to my sister's place] and I continue working. That's their entertainment going to her place because we don't any place to go. A friend of mine sometimes gets tickets to go to the movies, as a gift, and I've taken them twice to the movies. We don't get out, only when a sister invites us to a river near there, since in the countryside there are rivers, we go there.
Do you go to the beach, to hotels?
No. We never go to those places. We've never been there.
To the lake?
Only to Apulo (a small poor town near a lake in San Salvador) once.
But why if the lake is near?
Yes, it's near and we only pay the bus. We don't go to the [government-run] Tourist Center because we would have to pay. We've only gone to the shore of the lake.
Part 4
I have some things. I have a television that I got on credit. Not under my name but under the name of a friend, because with the pay receipt we have we don't get credit, not in small stores or any big store. My friend got it on credit for $18 a month for one and a half years. I have a kitchen that I got paying $8 a month, also under a friend's name. I finished paying the television two years ago. It has no games. My children don't know how to play the Nintendo. They don't know them and they don't know how to play them.
Part 5
But I don't want a job in the maquila for my children. Because it's a job where they exploit you. Even if one does things, they shout you. Even if you do your work carefully and are caught up, you're always shouted at. They always ask more of you. It's not a normal lunch time. It's not on time. They let us get out for 45 minutes, and we finish eating in half an hour, because we have to be there before the bell rings...
I tell them [my children] that I feel like a prisoner in a maquila, and this is my punishment because I didn't get an education, and I tell them, even if we have to eat grass I'm going to give you studies so you can be professionals-because one wants the best for one's children even if you continue being the same...
Part 6
Do you have a message for the brands or Style Avenue clients, you as a worker, what could you say?
I would tell them that they should pay more attention, not only to the production for export, but to the wages. -That they should verify that we are not earning well, that we have a starvation wage, a wage of poverty, of misery. That maybe they could be a little more conscious, because they don't know how much we sacrifice to make the garment with 100 percent of efficiency and with quality -and that they should value this. That they should keep more an eye on the bosses here, how they maltreat us, and on the ability [we have] that is not paid and that they should pay it.
Example of Partial Monthly Expenses
for a maquila worker with two children
October 2, 2011
|
Food |
$130.00 |
|
Rent |
$60.00 |
|
Water bill |
$5.00 |
|
Electricity |
$12.00 |
|
Cooking gas |
$5.00 |
|
Cleaning supplies |
$8.00 |
|
Soap, shampoo, deodorant |
$10.00 |
|
School contributions |
$2.00 |
|
Monthly Total |
$232.00 |
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Addenda
Previous IGLHR Reports on NFL and other Team Logo Production
Ocean Sky: Workers Paid 8 Cents for Each $25 NFL T-shirt They Sew
January 2011 (El Salvador)
NFL and Reebok Fumble: Women Paid 10 Cents to Sew $80 NFL Peyton Manning Jerseys
February 2010 (Chi Fung factory, El Salvador)
Another CAFTA Disaster: Nike, NFL and Anvil Workers in Honduras Fired for Organizing Legal Union at the U.S.-owned Star, S.A.
November 2007 (Honduras)
Han Soll Factory: Sweating for the NBA and NFL
July 2005 (Honduras)
Toys of Misery
February 2004 (He Yi Electronics and Plastics Factory, China)
NBA in Burma: Why is the NBA Exploiting 7-cent-an-hour Slave Labor and Supporting Brutal Military Dictators and Drug Lords in Burma
January 2004 (Burma)
Bangladesh: The Role of U.S. Universities and Student Solidarity
October 2001 (Bangladesh)
Part 1 Part 2
Workers Rights in the Americas? A Rare Inside Glimpse
May 2001 (NBA, Adidas, Ohio State and other universities in El Salvador)
