Sewing Hope

[...] For example, in many factories, work areas lack signs about what to do in case of an emergency. Given the horrendous history of factory fires throughout the apparel industry, this failure to take such a minimal step in promoting worker safety is mind-boggling. Not only does Alta Gracia use signs, but they also educate and drill everyone on emergency procedures and provide workshops about how to prevent accidents.

Alta Gracia, Ana [Doñe, a worker there] says, also makes better wares. At other factories, the quality of work was often very poor. Many times, if someone noticed problems with one piece of apparel, it would turn out that several other pieces in the batch also had poor quality. The modular production approach at Alta Gracia facilitates inspections piece by piece; a fault missed by one person is likely to be picked up by the next person in the module, making for fewer and fewer poor quality pieces.

While yes, money is important, and yes, safety and quality are, too, Alta Gracia also seems to understand that human life can sometimes be messy – that things happen that we haven’t necessarily been planning for. Ana said that, unlike most other factories, Alta Gracia’s work schedule can accommodate unexpected situations where workers must leave to address personal problems. That type of flexibility is important to most workers – and especially reassuring to parents with young children.

And sometimes benefits have an impact beyond their most obvious, immediate, and initial intention. Medical insurance permits Ana to use any of the available clinics rather than only the public hospital. She can afford to prepare better meals, for example with fruit that before was too expensive. She has also purchased a few basic items, such as a stove, and financed some renovation on her mother’s house. She believes that these actions have a wider effect in the community. ‘In this way I think we support the town economically; now the hardware stores and corner stores are doing better.’

A successful Alta Gracia takes away a principal justification or ‘excuse’ for not paying higher wages. Established firms throughout the industry will have a hard time contending that paying a living wage is too difficult or costly if Alta Gracia shows it to be feasible or even profitable. Enterprises that have endorsed the basic-needs compensation model in the FLA code should be expected to meet this minimum standard now rather than through some indefinite, progressive improvement. Firms failing to accept or act on their responsibilities for contracted workers making their products should be the target of protest actions by civil society groups, as well as institutional and individual consumers.

In the end, the conclusion to this story about whether Alta Gracia will succeed and whether its model will be extended to established brands, and other industries, will be written not by the authors, but by the major stakeholders whose choices and actions will contribute to the ultimate success or failure of this anti-sweatshop model.

In the drama that is Alta Gracias birth and life, workers have been the central players – the people without whom the factory itself wouldn’t exist and whose hard work supplies the fuel that drives the enterprise. For Alta Gracia to not just survive, but thrive – to avoid becoming another well-intentioned but ultimately failed sweatfree entrant to the apparel industry – workers must sustain their dedication to the productivity and quality standards needed to expand factory output as the product gains increased market recognition.

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Of course, consumers make the ultimate purchase decision, and consumers both inside and outside of the collegiate market can create momentum for change as well. Brands exert a powerful influence, and brand loyalty is a highly prized market determinant. The central question for the consumer, then, is this: what does – or what should – a brand represent? Many apparel brands are developed through sophisticated and often enormously expensive advertising campaigns, especially where sports, film, or music celebrities are involved. What is the meaningful connection between celebrity endorsements and the item purchased by the consumer? How much of the purchase price will find its way to the people who made the garment? Will consumers demand and choose a brand based on good working conditions and payment of a living wage?

The Alta Gracia story tells us that business as usual is not the only option – that the workers who sew clothes and the consumers who buy them are justified in saying that living wages and fair treatment don’t have to come with a high price tag to consumers or retailers. Alta Gracia tells us that conventional wisdom is wrong; exploitation does not have to be sewn into our apparel and subpoverty wages are not a necessary evil in the global economy. If Alta Gracia, which took one of the most challenging paths to achieving living wages and good conditions as a start-up, can make it, it is time for multi-billion-dollar apparel corporations to do the same. The potential for changed lives is immense. For the more than 50 million workers in the global apparel supply chain who could go from barely surviving to thriving, a salario digno can really mean the difference between heaven and earth.