Get Herald RSSImagine showing up to work for a job that you badly need in order to feed your children and being told your company has shut down and you no longer have a job. Your wages, which were just above minimum wage, left you with no savings, and you are panicking about how you will manage to pay for rent, electricity and food. What will you have to give up so that your family can survive the next week, month or year?
This is the grim situation hundreds of workers in the Dominican Republic face this week - and the tragedy is that they found themselves in this situation because they dared to fight for a more dignified life with fair wages and decent working conditions. The more painful realization is that despite the fact that we are thousands of miles away, we as a Brown community could have prevented this from happening.
BJ&B - the factory that closed this week - produced hats with university logos that were sold on campuses throughout the country. The BJ&B factory was a rare case in the apparel industry: It was one of a handful of factories that provided wages above the local minimum wage because the workers had collectively organized a union. This union had addressed low wages, physical and verbal abuse, unpaid overtime, forced pregnancy tests, sexual harassment and health risks at work. Despite the fact that the factory's management threatened workers who were organizing, the workers stood their ground. With international pressure from universities and human rights groups they won real improvements at work. BJ&B showed that despite all the forces working against sweatshop workers, it was possible to win improvements and not be trapped in poverty-wage jobs under abusive conditions.
However, soon after the workers won improved wages and decent working conditions, companies began to reduce their hat orders at BJ&B, undermining the significant progress that had been made. Nearly one year after the improvements were instituted, Reebok pulled its orders from the factory, as did several other brands. The only company that remained at BJ&B was Nike, which recently pulled all its orders too. Because companies have chosen to cancel their orders after unionization, BJ&B was forced to shut down this week.
Sebastian Garcia worked for BJ&B for more than 16 years and saw its transformation from abusive conditions through unionization and finally its recent closure. Before unionization, he was barred from leaving work, despite the fact that he was suffering from severe trauma from a cut ventricle. His supervisor threatened to fire him when he left work to go to the hospital, and the company refused to pay for the hospital bill for the work-related injury. According to United Students Against Sweatshops, Garcia said, "Everything changed with the union. Before, whenever a worker made any kind of error, the supervisor would shake you and scream. This stopped. … If a worker was injured and needed medical attention, the company paid for much of it. We should not be blamed, and we should not be punished by loss of our job, because we tried to organize a union to protect ourselves. If the factory closes, the workers will not be able to find work. … Without work, they could lose their homes. If a mother has children who are sick, they won't be able to get medical care."
The apparel industry's race to the bottom in wages and working conditions has led to more and more unionized factories shutting down. Brands are making conscious decisions to shift production to lower-cost facilities where workers' fundamental rights are violated. The Designated Suppliers Program was created to counteract the destruction wrought by these corporate decisions. The DSP uses universities' buying power to funnel clothing orders to factories providing living wages and a voice for workers. DSP aims to allow consumers and workers to join forces to alleviate some of the downward pressure on wages and working conditions, and keep factories like BJ&B open.
The closure of BJ&B is a wake-up call for us. Universities cannot wait any longer to adopt the DSP. The workers in these factories have been abandoned by the major brands, and we cannot allow the brands to further undermine the progress that has been made. Unless we act now, we will be complicit in the race to the bottom, facilitating worsening conditions in factories that make university-brand clothes instead of acting to improve them.
Thirty colleges and universities across the country have adopted the DSP and made a public commitment to implementation of the program. Regrettably, Brown has not signed on to the DSP and continues to stall while factories are shut down and workers are fired. The creators of the DSP have addressed the legal concerns that Brown has voiced about the program, so there is no reason for Brown to remain complacent as hundreds of workers lose their much needed jobs. As a member of the university community, Brown cannot allow the progress that was made at BJ&B to be undone. Brown must take swift and decisive action to ensure that rights of workers producing our apparel is protected, both in the Dominican Republic and around the world.
Sarah Adler-Milstein '07.5 advises students to write Walter_Hunter@brown.edu and demand that the University join the DSP immediately. If you want to learn more, please come to a screening of a documentary and discussion on the DSP on Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Wilson 101.
