Aug 30, 2018
In episode 129, Kestrel
welcomes Zacil Pech, the Health & Safety Organizer at The
Garment Worker Center, as well as Blanca Hernandez,
a member of The Garment Worker Center, to this week's
show. A worker rights organization, The Garment Worker Center's mission is to
organize low-wage garment workers in Los Angeles to fight for
social and economic justice.
"I would often ask
myself, but it was the fear of losing my job that kept me there.
Anytime someone tried to speak up - especially in these type of
garment shops - they always tell us if we don't like our job, then
there's a lot more people that would be willing to do our job, so
we are disposable."
- Doña Blanca Hernandez, a member of The Garment Worker Center +
garment worker in Los Angeles
(translated by Zacil
Pech)
While on Conscious Chatter we often discuss human and
environmental rights when it comes to the fashion industry, we
rarely get the chance to hear directly from individuals working in
garment factories. This is a powerful and important show, as we are
able to hear from Doña Blanca about her personal experience working
in the garment industry in Los Angeles for over 20 years.
Throughout this show,
Doña Blanca shares painful stories that highlight the way her
rights have been denied over the years, through her work in the
garment industry in Los Angeles. For example: Doña Blanca
shares that she rarely get breaks for lunch or to go to the
restroom, she generally can't drink water even though the factories
are extremely hot because she can't use the restroom as often as
needed, and sometimes there's only one restroom for 60-70
workers.
In Doña Blanca's case,
she had to hold her pee for an extremely long time in a certain
factory, which led her to have severe problems,
including a urinary tract infection.
The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in
this chat:
- The Garment
Worker Center was founded in 2001, and its origins
are connected to the Thai garment worker slave case that
happened in El Monte, CA, where dozens of garment workers were
trafficked from Thailand and imprisoned in an apartment building
that was made into a makeshift factory.
- "We say 'race to the
bottom' prices because it's the piece rate. In Los Angeles,
we have garment workers earning anywhere from 5 cents to the lowest
I've seen is half a penny - whether it's stitching or
per-piece clothing that they do. So, the ways that we
organize garment workers is encouraging them to try and organize
with other garment workers and organize for brands to stay
accountable to the workers." -Zacil Pech
- "They rob us of our
wages, in terms that they pay us by the piece rate, and
unfortunately the piece rate is an illusion. They tell us, 'yes -
you might be able to earn even the minimum wage,' but even when we
start working faster and harder to try and make the minimum wage,
they cut our prices by the piece." - Doña Blanca
- "Just to give
you a bit of context, the price per piece in Los Angeles hasn't
been raised in over about 33 years. We've seen that it has
been steady even if the cost of living has been going up, minimum
wage has been going up, the price per piece hasn't." -Zacil
Pech
- "What we're seeing right
now [the piece rate] is anywhere from 3 to the most is
about 7 cents. The lowest that I've seen in my time here is half a
penny." -Zacil Pech
- "For workers,
we're seeing that the average is anywhere from $4-6 dollars
[per day], which is way below the federal minimum wage - in
Los Angeles, we're going to reach $15/hr by 2020.
That gives you an estimate of just how stark the situation is
within the garment industry." -Zacil Pech
- "We also don't have the luxury of buying ourselves clothes. We
don't have the luxury even of buying ourselves shoes. We don't have
the luxury of going into a store and buying these garments. On the
contrary, what we've learned to do is go to swap meets where they
are selling used clothes for 50 cents, even a dollar, which are the
things that we can afford." -Blanca Hernandez
- When asked what she
would like to say to the people to buy the clothes that she makes,
Blanca said, "I would tell them the truth about how we live. I
would tell them the truth about how we learned to survive. I would
tell them the truth about how they steal our wages, and how they
steal our health. I would tell them not to shop at these certain
shops. I would tell them to boycott these stores. I wish they would
listen and I wish they would understand our realities, but I know
that I can't tell people how to live their life - but this is just
my wish, that they would listen to us and support us."
- GET INVOLVED with The Garment Worker
Center