Alta Gracia: Developments and the Future

Alta Gracia: Developments and the Future

One of my favorite quotes comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American transcendentalist and writer. He said, “Life is a journey, not a destination,” and that is certainly what this project has been. As we near the one year anniversary of the February protests on the capital, I have come to a new and well invigorated state of mind and approach to the labor rights movement. This has been reinforced by my research, personal interactions and experiences as I try to promote and support Alta Gracia. For this concluding paper of the semester I plan to discuss my achievements, setbacks, developments and the outlook for the future in a relaxed and informal manner as to convey a true sense of human accomplishment instead of a dry and stuffy case study.

For those just dropping in, Alta Gracia is a fair-labor factory in the Dominican Republic that pays their employees a living wage while they make officially-licensed collegiate apparel. They are paid more than three times the average wage so that employees are able to pay for healthcare, education, clean water, plenty of food and even start financial planning with savings and discretionary spending. Work conditions in the factory are fair and safe, miles above and beyond the sweatshops around the world, and this is guaranteed by a private, independent watchdog organization called the Workers Rights Consortium. Every week the Workers Rights Consortium goes to the factory to talk with workers and employers making sure that the work ethic and relationships are safe and productive. These relationships are also monitored to ensure that the workers maintain their right to organize and form unions to collectively bargain for their own rights and needs. This empowers the laborers by putting the decisive power in their hands, proving that it is not abused by the factory owner. And the Alta Gracia factory is the only one of its kind in the entire world.

Where I fall into this revolutionary opportunity is through my student organization, the Student Labor Action Coalition. The Student Labor Action Coalition has always been a powerful force for labor rights, including being a key supporter of the termination of the University of Wisconsin-Madison/Nike contract in 2009 due to their contracting of factories that denied severance pay to their workers when they closed the factory doors overnight. When I attended the first meeting of the semester for the Student Labor Action Coalition and they discussed their work with Alta Gracia, I immediately jumped on board. I felt I had to, being a Spanish major and labor rights activist!

So what have the Student Labor Action Coalition and I been doing since that first meeting? How has Alta Gracia changed as a presence on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and what are the plans for Alta Gracia in the future? The University Bookstore already carried Alta Gracia products, but we are really determined to make the brand more well-known around campus. I bet not even one of my readers had heard about it before I brought it to Contemporary Life Sciences this semester, which although some may find discouraging, I find it an even more compelling reason to spread the word of Alta Gracia and that’s what the Student Labor Action Coalition and I did. We wrote a letter to be distributed to local businesses, such as Name of the Game, The Pipefitter, Ragstock and many other retailers. It advertised the benefits of Alta Gracia and tried to get companies really excited about the product because of the impact it has on the global garment industry, and we wanted to show each of these businesses that they could make a conscious change for the better in one of the most labor-exploiting markets around the world. We were well received, and in the spring semester we will be returning to the businesses we contacted to see how they are feeling about purchasing Alta Gracia product and working with those who want to make it happen.

We have also been tabling in excessive amounts. Tabling is the name for those little tables and booths with pieces of paper and some sort of attention grabber (be it a game, or food, etc.) to make people interested in what it is your trying to tell them. Think of the Student Organization Fair – everyone has a poster, maybe some candy, but their goal is to get you interested quickly and efficiently in what they are passionate about. Some of the University of Wisconsin-Madison students that read this paper may have seen us in Holt Commons, Gordon Commons, East Campus Mall and handing out fliers around residence halls. The president of the University Book Store created coupons for us that were worth twenty percent off of an Alta Gracia product. We handed these out with a quick flyer explaining what Alta Gracia does and why people should be as passionate as the Student Labor Action Coalition and I are.

Tabling was an interesting experience. The majority of the students would politely say, “no thank you” and continue on their way. Those who were interested seemed really excited about it and thought it was a really cool movement – I still am mostly convinced that they didn’t realize that it was a fair-labor, living-wage product, but that they were pleased they could save money on a product they were most likely looking to buy. What college student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison doesn’t want to save money while buying Badger apparel? One woman, after listening to my quick speech, said “That’s great and all, but where is this factory again?” I was blindsided. I knew exactly what she was alluding to – the factory is foreign, not American. I went on to explain to her that it doesn’t matter where the company is if the workers are treated poorly. Just because a factory lies on American soil, the worker can still be forced into fifty-three hour work weeks with unsafe working conditions like the garment factory in New York from the introduction to this project. I asked her if she would rather have people being treated poorly and paid non-living wages or if she would want an article of clothing to be made within her own country. With a polite shrug and smile she said “very informative”, and took the coupons as she walked away.

The biggest action that the Student Labor Action Coalition has taken was certainly our meeting with the the president of the University Bookstore, Patrick McGowan. Mr. McGowan is a very polite and courteous gentleman that has been working with the Student Labor Action Coalition through the entire process of Alta Gracia since he first started carrying the product in his store. When we met with him, we brought him a formal proposal in the form of a letter with the names of campus staff, employees and organizations who support the Alta Gracia merchandise. Our request – that Mr. McGowan place and order of $250,000 for his fall purchase. Smaller universities such as Duke place orders at a minimum of this cost, and have been extremely successful in turning over and moving the product. Hoping that Mr. McGowan was as enthusiastic as we were, we thought that he would be more than happy to compete with other schools for Alta Gracia while supporting them. Unfortunately, he thought that the number was too steep and too much of an investment for him to commit to without having more investigation. He did commit to talk to the retailers at other universities to find out how they are so confident in Alta Gracia and how he can do the same to be another flagship university that carries the product, and to include the Student Labor Action Coalition along the way. Of course we were disappointed that Mr. McGowan did not meet our demands, but as a businessman his approach is logical. It is hard to justify investing so much money of an organization (such as the University Bookstore) into a newly-founded company like Alta Gracia who has limited product to offer in comparison to the brand names like Jansport, and who also has limited service such as ability to quickly send product or always have a representative in the area with whom Mr. McGowan can work. But without businesses who are willing to make that investment and who support labor rights, things like product and service in a start up company will only change slowly. Sometimes a potential risk is necessary for the outcome – by Alta Gracia growing and obtaining more market power, they will create a new standard of competition. Workers will want to be employed by a living-wage company and will leave sweatshop conditions, forcing poor work-quality factories to change their standards. If Mr. McGowan does decide to invest a serious amount into Alta Gracia it has the potential to revolutionize a global industry in the future and provide an archetype for future businesses.

Those are the most significant events that have happened since I decided to take on Alta Gracia as my project for Contemporary Life Sciences, and they certainly won’t be the last. The Student Labor Action Coalition is also putting Adidas in the limelight for labor abuses, and one of our members is going to the Dominican Republic to tour the factory herself. Once we have that irst-hand knowledge and talk more with area businesses and Mr. McGowan, I feel that the potential for change will be immense and Alta Gracia will seriously start to become an important force not only on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, but also as a paragon of labor rights that sets a new standard for workers rights in the international garment industry.

Alta Gracia: An Alternative to the Garment Industry

Alta Gracia: An Alternative to the Garment Industry

Being a freshman in college is a relatively nerve-wracking experience. All the friends and comforts of home that were so comfortable for eighteen years vanish in an instant, introducing a new town with complete strangers. So, naturally, as a freshman at the University of Wisconsin – Madison I strove to find my place. During Welcome Week I found that opportunity in the Student Labor Action Coalition, a student organization that deals with social policy and equality, workers’ rights and fair labor. I felt that I had found the perfect fit for what I was looking to do here at the University. I was even more excited when I found out about their partnership and passion with Alta Gracia, and I could barely contain myself when I found out that I could choose Alta Gracia as my project for Contemporary Life Sciences.

Alta Gracia is a group in the Dominican Republic of self-organized factory laborers that unionized for living wages and better working conditions, and to be treated fairly by their employers. The employees and their families can now get clean water, food, clothing, shelter, health and childcare, and an education. Alta Gracia pays the workers who make its clothing more than three times the minimum wage for apparel workers in the Dominican Republic, which is 338% of the minimum (Alta Gracia). They are monitored by an independent watchdog organization to ensure that the employers are meeting the living wage agreement. This organization is the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) which visits the factory frequently to make sure that the owners are being held to a fair labor standard. Alta Gracia products bear a tag from the WRC which shows that the product was made in a factory that respects workers’ rights. “So when you see the WRC tag on an Alta Gracia t-shirt or sweatshirt, you can be sure it was sewn by workers who are paid a living wage, have a union to represent them, and are treated fairly when they come to work” (AltaGracia).

The reason why I find this so important and chose it as the topic of my project for Contemporary Life Sciences is because it directly applies to University of Wisconsin-Madison students by giving them the choice to improve a life and make a statement for workers’ rights. Alta Gracia makes collegiate-brand apparel (including direct licensing of UW-Madison Badger-wear along with other colleges across the country) that is a consumer-conscious alternative to brands like Adidas who exploit workers by contracting factories who do the same. Thus far, Alta Gracia is the only company in the world to do so.

Students simply do not know that this alternative exists, and I am confident that students will be eager to make a direct impact with their purchase. It should also be known that Alta Gracia products are by no means more expensive. Terms like “fair-trade”, “shade-grown”, and “living-wage” they make consumers shy away from certain products because they assume that it means they will have to pay more for a product. Alta Gracia products do not follow this false stigma at all. Excluding sale items, AltaGracia sweatshirts are the third and fourth most affordable options for officially-licensed, Badger apparel sold by the University Book Store on their website. The goal of this project is to expose Madison students to their ability to make a choice as a consumer to affect a global market as well as alert them to the injustice of sweatshops.

Sweatshops are a phenomena produced by the garment industry, and with the globalization of the garment industry came the proliferation of said sweatshops and a new frontier upon which to abuse and exploit the workers who make the industry possible for the benefit of a few extra dollars on someone’s pocket. Two of the largest hubs of activity for the garment industry are found in Asia, and Central and South America. This is not a new development as discussed by Fauzia Erfan Ahmed in an article about female workers in the garment industry of southeast Asia where “Bangladesh introduced nationalization as the cornerstone of its economic program in 1972.” The article then addresses the fact that women in Bangladesh are typically poorer than their male counterparts, and in order to provide for their families they are forced into work. However, typical agrarian positions such as sharecroppers are not acceptable for women, so they enter the garment industry as a “compliant and low-cost workforce” (Ahmed). These women are then exploited in their work by the factory owners by being denied the right to unionize in fear of being laid off, which means that they are not allowed to bargain for even the minimum wage. Concerns of wage standards are a large part of the disapproval of the garment industry where in 1999 garment workers in Asia were “…being paid $0.25 an hour when American garment workers made $7.53” (Beatty).

These same problems are experienced in the Carribean, Central America, South America and even here in the United States by latino laborers. Alta Gracia is based in a village in the Dominican Republic that had experienced hard times and poor conditions. “In 1984, US apparel workers earned an average of $7.00 an hour. Between 1984 and 1990, wages in the Dominican Republic plummeted from $1.33 to $.56 an hour” (Whalen). In an article by Carmen Teresa Whalen lies the story of a Dominican immigrant who was working in the 1990’s for a New York garment factory that was not unionized and made brand-name sportswear. Only six of the seventy employees in the factory were there legally and work weeks consisted of fifty-three and a half hours. Workers are denied the ability to talk to one another, to use the restroom and other basic human needs including provisions for their safety which is constantly in jeopardy from the extremely fast-paced work. When asked to define a sweatshop, the woman “pointed to the physical conditions, exploitation and oppressive supervision” (Whalen). The fact that these conditions, standards and repetitions of labor abuse are found in multiple countries around the world suggests that the globalization of the garment industry has begun to force people, women in particular, into labor migration and sweatshop jobs.

Factory owners suppress cohesive groups like unions even more by creating a multi-class workforce. This creates problems between workers because they cannot identify with one another to stand together against their employers. The concept of unionization is part of the beauty of Alta Gracia. Alta Gracia workers can collectively bargain for equality in the work place, fair labor conditions and competitive pay in comparison to other market positions in order to earn a living wage.

But what is a living wage? To start, frequent arguments in support of foreign, sweatshop labor is that cost of living in the country is lower, so they are paid according to a suitable economic scale. The problem with this school of thought lies in the oversight of the fact that while cost of living is lower, the wages that are given are still not enough. The Workers Rights Consortium says that a living wage should meet a family’s needs of “food and water, housing and energy, clothing, health care, transportation, education and childcare, as well as modest funds for savings and discretionary spending” (WRC). When the Workers Rights Consortium is consulted to partner with a factory to ensure fair-labor standards are being employed, they conduct an analysis of the country spanning from minimum wage and inflation to basic human needs in order to calculate the living wage for that country.

“The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) performed a comprehensive market-basket analysis. Based on this analysis, the WRC determined that a living wage in the Dominican Republic is 222,042 Dominican pesos per annum. The gross wage necessary to yield this amount as take-home pay is 235,987 Dominican pesos. The current minimum wage in the country (as of early 2010) is 70,200 pesos per annum. In US dollars, and expressed as an hourly wage, the Dominican minimum wage is $0.84 and the living wage is $2.83.” (WRC)

To see the complete analysis and breakdown of every item that the Workers Rights Consortium examined, please see the link at the end of the essay and choose “WRC Living Wage Analysis for the Dominican Republic.”

Although there are such wonderful groups like the Workers Rights Consortium that strive to treat workers around the world fairly, injustices still flow from every corner of the earth. The fact that this is still such a problem is why the Student Anti-Sweatshop Movement has grown so rapidly in the recent decades. The strength of the Student Anti-Sweatshop Movement lies in their disagreement with the ratio of earnings between actual laborers and those that reap the benefits. Universities license their teams and mascots for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars with companies like Nike and Adidas, who in turn make a profit of every item sold. In the article “The Student Anti-Sweatshop Movement: Limits and Potential”, author J. R. Mandle, indicates that “the Union of Needle trades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) has calculated that whereas a major university may receive as much as $1.50 for each $19.95 baseball cap sold, workers in the Dominican Republic producing those caps earn only about $.08.” Mandle then continues to state that “the actual wage rate paid … depends upon the relative bargaining strength of the two sides.” However, this is only a dream for garment workers because the factory owners refuse to recognize unions and deny the right of collective bargaining, allowing the owners’ ability to regulate payment and work conditions however they please.

There have been advances in the Student Anti-Sweatshop Movement including the introduction of the Collegiate Code in 1998 that prohibited the use of child labor, forced labor, discrimination, and harassment and abuse. There is also a section that includes an independent watch-dog organization (like the Worker Rights Consortium) that has the ability to randomly visit factories to assess and report on conditions. Although this is a great step in the right direction, there are no provisions for establishing a living wage, and many argue that companies will be able to claim that they are “sweatshop-free” without actually making any significant changes. And while over 100 universities signed the Collegiate Code, many schools found it unacceptable and lacking, including the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

The University of Wisconsin – Madison showed disapproval of factory actions directly in 2010 when former Chancellor Biddy Martin ended the athletic contract with Nike. The Student Labor Action Coalition and other student groups urged former Chancellor Martin to do so because Nike had hired two Honduran factories as suppliers, and in January of 2009 the factories quickly closed and denied over $2.6 million in severance pay to their employees as states Honduran law. Because the UW-Madison code of conduct with Nike requires that “the 500 companies that make products bearing its name or logos to take responsibility for the actions of subcontractors” (Wisconsin), former Chancellor Martin was not within a breach of contract by withdrawing the Nike contract. This action made history by making UW – Madison the first university to end an athletic licensing contract due to labor disputes. The University of Wisconsin – Madison took a firm stance and emphasis on payment of laborers. Living wages for laborers emerge when there is more development in a field because workers will naturally move to the employer who offers the highest wage, thus forcing other employers to raise their payment. “What students therefore should advocate is the spread of development and the policies associated with that spread. That is the process that best enables workers to secure higher wages” (Mandle).

Like I found my passion in working with the Student Labor Action Coalition, I hope that Madison students and community members will become passionate about the opportunities offered by Alta Gracia. By choosing a clothing brand that gives employees a living-wage and union rights based on the supervision of a watchdog communication, consumers are directly affecting the garment industry and casting their monetary vote in the favor of equality and humankind. The harm and injustice of the sweatshops used by the garment industry has been in place for almost forty years and hardly anything has changed. Laborers are forced through exhausting work weeks, terrible and unsafe conditions and receive insufficient wages to support themselves and their families. Luckily, with the advances of the Student Anti-Sweatshop Movement and the establishment of Alta Gracia as a living-wage factory, changes can be seen on the horizon. And I feel that this is where I find my place in this movement. I want to help facilitate this move to a new standard of labor by educating and empowering Madison community members to choose products that follow a union-made and living-wage standard to directly affect and change the lives of Dominican laborers, and eventually define a new global principle.

For further reading, please consult the links to the articles which I have read for this essay to learn about the garment industry, the student movement against sweatshops, the Workers Rights Consortium and Alta Gracia. Also included is the link to the University Book Store’s website where students can purchase Alta Gracia clothing.

Works Cited

Ahmed, Fauzia Erfan. “The Rise of the Bangladesh Garment Industry: Globalization, Women Workers, and Voice.” NWSA Journal 16.2 (2004): 34-45. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4317051>

“Alta Gracia.” Altagraciaapparel.com. Alta Gracia, 2011. Web. <http://altagraciaapparel.com/story/living-wage-and-its-impact&gt;

Beatty, Jack. “Against Inequality.” TheAtlantic.com. The Atlantic Monthly, Apr. 1999. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. <http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/99apr/9904inequality.htm>.

Mandle, J. R. “The Student Anti-Sweatshop Movement: Limits and Potential.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 570.1 (2000): 92-103. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1049242>

Whalen, Carmen Teresa. “Sweatshops Here and There: The Garment Industry, Latinas, and Labor Migrations.” International Labor and Working-Class History 61 (2002): 45-68. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/27672771>

“Wisconsin Cuts Ties with Nike over Labor Concerns in Honduras – USATODAY.com.” Usatoday.com. The Associated Press, 10 Apr. 2010. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2010-04-09-wisconsin-nike-honduras_N.htm>.

“WRC Living Wage Analysis for the Dominican Republic.” Workers Rights Consortium. Web. <http://www.workersrights.org/verification/>.

Intro to AltaGracia

First of all, I should introduce myself. My name is Sloan Davis, a freshman student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. I am double-majoring in Spanish and Latin American, Caribbean and Iberain Studies (LACIS) with a certificate in Global Health.

My semester project for ILS 252 is working with and promoting AltaGracia. My involvement with AltaGracia began when I joined the Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC) on campus.

AltaGracia is a group in the Dominican Republic of self-organized factory laborers that unionized for living wages and better working conditions, and to be treated fairly from their employers. The employees and their families can now get clean water, food, clothing, shelter, health and childcare, and an education. They are monitored by an independent watchdog organization to ensure that the employers are meeting the living wage agreement.

But why should you care about AltaGracia? Because it makes a SWEATSHOP FREE alternative to Adidas-brand COLLEGIATE APPAREL. Yeah, seriously. These awesome Dominicans make Badger-wear, as well as other colleges across the US at LIVING WAGE.

My goal with this project is to get the word out to Madison students. They simply do not know that this alternative is out there, and I know that everyone will jump at the chance the make a direct impact with their purchase.

Through social media and interpersonal networking, I will be a personal messenger of the goals and mission of AltaGracia in order to empower student consumers and enable fair-work and sweatshop-free clothing to thrive. On top of that, I will be writing a few papers based on the concepts of sweatshops, unionized labor, and consumer power in a capitalist market.

Thanks for stopping by, check back for more soon.
Much love and luck,
Sloan