El Salvador Perspectives

Over the past two years I have referred to the textile factory which operated under the name "Just Garments" as "worker owned" and "paying a living wage" and "respecting worker's rights." That's what many people with solidarity organizations in the US wanted to believe. That hope led them to give tens of thousands of dollars to support the experiment at Just Garments . That same hope made it difficult for them to recognize that Just Garments was not living up to its name. In a by-lined series of articles in El Diario de Hoy , reporter Jorge Ávalos has laid out the lack of substance behind the utopian image of Just Garments as a different kind of factory where workers interests were respected: The truth, confirmed by an abundance of testimonies and documents generated by 19 workers claims, is that the workers were not paid what was owed them. Under false promises and social pressure of "just employment", the employees suffe...

I have written before about Just Garments , the "no sweat" garment factory in El Salvador, owned by unionized workers and promising to pay a living wage to its employees. Just Garments never succeeded as a business. The Los Angeles Times now tells the story of a dream which failed to succeed in the harsh reality of the global marketplace: SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- It was a story of hope: a Central American sweatshop transformed into a unionized, worker-run apparel factory, thanks to nearly $600,000 in loans and donations, including help from retailers Gap Inc. and Lands' End and the AFL-CIO. Boosters traveled to U.S. college campuses and church basements, touting the Just Garments plant in El Salvador as a company looking to do well by doing right by employees. Impoverished Salvadorans saw a chance to earn better wages and have a say in their future. "We had a dream," said sewing machine operator Esperanza Caridad Mejia. In the end, that's all it was. ...

For more than a year, the Just Garments clothing factory in El Salvador has been struggling to stay afloat . This worker-owned factory, dedicated to paying its employees a just wage, has closed for lack of a sustainable source of orders. The factory closing has not been without its own swirl of controversy. Here is the update released from the organization Crispaz: In the past couple of weeks many of you have heard reports of the current crisis that has engulfed the Just Garments factory here in El Salvador. We wanted to inform people about what's been going on with JG, and let people know what are some probable next steps. As of this writing (May 7), Just Garments remains chained shut. This was not the decision of workers or management at JG; it was the decision of the factory's landlord Carlos Safie Siman on this past April 2. Until workers regain entry to the plant, it will be extrememly difficult to resolve any of the outstanding problems. The company maintains that th...

A provider of many jobs, although not good jobs, in El Salvador is the maquiladora textile industry. Thousands of Salvadorans are employed in sweatshops sewing garments for export. A 1999 article from the National Labor Committee illustrates that wages paid in Salvadoran maquila factories are not livable and certainly won't lift workers out of poverty. One factory tried to break the sweatshop mold. Just Garments operates a unionized factory in El Salvador which attempts to pay a living wage to workers and respect worker rights. However, this model has not allowed Just Garments to compete effectively. The factory, which has never made money, may close if it cannot raise $20,000 from friends and supporters before the end of the year. Go to its web site to learn more. One small way to help would be buying Just Garments' T-Shirts from Crispaz , or Just Garments khaki pants from No Sweat Apparel . The current state of maquiladora production does not help workers in any co...