After years working in the unsafe garment industry, Yenni Perez and Maritza Vargas decided they were tired of constant physical and verbal abuse, pollution and low wages that only provided their families with one meal a day.
That’s when their college clothing company, Alta Gracia Apparel, was born.
Perez and Vargas’ company pays its workers nearly three times the local minimum wage and provides its employees with a safe working environment. They visited campus on Thursday to inform the campus community how students can be advocates for fair wages and human working conditions simply by checking clothing labels before making a purchase.
Amy Kessel, a representative for United Students Against Sweatshops, said the University bookstore carries a few of the company’s shirts and urged students to consider buying humanely made items rather than those made in sweatshops.
With the help of a translator, the women described their plight for fair wages and better conditions.
Vargas and Perez organized with other workers because working conditions were horrible, describing the factory as a “labyrinth.”
The only option for workers to be heard was to unionize, Vargas said.
Now both women are able to provide for their families and send their children to school.
They said their whole town feels the positive economic effects of the fair pay factory.
Perez said Alta Gracia proves companies do not have to lose money for workers to get decent treatment and wages.
“Alta Gracia was born out of a lot of sacrifices to see this industry change,” Perez said.
The garment industry abuses women physically and verbally, and in some cases, women have also been tricked into going to foreign countries for better pay but are instead manipulated into selling their bodies, Vargas said.
The women said students should ask University administration to create a reasonable space for Alta Gracia apparel and affiliate with worker rights consortiums.
Jack Richards, a mass communication freshman, said after the talk, he plans on shopping more consciously, keeping fair trade in mind.
The representatives from the factory said they hoped to get students to unite for the cause.