Emerging alternatives in the global apparel industry: just garments and the Single Mothers' Co-operative: Daniel Martinez and Claudia Quintanilla report from El Salvador on two worker-driven initiatives that have captured the imagination of a global solidarity movement.(Industry overview)

Publication: Briarpatch

Publication Date: 01-MAY-06

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2006 Briarpatch, Inc.

HILDA CASTRO LIVES IN El Salvador near the capital, San Salvador, where she cares for her three children and works in a maquila, a garment assembly plant. Her hands leave no doubt as to the hard work she does to put food on the table for her family. Hilda's sense of humour and her enthusiasm are readily apparent when she speaks.

Marta Sonia Diaz, like Hilda, has three children. She exudes cheerfulness and enthusiasm when she speaks about them, about her work, and about her union activities. Her relative youth belies the wealth of her experience and the many struggles she has witnessed over the years. Marta's commitment to the struggle for fair working conditions and her capacity for sacrifice are inspiring.

Marta is the secretary of the Union of Textile Workers, and works closely with the Just Garments factory. Hilda is a founding member of the Cooperativa de Madres Solteras (the Single Mothers' Co-operative).

Marta and Hilda are both veterans of the Salvadoran maquilas--they are the foot soldiers of the global garment industry. They saw the Salvadoran garment industry flourish in the 1990s, when it employed thousands of labourers. Now they are witnessing its decline as the maquilas are relocated to countries with more "competitive" conditions. But rather than remain passive victims of global trends, Marta and Hilda have become active builders of viable--if risky--alternatives that have attracted the support and captured the imagination of a global solidarity movement.

As a result of their work with Just Garments and the Single Mothers' Co-operative, Marta and Hilda, together with their fellow maquila workers, have made significant advances in the struggle for workers' rights, but they face a very difficult road ahead. Their initiatives emerged in response to recent upheavals in the global garment industry that make it increasingly easy for contractors to jump from country to country in search of the lowest wages possible--and increasingly difficult for workers to make ends meet.

The New Maquila Order

THE MULTIFIBER AGREEMENT, signed in 1974 by the United States, the European Union, and Canada as a way to protect their domestic markets, was a collection of quotas and tariffs designed to regulate the international garment industry. The agreement established the amount and type of textiles...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.