Alta Gracia provides a standard above and beyond everything else offered in the bookstore and collegiate apparel industry. No other apparel factory in the world can say the following 5 things:
1. It pays a living-wage - of more than three and a half times the local minimum wage in the Free Trade Zones. The living-wage was calculated on an independently conducted cost-of-living study, done by the Workers Rights Consortium, and generously covers the needs of a family: housing, food, daycare for children, transport, health care, education and reasonable savings. Not only is this having a profound effect for workers and their families, but there is also a ripple effect in the community – new construction jobs have picked up as workers invest in more livable homes. Some workers have started their own businesses, or have sent their children to school to pursue degrees that will allow them to access higher paying jobs.
2. It is rooted in a collaboration of workers and students. Alta Gracia was inspired by more than a decade of students and workers’ pushing for change in the garment industry – seeing United Students Against Sweatshops’ campaign victories over Nike and Russell caught Knights Apparel’s eye: if students would rally against brands that disrespected workers, they would rally behind one that respects them. Knights decided to launch a business model according to what students and garment workers had been asking for. Alta Gracia has the best of both worlds: the logistics, scale, and know-how of the largest college-logo apparel company in the US, and the uncompromising social justice standard of strong student activists in USAS.
3. It embraces a strong, independent union. Workers having a collective democratic voice at work is the best way to ensure management accountability and fairness in the workplace. This is something the mostly female workforce in the Free Trade Zones sought for a long time before Alta Gracia. In factories that don’t have the high social standards of Alta Gracia, unions have been a way for workers to ensure much needed basic rights – water and bathroom breaks, freedom from sexual harassment, ensuring that they are not fired for pregnancy, and many other rights that we might take for granted in student jobs in the US.
4. Workers Rights Consortium, an independent labor rights watchdog, speaks with workers regularly in the community, visits the factory weekly and audits the payroll to ensure that living wages are paid and labor rights are respected.
5. It has top-notch health and safety conditions. Alta Gracia consulted the Maquiladora Health and Safety Support Network and has ideal conditions – things like proper ventilation so workers don’t suffer from respiratory issues caused by lint in the air, ergonomic chairs so repetitive motions of sewing don’t strain their backs, proper lighting to protect their eyesight, a ready supply of cool drinking water, safety evacuation routes, and many other things that should be “givens” in the garment industry but are frighteningly rare in shoe-string budget apparel operations that aren’t concerned with worker safety and health.
1. It pays a living-wage - of more than three and a half times the local minimum wage in the Free Trade Zones. The living-wage was calculated on an independently conducted cost-of-living study, done by the Workers Rights Consortium, and generously covers the needs of a family: housing, food, daycare for children, transport, health care, education and reasonable savings. Not only is this having a profound effect for workers and their families, but there is also a ripple effect in the community – new construction jobs have picked up as workers invest in more livable homes. Some workers have started their own businesses, or have sent their children to school to pursue degrees that will allow them to access higher paying jobs.
2. It is rooted in a collaboration of workers and students. Alta Gracia was inspired by more than a decade of students and workers’ pushing for change in the garment industry – seeing United Students Against Sweatshops’ campaign victories over Nike and Russell caught Knights Apparel’s eye: if students would rally against brands that disrespected workers, they would rally behind one that respects them. Knights decided to launch a business model according to what students and garment workers had been asking for. Alta Gracia has the best of both worlds: the logistics, scale, and know-how of the largest college-logo apparel company in the US, and the uncompromising social justice standard of strong student activists in USAS.
3. It embraces a strong, independent union. Workers having a collective democratic voice at work is the best way to ensure management accountability and fairness in the workplace. This is something the mostly female workforce in the Free Trade Zones sought for a long time before Alta Gracia. In factories that don’t have the high social standards of Alta Gracia, unions have been a way for workers to ensure much needed basic rights – water and bathroom breaks, freedom from sexual harassment, ensuring that they are not fired for pregnancy, and many other rights that we might take for granted in student jobs in the US.
4. Workers Rights Consortium, an independent labor rights watchdog, speaks with workers regularly in the community, visits the factory weekly and audits the payroll to ensure that living wages are paid and labor rights are respected.
5. It has top-notch health and safety conditions. Alta Gracia consulted the Maquiladora Health and Safety Support Network and has ideal conditions – things like proper ventilation so workers don’t suffer from respiratory issues caused by lint in the air, ergonomic chairs so repetitive motions of sewing don’t strain their backs, proper lighting to protect their eyesight, a ready supply of cool drinking water, safety evacuation routes, and many other things that should be “givens” in the garment industry but are frighteningly rare in shoe-string budget apparel operations that aren’t concerned with worker safety and health.