Visiting a Dominican Factory Where Workers Profit, Too

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I had a great birthday this year. On the morning of May 25, after a much delayed midnight flight from New York to Santo Domingo and two hours of sleep, I trekked to an apparel factory in the town of Villa Altagracia about 45 minutes outside of the capital. “Sweatshop” is often the term that comes to mind when we think about such garment factories. “Exploited” is a word commonly used to describe the “sweatshop” workers who make our ubiquitous t-shirts, baseball caps, and other higher fashion items. However, these terms do not apply to this garment factory called Alta Gracia Apparel. Quite the contrary.
This factory was much different than my preconceived image. It was light, airy, orderly and safe. Upbeat music filled the factory floor and the workers operating sewing machines sat in ergonomic work chairs. I received a warm greeting from Rudy the plant manager and Adriana the administrative manager. They knew their business and in a very brief time I had a good sense of many of the positive dimensions of this enterprise. It’s impressive.
Alta Gracia’s wages meet the fair wage criteria of the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), a global independent labor rights watchdog. They are about three times the going rate for workers in other factories in the Dominican Republic. It is no surprise that employee turnover is minimal, but what is also impressive is that the company is making a profit as a sustainable business. The profit margin is less than some other factories, but it’s a profit nonetheless.
The Alta Gracia factory makes collegiate apparel such as t-shirts and sweatshirts. These are supplied to Knights Apparel, which then sends the garments to retailers like Barnes and Noble that sell the apparel in school-based bookstores in colleges and universities. Alta Gracia is the result of the collaboration among several diverse organizations—a for-profit clothing manufacturer, universities, retailers, an advocacy group and idealistic college students—not the usual coalition suspects! In addition to the players mentioned above, others include Dominican labor unions; the Maquiladora Health and Safety Network, which developed the factory’s health and safety program; Georgetown University, one of the founders of the WRC; and the University of Notre Dame, which recently purchased more than 160,000 shirts for its football program’s 125th anniversary.
The fair wage is calculated using research on local economic conditions. Alta Gracia employees can afford the basics—nutritious food and decent housing, through a respectable job in safe working conditions. Workers have the right to organize and negotiate with factory managers for better working conditions. Managers strive to, and to my eye, meet the standards that measure health and safety conditions.
At the Alta Gracia factory, I spoke with workers Pablo, Jenny and Isabel. Two of them worked at other factories in the Dominican Republic before being hired by Alta Gracia. They spoke about being treated with dignity at Alta Gracia, about the workers’ sense of loyalty and about their defined work schedule [Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m., with 30 minutes for breakfast, 60 minutes for lunch; Friday: 7 a.m.–1p.m.]. I was told that other factories force workers to stay on the job until all hours of the night and even on weekends whenever there is a big order. Families have no idea when their worker relatives will be coming home.
However, let’s not forget this is a business. Putting together a small startup company is not easy. The Alta Gracia factory took longer to set up than originally imagined. The supply of whole cloth to make the garments was limited and presented an obstacle. Alta Gracia faces serious challenges. Productivity gains have not overcome the fact that workers are paid three times the minimum wage. Non-payroll costs like electricity are high compared to costs in neighboring countries. And, after all, Alta Gracia is just one “sweat-free” factory competing with thousands of sweatshops around the world.
However, Alta Gracia is a different business model for apparel manufacture. It aims to turn an acceptable profit and to provide good working conditions and equitable wages—plus the goal of changing garment workers’ lives for the better.
Msgr. Sullivan is executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York.