Cacao pods!
One last night in Santo Domingo!
Going to a cave tonight…
sunday afternoon.
Yesterday the group of us traveled to a beautiful little park in Villa Altagracia to hear from the children of Alta Gracia workers. After a fun game of team tag, we all gathered in a circle and introduced ourselves, saying our names. ages, and schools.
The children ranged from roughly 8 years old to 20 or so. It was great to see how the families are now able to afford to send their children to better schools, and even on to secondary education, now that there is more money in their family budget because families are making a living wage. One daughter mentioned that when her mother worked at the BJ+B factory before Alta Gracia was opened, she was forced to work long, late hours, and she would never see her mom. This further caused tension in the house, on top of barely getting to catch up with her mother.
Another important change was that in the past, personal aspirations were limited for the children. Now, goals and aspirations can flower. On a more personal note, this reminds me of my family. Both my parents work in a union factory, where they collectively bargain for their rights at work. In turn, they, and myself, have a solid healthcare plan and they are able to help send me and my sister to college. Who knows what their workplace would be like without a democratic union representing the workers.
Other benefits include families being able to pay off their debts. They are also able to spend more within the local economy, renting out halls for birthday parties, buying from local restaurants and grocery stores.
In closing, during the 2 years Alta Gracia has been open, one worker said she was able to achieve more than in the 9 years she worked at BJ+B. She can rely on a stable income, safe and respectable work environment, and in turn can provide a better future for her family and children.
viernes, viernes, fun fun fun!
TGIF consisted of packing into guagua (gwah-gwah) and heading to the city of Bonao, about 45 minutes away, to the Fedotrazonas headquarters - Federacion Dom. de Trabajadores de Zonas Francas, Industrias Diversas y de Servicios.
This is an over-arching organization that a lot of unions are umbrella-ed under, and share resources and know-how. The Federation headquarters had a computer lab in their front room for members and family members to use, where we all gathered to hear from workers formed a union in their textile mill. At a factory of 1800 workers, 900 are members of the union. In their factory specifically, the union collectively bargains for all the workers, not just union members (like how unions work in a right-to-work state). Though it’s unfortunate that not everybody is a member of the union,. not everybody can afford the union dues or risk losing their job if they were to organize (though discriminating against a union is illegal, but it still happens because there are no repercussions against it).
Afterwards, we heard from workers from a Hanes apparel factory, who had formed a union, but then the factory pulled a quick one and changed their name, and the union was instantly invalid. There is also a phenomenon called ‘yellow unions,’ where the management will also form a union too to try and get workers to join to confuse the workforce and pin one union against another. Now, the workers who spoke to us said they are trying to build up the union again like they once had.
The collective bargaining agreement is given to all workers so they know their rights.
After we heard from workers at the union hall, we split into four groups and visited workers in their homes. They lady we spoke to told us that when the factory has no work, everybody is laid off and must find other work. Sometimes they barely have enough money to put food on the table, because they have other expenses to pay, like rent. This makes it difficult for the workers to send their children on to higher education, especially when they have more pressing needs on hand, like medical care and food.
Afterwards, all of us went down to a river to have lunch and chilled out a bit, before heading back to Villa Altagracia for the evening, where we continued our workshops - mapping out an escalation plan for getting more Alta Gracia in our campus bookstores, and then did role plays with mock coalitions and administrators. It went well!
Take-aways for why Alta Gracia is the sh!t:
1. Moral - Not produced in a sweatshop! Workers are paid enough to live on and provide a better life for their family, with a schedule they were able to decide upon, freedom to get up and go to the bathroom at work or get a drink of water, and with safety standards and precautions taken in the workplace. They also aren’t forced to work mandatory overtime.
2. Legal - A lot of colleges have signed onto the Workers Rights Consortium, a watchdog group that monitors the factories collegiate apparel is produced in. Since they are signed on, they have agreed to abide by not sourcing clothing from sweatshops. Alta Gracia is the only factory the WRC officially endorses.
3. Financial - Sourcing from Alta Gracia costs no more than buying apparel such as Nike and Adidas, which are both known to have human rights abuses in their factories. In addition, Alta Gracia is often sold at a comparable, or even lower price, than a lot of traditional apparel in college bookstores.
4. We want it - Dude, students want to support socially responsible apparel produced in a democratic decision-making factory, not sweatshop.
Anywho, tonight (which was last night when I wrote this, but internet was out so I couldn’t post it) is discoteca night. Even though there seems to be a discoteca happening right now on the ground floor of the building the union hall is in. What would a Sunday night, or any night of the week be like, without music, and of course, dancing!
sketch of the town we have been living in, Villa Alta Gracia, done by Angie from University of Missouri.
bag of oranges we got to take home from the farm we visited on wednesday!!! expanded post to follow about our bumpy journey up a muddy hill, on the back of a pick-up truck, to this amazing coffee/orange/bananas etc. farm two days ago. meeting with gilden workers today, on the beach!!!, doing workshops and having some relaxation time too.
(Source: nevver, via toriporfavor)
1/4 - miercoles
Hola! Now our home-base is Villa Altagracia, a hilly town about 20 miles from Santo Domingo. Eliza and I, with about 8 or so others, are staying at the union office of the Alta Gracia workers. The rest of the delegation are staying in homestays with the workers. The union office is really awesome, it’s pretty much an apartment, with a big shared space where we do workshops, a kitchen (where we make delicious coffee out of a mocha coffee maker), a dining room table, a bathroom, and two bedrooms. Headquarters!
Here are some snid-bits from Wednesday (internet has been out most evenings when I’d be back at the union office, which has WiFi when there is electricity, to post these! but we are lucky to have it now, and it’ll probably go out in a bit):
*Visited the Alta Gracia factory! Eliza is working on a post all about our expedition to the amazing factory, and then our walk around the Free Trade Zone it sits in.
*Lunch! Best. Food. Ever. Can’t get enough of the fresh fruit and mashed, fried, boiled plantains. And rice and beans.
*Visit from a couple workers. One worker, Yenny, who now works at Alta Gracia, used to work at the BJ+B apparel factory, the location Alta Gracia now operates from (though they aren’t affiliated with each other)… it had sweatshop conditions: very strict rules where workers weren’t allowed to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water, very strict piecemeal wages (where sometimes there wasn’t even work to do so workers would get sent home), and forced overtime where workers sometimes weren’t allowed to leave until they finished, so eventually some workers decided to get together and organize to form a union. Unfortunately, those workers were fired, and eventually, the factory was shut down because of organizing activity (which is totally illegal under Dominic Republic and International Labor Organization law). With worker and student pressure, Alta Gracia was able to open in the space BJ+B used to sit, and now workers are paid living wages, negotiated on their morning 25 minute breakfast break and hour break for lunch, and get to walk around and have freedom and fun in the workplace.
*After this workshop we had some hiking time in the hills! A handful of the union members guided us on our expedition. We had to cross the freeway ie. play human Frogger a bit to get to the path to take up into the hills, walking through neighborhoods built into the hills up, up, up. It was a lot of fun, steep at times, but beautiful. A lot of kids from the town came along for the hike too. The views were spectacular, and we even saw the house of Sergio Vargas, a famous meringue singer who lives in the mountains, off in the distance. At least walking back down the hills was a lot easier than walking up ‘em!
(Sergio Vargas’ house in the hills!)
*We took a quick walk to the market afterwards, where Eliza and I bought some Dominican version of oreos (so much better - less crunchy and less cream filling) and a drink called Ponche Crema De Oro. It’s creamy, reminds me of a citrusy eggnog because it has egg in it, and 16% alcohol too. Tried it but not a fan.
*Afterwards it was dinnertime! Usually fair of rice and beans, fried cheese and plantains, veggies, and other sides too. SOoooo much food!
*And then, bachata lessons! A handful of union members came over to teach us some traditional Dominican dances, and we danced the evening away. Learned some meringue too!
I will recap yesterday, chock full of earthquake and a visit to a coffee/orange/banana farm and then beach, later!
Adios!
-Kate
Kate and an (organic) baby coffee plant!
Eliza and a limon dulce (sweet lemon) and mandarin! Picked fresh on la finca/the farm we were visiting yesterday!
