| The San Marcos Free Trade Zone, built with U.S. tax dollars,
resembles a prison camp with locked metal gates, barbed wire, and armed
guards.
Apple Tree, a Korean-owned maquila factory, sews university T-shirts carrying the Anvil, Fruit of the Loom, and Delta labels. T-shirts made in El Salvador carrying these labels are sold at Yale, University of North Carolina, Purdue, Virginia Tech, and University of Arkansas. Other labels sewn at Apple Tree include Basic Editions, B.U.M., and Knitworks. There are 900-1000 workers at Apple Tree.
HOURS / FORCED OVERTIME: Sewing operators:
Monday – Friday: 6:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Manual workers:
Monday – Friday: 6:40 a.m. - 6 or 7 p.m.
Manual workers can be in the factory up to 69 hours a week. There are two daily breaks; a 15 minute coffee break at 9:00 a.m. and a 55 minute lunch break from 11:45 to 12:40 p.m. Hours worked are recorded and written in by a secretary. There are no
time clocks. Many workers feel they are being shortchanged three or four
hours overtime every two weeks.
PAY STUB FOR JULY 1999 Sonia Beatriz, an inspector, was fired from Apple Tree on August 13, 1999 when the company suspected she was involved in a CTS union organizing effort. Sonia's July pay stub shows that she worked 60.5 hours a week for a
take home pay of $49.34, or 82? an hour. Sonia believes she was shortchanged
three or four hours of overtime, which the secretary did not record. The
82 cents an hour wage includes the 16.5 hours of overtime pay, the 7th
day bonus, and all other incentives.
There are 12 sewing lines with approximately 50 workers per line, whose
daily production quota is 7000 t- shirts per 8 hour shift. The Salvadoran
workers are paid approximately 3.5 cents for every $9.98 delta T-shirt
they sew for Purdue university. Their wages amount to a little over
3/10 of one percent of the retail price of the shirt.
FORCED PREGNANCY TESTS: All new employees must undergo two pregnancy tests within the first
three months of work, which they pay for. This costs the equivalent
of a week’s wages. If the women test positive they will be immediately
fired.
HEAT AND DUST: The Apple Tree factory is housed in a large metal quonset hut.
Without proper ventilation the factory is extremely hot in the afternoon.
Despite the fact that there are extractors, the women complain of the constant
dust, and fabric particles, which they breathe.
MALTREATMENT/ YELLING AND CURSING: The supervisors frequently yell and curse at the women to sew faster. Especially Mr. John Ha who hits the girls on the shoulder, shoves and pushes them, and knocks them with his ruler, yelling: “can you work or not... hurry up you whore... are you stupid?” BATHROOM BREAKS MONITORED: There is one bathroom per production line and the supervisor controls the key. You can use the toilet once, or at most twice, during working hours. NO CLEAN DRINKING WATER: The workers are provided only with tap water from a well. The water is hot, and often dirty. ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE RESTRICTED: Despite the fact that a day’s wages, or more, are deducted every two weeks from the workers’ pay for social security health care, Apple Tree management restricts their access to the health care clinic. If a worker misses a day, even with a medical confirmation from her doctor, she will be fined two days pay. NO RIGHT TO ORGANIZE: As in the 224 other maquila factories in El Salvador, at Apple Tree there is no right to organize an independent union. In June of 1999, approximately 200 workers were suspended, and eventually fired, under the pretext that there was not sufficient work. Most of the workers received only a portion of their legal severance pay. However, on July 20th Apple Tree started to hire replacement workers. The workers believe this was a maneuver by the company, since it suspected an organizing drive, led by the CTS labor federation, was underway. |