At this factory, you are required to work from 6:40am to 7pm every day, with a small 15-minute break in the morning, and lunch from 11:45 to 12:40.  Saturdays you work until 11am or until 4pm.  When there was work, at times one was obligated to work until 11pm.  They paid us the minimum wage of 538 colones every two weeks plus production and a small bonus for working overtime.  I usually could earn 950 colones, or at the most, working many overtime hours, 1,100. 

When you begin working there, they ask for pregnancy, lung, and blood tests, and deduct a total of 200 colones out of three paychecks. 

The production process for these T-shirts has nine steps.  First, the hem of the sleeve is made.  This operation is paid a rate of 35 colones per 1000 T-shirts.  Second, the sleeve is closed, for 35 colones per 1000.  Third, the shoulder is closed, at a rate of 25 colones per 1000.  Fourth, the label is attached, at a rate of 25 colones.  Fifth, the neck is attached, at 35 colones per 1000.  Sixth, the reinforcement is attached, at 35 colones per 1000.  Seventh, top stitch the collar at 25 colones; attach the sleeves for 35 colones per 1000; and finally, hem the bottom of the T-shirt for 25 colones per 1000.  That’s the whole process. 

The production goal for the Delta T-shirts was 7,200 pieces. For Anvil, it was 7,000.  In other words, the line had to produce between 200 and 250 T-shirts per hour. 

The bathrooms were dirty.  There was only one bathroom per line, and per section.  The manual workers were required to clean them.  They gave us tap water to drink; not purified water like in some other companies. 

They didn’t give us permission to go to the social security clinic.  If you went, you lost that day’s pay, the 7th day’s pay, and were suspended for an additional day.  They only let pregnant women go if they present a doctor’s order. 

There weren’t any fans.  And because of the intense heat, it was impossible to work well.  The supervisors and the Korean managers would scream at us.  And if we complained to the general manager, Mr. John Ha.  He would tell us that we had to work harder, and that that was what we wanted; for them to yell at us. 

In June they fired me.  They suspended a number of compañeros – both women and men – totaling some 200 people.  The excuse was that there wasn’t work.  But although they said they were going to reinstate us when there was work, later they began to hire new personnel and they did not reinstate us. Only about 15 pregnant women were reinstated because they complained.   We are sure that this is because we were beginning to meet; to organize ourselves into a union to improve our working conditions in the factory.