This is not just an issue that involves million dollar contracts and monitoring organizations. People’s livelihoods are on the line. Last month the closure of BJ&B, a factory in the Dominican Republic that produces baseball caps for adidas and nike, was announced.
Sebastian Garcia has worked at BJ&B for 16 years. Sebastian is 56 years old. He is trained at operating many of the plants’ production machines and helps instruct other workers. Here is his story in his own words before the closure of BJ&B was announced:
“Finding a new job if BJ&B closes will not be easy. I am an old man now. Who will want to hire an old man like me? That is what I am worried about.
The family needs an income. For the food especially, and to make sure the kids are able to go to school, to study. If I was younger, I could move away to try to find a job. But I have a family, so I can’t do that. Of course, I will look for work. But not only am I of an advanced age, I am also a known trade unionist. The times coming would be very hard. I am worried the children could go hungry.
We have discussed this in the family. I said that soon I may not be working. One of the kids says that they could leave school and start working. But I am afraid even she could not get hired because I am known to be a trade unionist. One of my son’s in law worked at BJ&B for six years, and they fired him because of my involvement in the union. They fired me too, but I was able to get my job back.
Why did I join the union? There were so many abuses in the factory. The supervisors screamed at us and mistreated us. They forced you to do work extra hours, even when you were sick. That happened to me. One day, I was so sick in the stomach. I could not eat. And I went to the bathroom and I was losing blood from both ends. I told my supervisor I need to go to the hospital. He said you must stay and work. Then he said you can go home if you want but then don’t come back, because you will be fired. So I went to the hospital anyway and I was there in recuperation for nine days. They finally let me come back to work.
In fact, this happened several times, about 5 times. One time at the factory, I was trying to lift a heavy box and I cut a ventricle nerve. At night, I could not eat. And the next day I went to work and I was so ill. I was losing blood again. I told my boss I need to go to the hospital. He did not want me to go. I finally went to a hospital in the Capital, and they kept me one month. But the company refused to pay my disability leave. Also, I lost so much blood that I needed to have an infusion of new blood. It was very expensive. And the company refused to give the paperwork that I needed for the hospital go cover it under the social security system. They told me it was too expensive. This happened 7 years ago.
At this time, some people were talking about organizing a union. I told my story and they asked me to be a member of the leadership committee to organize the union. I said yes. Since that day, I have always participated in the union. In fact, I never missed a meeting. During the time that the union was formed, I was fired, along with other people who were involved. But after the international pressure, we got our jobs back and continued.
Everything changed with the union. Before, whenever a worker made any kind of error, the supervisor would shake you and scream. This stopped. There had been extra hours which were forced and sometimes not paid. After the union, the worker did not do overtime if he didn’t agree to, and the company didn’t demand it. We also got various changes through the collective agreement. They increased how much they will pay for overtime. There was a benefit for food. There were many benefits. If a worker was injured and needed medical attention, the company paid for much of it. There are many things we achieved in the agreement, which I can’t remember all of them right now.
If the factory closes, the workers will not be able to find work, because this is really the only big employer. The people with children really need the work. People need to pay for their homes if they don’t own them. Without work, they could lose their homes. If a mother has children who are sick, they won’t be able to get medical care from “social security” because you have to be employed to get that.
In my case, we have so many expenses – the electricity for the light, the telephone, food, paying for the school for all of the children. I don’t know how we could pay for them. So I am praying that BJ&B stays open.
The problem is that there are no other factories that are hiring here. Especially, there are no other places that will hire women.
I want to say to the brand, like Nike that they should do everything that they can to keep this factory open. In this moment, we the people of this community, we need this factory here. We should not be blamed, and we should not be punished by loss of our job, because we tried to organize a union to protect ourselves.
We have made these products, which we know are of the highest quality, no matter what any one says, for many many years. We put our care into making these hats. The brands and Yupoong, they owe it to our community to stay here.”
No comments:
Post a Comment