My name is Judith Yanira Viera. I am from El
Salvador and I am 18 years old. For over a year,
I worked in the Taiwanese-owned Mandarin
International maquiladora factory in the San
Marcos Free Trade Zone, where we made shirts for
the Gap, Eddie Bauer and J.C. Penney. From Monday
to Thursday, our work shift went from seven in the
morning until nine at night. On Fridays, we would
work straight through the night, starting at 7 a.m.
and working until 4 a.m. We would sleep overnight
at the factory on the floor. The following day, we
would work from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. Despite these
very long hours, the most I ever earned was 750
colones [about $43] per month.
The supervisors often screamed at the women.
They would hit us with the shirts and tell us to work
faster. Even though we worked a 14-hour day, we
were only permitted to go to the bathroom twice.
Each time, we had to get a ticket from the supervi-
sor, and then we were allowed no more than three
to five minutes. It gets very hot in the plant, and the
ventilation is poor. In the factory, there is no puri-
fied water, and the drinking water they give us is
contaminated.
One of the owners of the free-trade zone is for-
mer army colonel Mario Guerrero. Another ex-
colonel, Luis Alonzo Amaya, is Mandarin’s head of
personnel. On several occasions, this man invited me
to go out with him. He told me that if I went out
with him I would not be fired. He used to follow me
in his car. I was so afraid that I had to go home
accompanied by my two sisters.
Judith Yanira Viera’s testimony was gathered by Barbara
Briggs and Charles Kernaghan, who are staff members of
the National Labor Committee. She and Claudia Molina, a
17-year-old maquiladora worker from Honduras, crisscrossed
the United States and Canada on a two-month speaking tour
last year sponsored by the National Labor Committee.
There are many minors–girls aged 14, 15 and 16-
who work in Mandarin. They would like to continue their studies, but the company does not permit it.
They make the children work the same long shifts as the adult workers. If someone doesn’t want to work
overtime, they punish her by making her go outside and sweep under the sun for the whole day. The women are not allowed to go to an outside
health clinic even though they deduct medical insurance
from our pay. Instead, if a woman
feels sick, she must go to the plant’s
doctor. He takes
advantage of the
situation to give
them contraceptive
pills so they won’t
Judith Yanira Viera (left), and another get pregnant. On
maquiladora worker in front of a the assembly line
Gap store in New York. where I worked, one of the women
felt sick and went for a consultation with this doctor.
He gave her some pills, but she still felt sick the next
day, so she went back to the clinic. She found out
that she was pregnant, and that the pills the doctor
had given her were to make her abort.
Because of all this maltreatment, the workers
formed a union. The colonels hired thugs to beat up
the union leaders. In June, 1995, the company fired
more than 350 workers, including pregnant women,
minors and union leaders, which is illegal. Many
times these thugs have gone to the unionists’ homes
at night and demanded that they quit the union, say-
ing that if they didn’t, they would suffer the conse-
quences. In June, because of all the firings, the work-
ers carried out a work stoppage. The company called
the police, who beat the people who were on strike.
They also kidnapped our union’s secretary general,
Eliseo Castro Perez. They beat him, tortured him, and
threatened him, saying that they would kill his fami-
ly if he didn’t reveal the names of the leaders.
My two sisters and I were amongst those fired for
joining the union. We have all been blacklisted, and cannot find new jobs.
ine Gap acquires a substantial portion of its cloth-
I ing from contractors in Central America, including Mandarin. At the Mandarin plant, women like Judith are paid 18 cents for every Gap shirt they make. The
Gap sells these shirts for $20 each in the United States. In other words, the women’s wages amount to under 1% of the sale price of the shirts in the United States.
Like a number of other U.S.-apparel firms, the Gap
has established much-touted Corporate Codes of Conduct that require contract shops with whom it
does business to abide by their countries’ labor laws. Despite ample evidence of labor-rights violations by Mandarin, the Gap has consistently maintained that in its investigations, including several trips to visit the plant in El Salvador, it has found Mandarin to be a “model” operation that treated its workers with “decency and respect ” Under intense pressure from the growing evidence of abuses at Mandarin, the Gap announced its deci-
sion to pull out of El Salvador in November. The Gap continues to deny its role in the exploitation. Labor
organizers, however, say the company’s decision to pull out is tantamount to recognizing its incapacity to monitor its contractors and enforce its own codes of conduct. Organizers argue that the company should use its leverage as a major buyer to demand improved working conditions for maquiladora work- ers. By pulling out, they say, the Gap further punish- es poor workers in developing countries.
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