Sewing Hope: How One Factory Challenges the Apparel Industry's Sweatshops

245 Pages·2017·237.888 MB·English

by  Sarah Adler-Milstein, John M Kline

Sewing Hope
how one factory challenges
the apparel industry’s sweatshops
Sarah Adler-Milstein
and John M. Kline
university of california press
Sewing Hope

Sewing Hope
how one factory challenges
the apparel industry’s sweatshops
Sarah Adler-Milstein
and John M. Kline
university of california press
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university
presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by
advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural
sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by
philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more
information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2017 by Sarah Adler-Milstein and John M. Kline
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Adler-Milstein, Sarah, 1983– author. | Kline, John M., author.
Title: Sewing hope : how one factory challenges the apparel industry’s
sweatshops / Sarah Adler-Milstein and John M. Kline.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017] |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifi ers: lccn 2017011113 (print) | lccn 2017015415 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520966246 (epub and ePDF) | isbn 9780520292901 (cloth :
alk. paper) | isbn 9780520292925 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: lcsh: Alta Gracia Apparel. | Clothing trade—Moral and
ethical aspects. | Sweatshops. | Social responsibility of business.
Classifi cation: lcc tt498 (ebook) | lcc tt498 .a35 2017 (print) |
ddc 338.4/7687—dc23
lc record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2017011113
Manufactured in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For the workers and supporters of Alta Gracia,
whose commitment, tenacity, and bravery
have built a new model

Contents
Preface ix
1. The Diff erence between Heaven and Earth 1
Introducing Alta Gracia
2. From Factory Favorite to Fighter 12
Human Cost of the “Race to the Bottom”
3. Risky Proposition, Unlikely Alliance 34
Founding a New Factory
4. Ideals into Action 57
Building an Anti-Sweatshop Model
5. Escaping Scripted Roles 78
Unexpected Benefi ts of a New Approach
6. Stories of Transformation 107
Diverse Impacts of a Living Wage
7. Surviving on Our Own 132
Adjusting the Business Model
8. Replication or Revolution 163
Alta Gracia in Context
Afterword: Taking Action 191
Acknowledgments 195
Notes 197
Bibliography 205
Index 211
About the Authors 221
Preface
Apparel products are ever-present in our lives—bought, worn, changed,
and discarded—with thought seldom given to the individuals who make
them. Headlines sometimes report on factory fi res or other tragedies that
claim workers’ lives, but the apparel industry’s global span, locating most
production in regions and countries with low wages far from major con-
sumer markets, makes it easy to avoid unpleasant stories about unsafe
conditions and daily worker abuse in so-called sweatshops. But this is a
diff erent story—one of hope in an industry historically marked by exploi-
tation and one about the purposeful creation of a new type of factory:
a kind of “anti-sweatshop.”
Alta Gracia was born out of an unlikely alliance between a couple of
apparel industry insiders, workers, and labor advocates. To make Alta
Gracia successful, each group had to step out of their normal roles. As a
result, they turned the apparel industry’s business model on its head,
creating the fi rst successful anti-sweatshop in the global South dedicated
to “Changing Lives One Shirt at a Time.” The new model transformed
the traditionally invisible workers who make clothes into celebrity
spokespeople, inspiring audiences across the United States with their sto-
ries. Factory managers usually tasked with the industry’s dirty work
ix