Workers' Center to Add Board Members
The Garment Worker Center (GWC) in Los Angeles is making inroads in the region’s multibillion-dollar garment manufacturing industry with the help of its members. The non-profit group, which just over a year ago set out to improve the working conditions and treatment of immigrant workers and now claims 100 members, is forming a committee to represent local minority garment workers.
“Since GWC opened, we’ve wanted to ensure that the workers have a more formal voice in the direction and planning of GWC and now it’s happening,” said Joann Lo, an organizer at the GWC.
On Sept. 21, the group will vote for nine board members who will represent the region’s Asian and Hispanic garment workers. About 10 percent of the center’s members are Asian and 90 percent are Hispanic, said Lo.
GWC director Kimi Lee said the new board members’ responsibilities will be divided into six committees: campaign workers, membership and recruitment, multiethnic immigrant workers organizing network (MIWON), education, dues, social and cultural events, and a problem-solving committee.
“I think that it’s important that the Board of Directors is composed of garment workers because the workers have the experience from working in the garment industry to develop and come up with solutions to these problems,” said garment worker Yeny Saavedra.
Currently, the GWC—which operates on private funding and donations and has an annual budget of about $150,000—provides labor law workshops and multilingual printed materials, which are distributed on foot and by mail to garment workers in and around Los Angeles.
The center charges its members $20 every six months for dues. “But if someone can’t pay their dues we won’t turn them away—they can still be a member,” said Lo.
Support for the GWC comes from several local labor and civil rights groups, including Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center and Oakland, Calif.-based Sweatshop Watch.
Until now, there has been no single organization that works with the region’s garment workers to make sure their rights are protected, said Lo, who maintains the GWC’s goal is not to attempt to organize workers but to more or less foster better communication between them and the center.
“It strives to educate workers about their rights and empower them to speak out if there is any abuse in work ethics,” she said. “If a member of our organization is paid below minimum wage he or she will know exactly what to do because they know what records to keep and they’ll know exactly where to seek help.”
The GWC has made offers to some manufacturers to go to the contractors and host free seminars for employers and workers, according to Lo, although she noted, “No one has taken us up on it yet.”
Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association (CFA), which counts about 250 apparel manufacturers as members, said she thinks it’s wise to educate the workers as well as the employers.
Metchek said she supports efforts made to assist workers as long as they have a “legitimate complaint.” “When it gets into a form of finding a way to go into the deep pockets of a manufacturer then it’s abhorrent,” she said.
So far this year, the GWC has had 10 workshops on topics ranging from wage and hour laws to how to become a legal citizen. Included on the bill are representatives from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, UCLA Labor Center and Asian Immigrant Workers Advocates.
The center is a place where members can go to express their needs as workers. A few members have suggested workshops that teach English as a second language, but Lo said the GWC couldn’t afford it right now. About 98 percent of its members are non- English-speaking workers, Lo said, adding that the center currently refers its members to community programs that offer courses to learn English.
The center is also hoping to find additional funding to buy computers for a computer literacy program.
Lo said that once a board is put in place, it will vote collectively on the center’s priorities.
“The board can decide on the benefits and the responsibilities of being a member of GWC,” she said.
