Alta Gracia!
- Support Alta Gracia!
- What is Alta Gracia?
“Alta Gracia” is a sweat-free project that Knights Apparel – Nike’s largest competitor in the collegiate apparel market – started on April 2010. The name stands for both, the factory and the brand of college apparel produced, in Villa Altagracia, Dominican Republic.
The University of Houston Bookstore carries several items from the brand, which you can access here!
- What is Sweat-Free?
Alta Gracia is “sweat-free” because it offers living wage year around (independent from cycles of supply and demand) to its workers, which means that they will be able to stably provide adequate food, clean water, safe shelter and education for themselves and their children.
Also, the factory agreed to follow the guidance of the Maquila Health and Safety Solidarity Network (MHSSN) to assure a safe working environment. Furthermore, Altagracia committed to its workers’ rights to organize, which has taken place from the opening of the factory.
The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent labor rights monitoring organization that the University of Houston is affiliated with, has agreed to publicly verify working conditions at Altagracia.
- How did the project start?
Alta Gracia has historical relevance. The project is the result of decades of struggle against sweatshops. Alta Gracia used to be a factory called BJ&B that had atrocious working conditions and primarily produced Nike and Reebok hats for the university market. In 2003, after four years of workers’ struggle, some massive firings of unionists, and national campaigning by activists from the United Students Against Sweatshops, BJ&B became the first unionized factory in the Dominican Republic’s free trade zones, setting a precedent for worker power. The victory was ephemeral, Nike and Reebok slowly withdrew the orders from BJ&J. By 2007, all orders went to factories with cheaper labor, the factory closed, and all the workforce was unemployed and the town ruined.
- Why should I support Alta Gracia?
First of all, the whole sweatshop issue is important. Although our privileges give us little incentive to realize it, the sweatshop issue is extremely important. Sweatshops are factories, specifically in the apparel industry, with environments unacceptably difficult or dangerous where many workers are employed at wages so low that, despite long hours of grueling work, they cannot provide adequate nutrition and shelter for themselves and their families, and there are thousands of these factories. That means that, there are millions of people around the world working in precarious conditions and living in poverty, in spite of making most of the clothing people in the United States buys and wears.
Thus, the sweatshop issue is not trivial, and its solutions are not simple. But there are alternatives. Although corporations and college administrators have insisted it was impossible to produce schools’ clothes in union factories that pay living wages, Alta Gracia is a project that forces that excuse to rest.
Second, Alta Gracia’s history shows that ethical steps in the apparel history are not eternal and should not be taken for granted. In 2010, the workers of Dominican Republic are making history again. Now the BJ&J unionists are receiving fair treatment in Alta Gracia. As the previous victory, this is a very significative one, as well as small and susceptible. Alta Gracia has competent prices, but it is one sweat-free factory competing with thousands of sweatshops. Alta Gracia needs our support!
Third, there are many ways we can help Alta Gracia. The factory is employing under one hundred workers, while thousands of people who used to work for BJ&J are skilled to sew Cougar Pride. Also, Alta Gracia is only sewing college t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies. This means the factory is not working at its full capacity, so we could support their ethical business and expand fair labor.
Lastly, there is support for Alta Gracia around the country. Thus, we are certain that we can make Alta Gracia a success, if we do our share of the work.
- I want to know more!
Alta Gracia http://altagraciaapparel.com/
Worker Rights Consortium about Alta Gracia – http://workersrights.org/verification.asp
The New York Times about Alta Gracia http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/business/global/18shirt.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=knights%20apparel&st=cse
Where to see the Alta Gracia clothes (and order online)? http://uh.bncollege.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductSearchCommand?storeId=19067&langId=-1&catalogId=10001&extSearchEnabled=G+&displayImage=N+&search=alta+gracia&x=0&y=0
