California’s Fight Against the Wage Theft Crisis

Santa Son, a garment worker in Los Angeles, makes $300 working 60 hours every week in order for her children to survive. She is among thousands of immigrant women who make up the majority of garment workers affected by unjust wages in the California garment industry.

The Fight Against Wage Theft 

The pandemic significantly impacted garment workers in California. The minimum wage in California was raised to $14 dollars in 2021, and by 2022 the minimum wage will be set to $15, but garment workers are still being paid by the piece, making around $5 an hour. 

This is because the garment worker industry operates under the piece-rate system. Workers earn their wages by the amount of pieces they are able to produce, instead of an hourly basis. Senator Maria Elena Durazo of California is fighting for the rights of garment workers stating that, “it actually is used as a way to further exploit those workers.” While employers reap the benefits, workers are left feeling vulnerable and violated. This is unjust and unlawful and workers are feeling helpless. 

Wage theft isn’t only about workers being paid less than minimum wage, but it’s also when they aren’t paid for overtime work and are forced to work off the clock. California’s garment workers have long battled wage theft in the garment industry, with thousands of workers filing claims totaling $320 million in unpaid wages. 

Current Policies Against Wage Theft

S.B. 306, passed on Jan. 1, 2018, states, “allows a labor commissioner to investigate an employer when retaliation is suspected in wage-claim cases.” Laws currently in place by the Department of Industrial Relations Labor Enforcement Task Force, “require that all employees receive minimum wage, overtime payment, meal and break periods, as well as, safe and clean working conditions.”

Yet the U.S. Department of Labor “found labor violations at 85 percent of the factories” specify what kind of factories here. Workers were “paid back $1.3 million in wages” due to this investigation. David Weil, who was previously in charge of the Wage and Hour area at the Department of Labor said, “this whole problem devolves from the retailer.” According to Weil, the root issue of the industry stems from big retailers not being held accountable. Because retailers are at the top of the supply chain, they can manipulate manufacturing costs, while garment workers pay the price by working long hours for little wages.

The Fight for Policy Change Continues 

Santa Son says she finds it hard to even miss a day at work to be with her children. She constantly feels pressure from her employers to work without much breaks. This goes against policies set by the Labor Enforcement task Force, yet these rules seem to be broken over again and again. Senator Mario Elena Durazo continues the fight against these unjust practices in hopes the piece-rate system will be brought down. On Sept. 1, 2020, Durazo initiated a new bill SB 1399, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to vote on the bill.

Yet Senator Durazo said, “I don’t think an industry should exist if it does so on the backs of stealing worker’s wages. They are now the essential workers making our masks and kinds of things that we all rely on and they don’t get the protections they need for themselves or their families.” 

Senator Maria Elena Durazo was behind Senate Bill 62, which was recently just signed by Governor Newsom on Monday, Sept. 27. It will hold companies accountable for their responsibility of paying just wages to workers and will forever erase the piece-rate system. It will also allow workers to be able to work in a safe and clean environment. This bill is a breakthrough for the garment worker industry and will bring significant change in the future.

COVID-19 Made Health & Safety Conditions Worse

Garment workers were essential frontline workers during the pandemic as the demand for face masks skyrocketed last year. Workers had no choice but to risk their lives sewing hundreds of masks earning as little as $0.03 per mask. According to a UCLA Labor Center study, workers expressed “excessive heat and dust as well as poor ventilation” created next to impossible working conditions making it hard to breathe. The report also mentioned workers seeing bathrooms dirty and some even saw mice and rats. The pandemic only highlighted these poor conditions and increased the risk of infection for workers. L.A. Apparel had one of the “largest coronavirus outbreaks” according to LA Public Health. The factory was closed last summer when “300 employees at the plant had tested positive. At least four of them have died of the disease.” L.A. Apparel was closed due to “inadequate social distancing and infection control.”  

The unsanitary work conditions in garment factories was already a serious concern and yet the pandemic didn’t cause managers to take precautions very seriously. This invoked a lot of fear for workers who didn’t have the option of staying home. According to Alex Sanchez, who works for the Garment Worker Center, “factories are producing personal protective equipment while not offering it to their workers. Workers don’t have sick leave so if they get sick, they come to work sick.” 

Covid-19 Made the Financial Struggle Worse

Workers were also afraid of the risk of losing their job when factories started shutting down due to mandatory lockdowns. One garment worker Ruiz was worried about where she would get the money saying, “how are we going to pay rent? How are we going to pay bills? We can’t force our children to live on the street.”  She knew she wouldn’t be able to receive, “unemployment benefits or government stimulus payments,” so all she could do was hope she would be able to remain healthy enough to come to work so she could feed her family. Maria, also spoke of what her family had to go through during the pandemic, saying “my family has struggled so much through this pandemic, we’ve had to borrow money.” 

Advocating for Change

The Garment Worker Center was able to help many garment workers in a time of crisis with financial help. Another worker named Maria was able to turn to GWC for financial help during the pandemic as she didn’t qualify for sick leave. The Garment Worker Center helped pay her rent, but Maria said she still had to borrow money in order to cover her bills. 

Alex Sanchez, who works for the Garment Worker Center said, “I don’t believe we are going to be able to flatten the curve if we still have people out there at high risk not having access to a vaccine.” Sanchez has been fighting for garment workers to be able to receive the vaccine and have safe working conditions.

A memorial was held to “honor more than 5,700 people who have died of COVID-19.” Various worker unions held a tribute to advocate change to impact the health and safety concerns in garment worker factories. Part of that change would be to hire workers to “serve as the eyes and ears.” Francisco Tzul, who used to work for L.A. Apparel, spoke on making a change for workers to have safe and clean working conditions, “garment workers make your masks, your clothes in Los Angeles.” 

Hope for the Future

Garment workers are essential. They are more than essential; they are real people with real families who need to be treated with the same honor, respect and care as health care workers, truck drivers and grocery employees. Garment workers need to be able to have the same access to sick leave, unemployment benefits and stimulus checks as all other essential workers and Americans had. They are our frontline workers but since most garment workers are undocumetned they are taken advantage of and the pandemic only emphasized this injustice. This mistreatment needs to change. They were alone but because of NGOs like GWC who are working towards creating a change for garment workers, there is hope and you and I can be part of that hope. 

The Garment Worker Center was able to help workers like Maria with the emergency relief fund with thousands of generous donations. They raised “$10,000 in two weeks” and were continuingly supporting garment workers because of donations that came from all across the nation from people just like you and me. COVID-19 only emphasized how important it is to continue the fight for change against wage theft and the protection of workers’ rights in the garment industry. As the world begins to recover from the pandemic, society will never be the same again. Let those who have gone before us remind us that we owe it to them to continue using the power of our voice in demanding the justice garment workers deserve.

You Can Make an Impact

GWC Garment Worker Center is a “workers’ rights group that fights for the social and economic justice of garment workers.” They offer garment workers a voice to speak on the injustices they face everyday. This organization gives workers hope that one day things will change. They encourage workers by equipping them to activate for equal wages so workers can have the financial ability to provide for their families. This organization is creating change in the industry and it’s never too late to join the fight. If you would like to fight for social justice here are some ways you can help.

The organization welcomes volunteers and offers internships for those who want to make a true impact for thousands of garment workers. You could also donate to the organization to help them equip garment workers with the necessary tools to keep fighting for change. Activists are continuing the fight against labor exploitation.

Social media is today’s microphone, use your voice to spread more social awareness on the garment worker crisis. You can follow GWC’s instagram to stay up to date, as well as, share, post, like, comment or create content talking about it. Social media is the world’s greatest tool in impacting social change in our digital age. 

The organization shared some encouraging words on Twitter, “to not give up on the fight for justice and fight even harder.” Even though there is much work to be done, every step is a step closer to justice for garment workers like Santa Son.