The San Marcos Free Trade Zone, built with U.S. tax dollars, resembles a prison camp with locked metal gates, barbed wire, and armed guards. T-shirts made in El Salvador carrying these labels are sold at Yale , University of North Carolina , Purdue , Virginia Tech, and University of Arkansas . Other labels sewn at Apple Tree include Basic Editions, B.U.M., and Knitworks. There are 900-1000 workers at Apple Tree.
All overtime is obligatory .
The sewing operators do not receive an overtime premium, earning instead the same standard piece rate. Manual workers can be in the factory up to 69 hours a week . There are no time clocks. Many workers feel they are being shortchanged three or four hours overtime every two weeks. Sonia believes she was shortchanged three or four hours of overtime, which the secretary did not record.