Thousands of mostly young women making clothing for Kathie Lee's label and others are still experiencing brutal working conditions, including forced overtime, involuntary pregnancy tests as well as physical and psychological abuse. Workers are also subject to termination and blacklisting if suspected of trying to defend their rights. None of these promises have been kept. Ms. Palacios and Ms. del Carmen Hernandez will be joined by Salvadoran union organizer, Jiovanni Fuentes, who received a death threat from Caribbean Apparel ' s lawyer. Production lines in the factory produce 2,000 pieces of Kathie Lee and Jaclyn Smith garments every day.
Workers get no sick pay and their bathroom visits are restricted and monitored.
Every new employee must pay for a mandatory pregnancy test, and if the results are positive they are fired immediately. In the 225 maquila factories in El Salvador, where 70,000 mostly young women sew 581 million garments a year for export to the U.S., there are no union contracts. Later they were able to enter what appeared to be an unguarded factory producing apparel for Nike, where they were accosted by guards. Armed guards and representatives of factory management physically confronted members of the delegation and confiscated students' cameras. Following this confrontation, the management of Caribbean Apparel fired Ms. del Carmen Hernandez and threatened Mr. Fuentes, using the tape confiscated by the Nike factory as evidence of their activities.