USAS has won several victories on campuses around the country, as more than a dozen schools have signed codes of conduct, requiring their apparel manufacturers to meet these standards. USAS works more than on campus, however, and our on the ground activism is beginning to have positive impact on the garment industry. We spent much of our time meeting workers and their families, touring their neighborhoods, visiting their homes, and hearing stories of the abuse they faced in garment factories. We met several workers from a factory called Caribbean Apparel, an enormous complex that produces garments for the Kathie Lee clothing line, sold at Wal-Mart. Production lines in the factory produce 2,000 pieces of Kathie Lee 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. The workers we met with in El Salvador were attempting to organize a union in Caribbean Apparel. However, soon after we left the country, their efforts were discovered, and they were fired from the factory, leaving them with no source of income for their families. A 25 year-old union organizers, Jiovanni Fuentes, who were assisting the workers in their unionization effort received two death threats. At that time, she pledged to help end sweatshop abuses in her factories.