Correction Appended
Alta Gracia employee Maritza Vargas used to reside in a two-bedroom home with a family of five, sharing a common bathroom with three other families.
But now, her family lives in a larger house, with each child in their own room.
Vargas says this is a result of her employment with Alta Gracia, the first certified fair-wage college clothing company.
Vargas and co-worker Yenny Perez described how their lives have changed through their employment at Alta Gracia through a Skype conversation from the Dominican Republic Feb. 10 to AU students.
The company pays their workers three times the amount of the normal minimum wage in the Dominican Republic.
While factory workers throughout the country receive as little as $1,912 per year, employees of Alta Gracia, like Vargas and Perez, earn $6,317 annually.
AU stocks clothing from Alta Gracia in its campus store.
“We depend on the purchases you buy in the bookstore to keep moving forward,” Vargas said. “We’re waiting for each purchase so we can continue to grow.”
Alta Gracia is a clothing brand produced in a factory in the Dominican Republic and owned by parent company Knights Apparel.
The company provides its workers’ with “living wages,” which allows them to provide for their family in ways they couldn’t before, according to its website.
Although Alta Gracia continues to pay their workers these wages, sweatshirts and T-shirts sell for the same amount as other brands, including Champion and Nike.
Event organizers Ethan Miller and Rachel Taber discussed the hardships workers endured in prior positions before obtaining a job at Alta Gracia with Vargas and Perez. AU Solidarity sponsored the Skype session, with Women’s Initiative and the Fair Trade Student Association.
Both women recounted unfair treatment, low wages and violations of their rights.
They both worked in the BJ&B factory, a garment factory in the Dominican Republic, before it was shut down. Now they work for Alta Gracia.
“Sufriamos de muchos maltratos,” or, “we suffered many hardships,” Vargas said.
Alta Gracia pays for workers to attend school on the weekends, according to its website.
Vargas and Perez said most workers take advantage of this, having been forced to stop their education as a result of poverty.
Vargas and Perez described Alta Gracia as “breathing life back into the community.”
Vargas said her job at Alta Gracia gives her “high hopes,” which is what Alta Gracia translates into, for the future.
news@theeagleonline.com
Correction: This article's headline has been changed to include "living wage."
