The children – aged seven and ten – were unable to escape
the basement where they were sleeping when the fire began. Two adults, thought
to be the parents of at least one of the children, were treated in hospital for
smoke inhalation and burns. All four came from Bolivia. The house was among
several illegal workshops producing clothing in the vicinity. In Buenos Aires
city there are an estimated 25,000 illegal immigrants.
Too often sweatshops are associated with Asia but Argentine
possesses what they call talleres clandestinos or clandestine workshops.
Gustavo Vera, a Buenos Aires city deputy, said: “We're talking about 68 percent
of the Argentine clothing industry being conducted in sweatshops," he
said. "Informal work, forced labour, people who work more than 12 hours a
day without any rights and even slave labour with workers living and working in
the same place without being able to leave."
Olga, from Sucre in south Bolivia, recalls the conditions in
the clandestine workshops. “We lived and worked in the factory and were only
allowed to leave occasionally as the factory owner didn’t want us to be seen
too much around the neighbourhood.” These micro-sweatshops are conspicuously
set up in houses and flats. They are small, overcrowded and as concealed as
possible from the public eye. “All the workers and their families slept and ate
together amongst the machines,” says Olga. The worker has no contract and no
standard employment practices are adhered to. Sometimes workers receive pay,
sometimes not. The only contract they may be forced to sign states that they
will stick around for a minimum time, usually three years, and will not talk to
the police. The workers are isolated and victimised and have little option of
escaping. Their documents are often taken away from them when they arrive; they
are illegal immigrants with limited rights in Argentina. “We just kept silent
about the workshop, as we knew we didn’t have any documents and we didn’t know
where to go for help.” Workshop owners bribe policemen to keep quiet. Olga
describes how bribes were carried out in front of her and fellow workers.
Seeing that the police were also against them made them realise the
hopelessness of their situation.
A hundred well known national and international brands,
(including the Spanish firm Zara and the sports giants Puma and Adidas) have
been named in legal proceedings as alleged sweatshop customers.
The clothing is sold on the pavements around Buenos Aires
and at La Salada - a huge site on the outskirts of Buenos Aires that has been
described as the biggest counterfeit clothing market in South America. While
immigrants work 16 or more hours a day, in cramped and insanitary conditions,
for a few cents or nothing at all, the profit margins for the owners are
mouth-watering.
Gustavo Vera, a school teacher who runs the activities of
the Alameda, a community organization, explains that the government has
knowingly tolerated the operation of clandestine workshops for years. “The
government is capitalist, classist and bourgeoisie, therefore their interests
lie in protecting the big labels who are making huge profit margins by
fabricating their clothes in these workshops. Besides, the state wants to keep
production of Argentine textiles inside the country, and clamping down on
micro-sweatshops in Buenos Aires will undoubtedly mean fabrication moves to cheaper
neighbouring countries. There are two myths concerning micro-sweatshops, both
supported by the media who also act favourably to large labels which they rely
on for advertising. The first is that sweatshop production is associated with
fakes, which are unfair competition to the real designers. And the second is
that price reflects the fabrication process of clothes. However, in reality it
is the big well-known labels that use sweatshops, and the price a consumer pays
has no correlation to the wage the worker in a factory receives.”
According to statistics published by the Alameda, if an item
of clothing is sold in a shop for $100, the workshop receives $3.12, of which
$1.87 goes to the worker, $0.30 is profit for the workshop owner and $0.95
covers the workshop’s costs. $10 cover the shop’s expenses and $22 are lost to
tax. The clothes label takes a profit of $64.88.
Bolivia’s consul Jose Alberto González also explains about a
new programme, ‘Buenos Aires Produce’, aimed at legitimising the factories.
Workshop owners should participate ‘voluntarily’ (if they chose not to
participate in the programme their workshop will be closed down) and will be
given a year to bring health and safety standards up to scratch and create
separate spaces for working and living.
“‘Buenos Aires Produce’, along with other state initiatives
to combat the problem, presents the workshop owner as the only baddy. As I understand
it, the big labels – who fix the prices taking the greatest slice of the profit
for themselves and leaving the workshops, owners and workers, the crumbs – are
the real baddies. Of course, the workshop owners treat the workers badly and
even subject them to slavery, but that is just one side of the reality. If
‘Buenos Aires Produce’ goes ahead, the factory owners won’t be able to afford
to make the necessary changes to their workshops. They will either be closed
down or will move out to the province where the law does not apply.”
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