Improving working conditions through fair consumption?

Members of Nueva Vida Fair Trade Zone visited Germany

Maria Elena Medina Vallejos and Sulema Mena Garay, members of the women's cooperative " Nueva Vida Fair Trade Zone" visited various german cities during november 2010. They reported not only on bad working conditions in sweatshops of the textile-industry but also showed perspectives beyond economics' competition. The audience was shown the correlations between personal consumption and exploitive working conditions as well as posibilities of conscious consumption.

A women’s cooperative

After the destructions of Hurricane Mitch in various Central American countries, inclouding Nicaragua, women in Ciudad Sandino formed part of a new urbanization called “Nueva Vida” (New life). An NGO called Centro pro Desarrollo en Centroamerica, Jubilee House Community (CDCA-JHC), began to investigate a way of fighting the 80% unemployment rate in Nueva Vida. The idea that emerged was to form a sewing cooperative for the women in the neighborhood.

In Nicaragua there are many Free Trade Zones, which employ mainly women. In many of these factories, clothes are made under unjust working conditions, the workers work many hours, and the majority are single mothers. The women of the Cooperative want to be able to provide what is necessary for our families. In our cooperative, which is in the hands of the workers, the women are the owners of their work and invest their labor so that the business functions well. Being worker-owners requires a true promise and commitment to provide other women in their community with better working conditions.

The original group of cooperative members each worked 640 hours in the construction of the building and organizing our project. For a period of more then 2 years, each member worked 20 hours every week without yielding any salary to be able to pay the social fund of the cooperative. As single mothers, they had to work half a day mixing cement and digging holes in the morning, and in the afternoon they went out to work to earn some money and to help their families – many of them worked selling goods in the streets.

In February 2001, the small group of women officially organized itself as a cooperative, The Cooperative Maquiladora Mujeres de Nueva Vida Internacional RL. In May of that year they finished their building and received the first machines. Many of the women had never worked in a Free Trade Zone and did not have experience with industrial machines. They had a preparation program and practiced with their machines, making organic hair scrunchies for Maggie’s Organics in Michigan. By August the members had learned 15 different operations that a shirt required and they made their first small order of organic shirts for Maggie’s! In the following year the original group of members worked most of the time on small orders of organic shirts, paying ourselves $2 a day. Since they did not have much work making orders, they often met as a cooperative and practiced how to make clothes.

Fair Trade

The second goal was to obtain the funds to certify the Cooperative as the first Free Trade Zone in the world to be operated by its workers. Funds were obtained from the Interamerican Foundation and on July 1st, 2005 the cooperative began to work as a Free Trade Zone, which allows them to compete globally with “sweatshops” while continuing to pay fair salaries under secure working conditions, where workers are in charge of the work place. This is why the women call themselves the “Fair Trade Zone.” As members, the women have had to make many sacrifices to maintain our Cooperative. However, they have continued working in the factory towards a goal of leaving the extreme poverty in which the women live in Nueva Vida. The women are working together to create sustainable jobs in the community so that they can support their families.

Future

The members’ dream for the future is to increase our production levels to give full-time jobs to more families in their community. Currently they employ 49 heads of the family. All of the people who work in the cooperative have the opportunity to become a member, as long as they have the same common interest in the success of the Cooperative.