Temple University - The Temple News Online by Matthew Petrillo - September 6, 2010
Anthony Santangelo grinned widely with embarrassment as his mother told him to try on a larger-sized sweatshirt.
“Mom, I think it fits,” the sophomore undeclared major said. They both peeked in a mirror inside the Main Campus Barnes & Noble College Bookseller, scanning the item’s color scheme, fit and eventually, price tag.
The hooded sweatshirt Santangelo donned sells for $34.98 and is one of the bookstore’s least expensive. But before Santangelo ever held it, laborers from Alta Gracia Apparel manufactured the piece.
Approximately 125 of the laborers work in a Dominican Republic factory. They are also a part of a union and are paid three times the country’s minimum wage.
“This can be a way out of poverty,” said Joe Bozich, the CEO of Knights Apparel, the sponsoring company. “This can truly be life changing. Doing good is doing good business.”
Bozich said Alta Gracia, which translates to “exalted grace,” is making a “historic breakthrough” in the clothing-making businesses, touting the company as the first in the world to have marketed an apparel product based on responsible labor practices.
“We’re pricing the product right, so that it won’t burden the retailer or consumer,” he said.
Most clothing sold in the United States is first sewn and stitched in factories based in poverty-stricken cities in China, India or small Central American countries. Many of these clothing companies strip its workers of rights, pay a minimum wage that will never permit its workers a decent living and trap generations of workers into a cycle of sweatshop labor, according to Knights Apparel public relations.
“Finally these workers have jobs that allow them to escape from poverty,” said Teresa Cheng, the international campaign coordinator of United Students Against Sweatshops. Read Full Story Here
