Maintrend International
Primitive Dorm Conditions:
Twenty-five sewing operators on a production line must complete 350 fleece jackets for L.L. Bean and other labels in an eight-hour period. This production goal is set by management and it is not negotiable. Each hour the workers on the line must complete 43 ¾ jackets. This means, in effect, that each worker must sew 1 ¾ jackets an hour, or one every 34.29 minutes (57% of an hour). Since we know that the Maintrend workers are illegally paid an average wage of just 36 cents an hour, we can determine that the direct labor cost, or wages, to sew each jacket is just 21 cents. This means that the workers’ wages to sew each jacket amount to just threetenths of one percent of the $69 retail price for the L.L. Bean jacket. (34.29 minutes ÷ 60 minutes = 0.57 (57%); 0.57 x $0.36 per hour = $0.21 per jacket; $0.21 ÷ $69 = 0.0030434) This is not a lot of money, so clearly there is a lot of room here to pay the workers at least the minimum wage.
Eight workers share each 12-foot by 12-foot room, sleeping on narrow metal double level bunk beds, using a thin foam rubber pad for a mattress. Each dorm floor has 12 such rooms. In the summer, despite one window, the rooms are stiflingly hot and lack adequate ventilation. During the three months of winter, the unheated rooms are near freezing, but despite pleas by the workers, management refuses to supply blankets. They are told to buy their own. For the last eight months, the shower in the dorms has been broken, as has the water heater. The workers have approached management many times about this, but it has yet to be fixed. The workers have to bathe with cold water using buckets. Running water is not always available in the dorm and the bathrooms are not clean.
If the 58-cent-an-hour legal minimum wage were strictly adhered to at the Maintrend factory, the workers would still only be earning 33 cents for every $69 L.L. Bean fleece jacket they sew, meaning their wages would now amount to less than half of one percent (.0048039) of the jacket’s retail price. In short, the sky would hardly fall in on the L.L. Bean Corporation if they demanded that the workers in Jordan sewing their garments be paid at least the minimum wage.
Management provides no entertainment at the dorms and the workers had to pool what little money they had to purchase a small television and a radio. There are security guards at the dorm and the workers have a curfew. Lights must be shut off at 1:00 a.m.
Monotonous tasteless food, and too little of it:
Diet for Maintrend Workers All meals at the factory Breakfast
7:00 a.m. to 7:25 a.m.
Pita bread, tea, lentils
Lunch
12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Rice, lentils and beef
8:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Rice, lentils, and vegetables - most often potatoes
Dinner
36
All the 7,000 or so Bangladeshi workers in the Al Tajamouat Industrial City are serviced by the same inexpensive food catering company, so the observations of the workers regarding the food are similar from factory to factory. They say the food served to them never changes, is very monotonous, tasteless, and that the portions are too small, often leaving the workers still hungry. The workers also report sometimes getting sick from the food. They comment that more nutritious foods such as fruit and juices March 2006