Women's Leadership is Cut from Whole Cloth
Densely packed into one square mile of downtown Los Angeles, 4,000 garment factories make for cramped quarters—stifling sweatshops piled high with machines, supplies and people. Even though California boasts strict laws regulating one of our state's largest industries, these factories run almost completely unmonitored, home to a host pay, benefit and safety violations that exploit workers. This is where the Garment Worker Center (GWC) comes in. GWC is an organization run collectively by garment workers who organize for fair pay, safer factory conditions and healthier working environments. Kimi Lee is GWC's former executive director and a current board member. As a child in 1975 Kimi recalls her mother, a Burmese immigrant and garment worker, holding up a dress and saying, "This sells for $200. I got paid two dollars to make it." Thirty-four years later, garment workers still make the same amount. Since its inception in 2001, GWC has trained workers to advocate for themselves and others. Their goal is not to shut down the garment industry, but to promote responsible factories. So far in 2009 alone, GWC workers have successfully recovered $75,000—roughly 20,000 hours—of unpaid work. Beyond numbers, GWC measures its impact through the transformation of women into leaders by identifying who is able to conduct workshops, recruit organizers and speak up at their factories. "What's been great with the Women's Foundation is they know it takes time to develop leaders. It's not jus tmoney, but thinking about support and building capacity to strengthen our own skills." With this in mind, GWC has spent the last four years ambitiously transitioning from a traditional nonprofit structure to a worker-centered collective, decreasing from eight employees to one half-time staffer. This new approach has driven a dramatic increase in volunteerism, while decreasing budget expenses by 80 percent. "It's amazing that some of our volunteers are giving 20 hours a week, but our belief in social change is that it has to come from the people to be most effective." Read about: Eveline Shen's experience organizing nail salon workers in California |
Kimi Lee
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