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NEWSLETTER 14, JULY 2001
Inside Roska's Cooperative
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The
following story of an Eastern European seamstress, a former factory
worker, was told to a CCC researcher. For more information on
CCC activities in Eastern Europe, contact Bettina Musiolek <B.Musiolek@knuut.de>
or the CCC International
Secretariat.
Roska V. founded a small sewing shop together with three of her
former colleagues. Proud of their final decision after years of
hesitation towards this step, the four refer to their microenterprise
as a "cooperative." Since late 2000 they work on common
accounts. The shared risk and burden eases the shift into self-employment.
They also say it is not possible to work alone as a seamstress
because a production line is necessary for manufacturing garments.
Single home-based workers do not operate in the area.
All four women represent more than 10 years of experience in
garment factories in the Southern Bulgarian town of Sandanski
- a Bulgarian spa town on the Greek border. During the past 10
years is has become a haven for Greek garment manufacturers. The
whole city and area literally lives off of the outward processing
of garments for mainly Greek manufacturers and for mainly German
retailers. Outward processing trade (OPT) refers to production
when all or part of the material, utilized is "temporarily
exported" by the buyer to the processing region. This set
up is advantageous for foreign buyers because they avoid paying
tax on the entire product when it is re-exported to the EU. Additionally,
the area survives financially from on prostitution, and sometimes
through the kidnapping of girls who are then trafficked into the
Balkans and further into EU countries.
Roska's sweatshop is located in a small room in the basement
of a private house in Sandanski. These workers are part of the
10% of the total employment in the area that is based in such
"garage shops" that produce for OPT. In the Sandanski
region 60 to 70 % of employment is connected to this trade. The
workers set up small production lines, lease or rent machines
and borrow the money they need such shops going from relatives
and friends. Loans from banks are unaffordable. For Roska and
her colleagues, getting loans from banks requires impossible securities
and would drive them into bancruptcy. When they began their own
business she felt very insecure and uncomfortable. But working
in the factory for repressive foreign bosses was too much for
them. Now they feel more self-determined though the exploitation
and the earnings - around 230 DM a month -- are the same. For
10 years they worked in garment factories. They had initiated
a strike in 1996 in one factory because of unbearable working
conditions, were successful but after that were intimidated by
employers and almost blacklisted. They gave up and left the place
for another factory. Because of the high demand for qualified
seamstresses in the area, they found new jobs. Younger women work
in factories, middle-aged women like Roska and her friends prefer
their own small "cooperative" - and are not prefered
by management, who prefer younger women, even though they have
to be trained. Younger women have to contend with sexual abuse
and harassment, though sexual harassment has decreased as have
other major rights' violations in the area since an article exposing
the awful working conditions in the area was published in London's
Sunday Times in November 1999.
Roska and her three colleagues are working on an order of 1,050
T-shirts, which they have to finish within four days by working
eight hours a day. The label says "H.I.S." - Henry I.
Siegel. The four women receive 0.40 DM per T-shirt. For more complicated
work, making blouses, they received 1 DM each. They receive these
orders from a Bulgarian woman , who also supplies them with the
necessary cloth (already cut), yarn, and the other materials.
She works for a Greek buyer/manufacturer. They either the send
garments directly to Western Europe, or via Greece to Western
Europe.
Greek buyers/manufacturers monopolize the OPT business in the
Southern region of Bulgaria and Macedonia. The new businesswomen's
most serious concern is that Greeks not only keep the price down
and even lower it, but they also prevent efforts by the "cooperatives"
to jointly negotiate the price and to set up larger cooperatives
(more than 10 workers) by not paying for orders. There are around
100 cooperatives like Roska's in Sandanski alone, hence fierce
competition. The four women tried to negotiate with the buyer,
but the buyer would not accept their price. Roska reports that
another cooperative of 20 women got orders but then were not paid
for their work. They had finished the order, but as they became
a source of comptition for the client, the client did not pay
them, citing a frivolous quality excuse. This is the way Roska
believes the Greek employers control the sweatshop industry and
prevent serious competition.
The tax authorities closely follow the activities of the cooperatives.
But they are just interested in monitoring that their taxes and
license fees are paid on time. Nobody within local government
appears to be interested in working conditions. The seamstresses
feel that if there was more understanding by local authorities,
then organizing workers wouldn't be a problem. When thinking about
organizing, the four mention a trade union active in the sector
in their area. One of the women is resigned to the current situation
and says it is not possible to trust anybody, anyway.
For more information on the garment industry in Bulgaria, Romania,
and Poland, take a look at Made
in Eastern Europe, a report on garment production in those
three countries. This 45-page report can be found on the CCC website,
or copies can be ordered from the CCC Secretariat.
