San Salvador — IT was a story of hope: a Central American sweatshop transformed into a unionized, worker-run apparel factory, thanks to nearly $600,000 in loans and donations, including help from retailers Gap Inc. and Lands' End and the AFL-CIO.
Boosters traveled to U.S. college campuses and church basements, touting the Just Garments plant in El Salvador as a company looking to do well by doing right by employees. Impoverished Salvadorans saw a chance to earn better wages and have a say in their future.
"We had a dream," said sewing machine operator Esperanza Caridad Mejia.
In the end, that's all it was.
Just Garments closed its doors in April, owing 55 former workers $65,000 in back pay and benefits, according to a union official. Employees say they never made more than minimum wage. Many weeks they didn't get paid at all. Some have come forward alleging poor working conditions and unjust firings.
Despite the funds from major retailers and others, steady contracts never materialized. A lender is questioning how money was spent.
Just Garments is now caught in a tangle of recriminations and legal actions. The closing has unraveled the once close-knit workforce, split organizations that would normally be allied and put some U.S. anti-sweatshop groups in the position of having backed a project accused of engaging in some of the practices they condemn.
It has also prompted soul-searching by supporters who admit that operating a sweat-free factory profitably is easier in theory than reality. Just Garments, some say, was doomed from the outset, lacking sufficient capital, seasoned management or even a market for its products.
"It was not a recipe for success," said Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a Washington nonprofit that helped broker a contribution to the venture of $53,000 in machinery and textiles from Lands' End.
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Just Garments emerged from the wreckage of a shuttered Taiwanese garment contractor called Tainan Enterprises. The firm closed its Salvadoran operations in 2002 after employees won legal recognition of a union and asked for contract negotiations. Jobless workers were blacklisted from nearby clothing plants, according to anti-sweatshop activists, who pressured some U.S. retailers doing business with Tainan to intervene.
A deal was reached in late 2002. Tainan provided sewing machines and $160,000 in capital to start a new factory controlled by unionized employees.
