Labor's Lever & a Just Transition for Fast Fashion Workers

In this episode of Weaving Voices, Rebecca chats with:

• Marissa Nuncio, director of the Los Angeles-based Garment Worker Center (GWC).

Here are some highlights:

The Garment Worker Center

• Rebecca introduces Los Angeles as the capital hub of garment production in the United States with approximately 45,000 garment workers living and working there.

• Marissa talks about her childhood as a Chicana growing up in a working class community in Houston, Texas, witnessing the lack of labor rights in her own family and community and how that influenced her choice of career later on.

• Marissa shares the powerful genesis story around the Garment Worker Center.

• Marissa discusses AB 633, the first piece of significant legislation that began building protection for workers in the law.

The Piece Rate

• Rebecca and Marissa discuss the piece rate, an unfortunately normalized wage practice wherein workers are paid per piece of clothing or operation they’re performing, and how that rate can be as low as half of one cent.

• They further discuss how the piece rate often leads to workers missing or being denied lunch breaks, and higher risk of injury and fatigue, all in the goal of reaching the highest level of production with the lowest possible cost.

Workers as an Extension of the Machine

• Rebecca points out that while there are robots and machines that produce garments, they do not have the same complex skill levels of humans producing garments.

The Fabric Act

• Marissa talks about the long and strenuous process of getting Senate Bill 62 passed. The bill,passed in California in 2021, protects garment workers and holds brands accountable.

• Rebecca and Marissa discuss how SB 62 laid the foundation for the Fabric Act, a nationwide bill that hopes to cement the U.S. as the global leader in responsible apparel production.

COVID-19 as a Turning Point

• Marissa recounts when the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020 and how that was a turning point for prioritizing workers’ health as much as their wages.

Intersections of Support

• Marissa talks about the GWC in Los Angeles collaborating with other worker centers in other industries, and sharing strategies and building power together in the hopes of seeing change on a policy and infrastructure level.