Sew Cheap
Inditex has been hailed as one of the best run businesses in the world. Time after time we have been told its story, how it went from being a family run store specializing in bath robes in A Coruña, to being an international corporation with its most important logistical center and headquarters in Arteixo. Amancio Ortega, the owner and founder, went from being a clerk in a clothing store, to the second richest man in the world in 2015. His story is like one of those stories written at the end of the nineteenth century, moralizing on how hard work and a little luck and shrewdness can take you from rags to riches.
For a while, he also proved to be a small boon to seamstresses in Galicia. Many did piecework at home for the incipient Zara. Others created little co-ops of seamstresses and did work exclusively for the company. I had a neighbor who did piecework at home, and another one who worked at a co-op that rented out space in the old building in town where the market stalls used to be. The boon lasted a short time; by the middle of the 1990's Inditex started taking work elsewhere, after having been a while trying to make local seamstresses accept less and less money for their increasing orders. There is a documentary film, Fíos Fora, with subtitles in Castilian and English, that talks with six women who used to work for Inditex and other large clothing chains. They talk about how quite a few co-ops were left in debt, paying for expensive machinery, because Inditex would lower the prices they paid, while increasing the quantity of orders, and making the women work longer hours for less pay until the co-op had to shut down.
Inditex then started outsourcing to other countries. It claims that 55% of all its clothing is made in proximity, distributed in co-ops and garment factories in Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and Morocco. Not so strangely, all those other countries mentioned have lower salaries than Spain. And, outside the European Union, working conditions are not the best. The rest of Inditex's clothing is manufactured in Asia. Think Bangladesh, with thousands of women crammed into a decaying factory like so many that have burned or collapsed in these past years.
Being a seamstress in Galicia once was seen as a sure way for a woman to have a steady income. If not in one of the many factories and co-ops that surged in the seventies and eighties, led by Inditex but also shared in by El Corte Inglés, Cortefiel, and other Spanish clothing chains, then at home, making personally tailored clothes for neighbors. When we first arrived here, twenty-five years ago, my mother urged me to attend sewing classes in the village. They were given by a woman who also made clothes to order, aside from teaching us. I went, more than anything, to get out of the house. Every afternoon I would make the five minute walk to the center of the village to learn how to sew. At first it was interesting, and somewhere at the back of some wardrobe I still have some of the pieces of clothing I made for myself. My fellow students and I would copy designs from catalogues and magazines. We would do everything ourselves, from drawing the patrons to sewing the last button. After a while, though, it became boring, having to stitch, rip up, and re-stitch, rip-up and re-stitch. Of the four girls I met there, only one went on to work in a local clothing factory, D-Due. Some of us continued to make our own clothes at home, the rest just dropped it; making clothes to order stopped bringing in decent pay because people preferred to buy cheaper clothes at the chain stores.
When I first started, there were many women sewing out of their homes, either through piece work or making tailored clothes. Right now I can think of only two women who are still dedicated to the sewing machine. Why make clothes at home or to order, when the fabric and all the necessary accessories to make a blouse cost four times the price you can pay for it at one of the chain stores? And so the circle goes. Less pay means you search for cheaper clothes, which only creates a bigger demand for cheap labor. People call for buying from local manufacturers. Sometimes a family just can't afford it. It's not always a question of exchanging ten cheaply made shirts for five fair-trade ones. It's sometimes a question of owning two cheap shirts or none. The quest for cheap labor so the 1% can get even richer is destroying all competition.
Someday, the need of a company to make billions in profits each year will come back and bite the companies when there's no one left to buy even their products.
For a while, he also proved to be a small boon to seamstresses in Galicia. Many did piecework at home for the incipient Zara. Others created little co-ops of seamstresses and did work exclusively for the company. I had a neighbor who did piecework at home, and another one who worked at a co-op that rented out space in the old building in town where the market stalls used to be. The boon lasted a short time; by the middle of the 1990's Inditex started taking work elsewhere, after having been a while trying to make local seamstresses accept less and less money for their increasing orders. There is a documentary film, Fíos Fora, with subtitles in Castilian and English, that talks with six women who used to work for Inditex and other large clothing chains. They talk about how quite a few co-ops were left in debt, paying for expensive machinery, because Inditex would lower the prices they paid, while increasing the quantity of orders, and making the women work longer hours for less pay until the co-op had to shut down.
Inditex then started outsourcing to other countries. It claims that 55% of all its clothing is made in proximity, distributed in co-ops and garment factories in Spain, Portugal, Turkey, and Morocco. Not so strangely, all those other countries mentioned have lower salaries than Spain. And, outside the European Union, working conditions are not the best. The rest of Inditex's clothing is manufactured in Asia. Think Bangladesh, with thousands of women crammed into a decaying factory like so many that have burned or collapsed in these past years.
Being a seamstress in Galicia once was seen as a sure way for a woman to have a steady income. If not in one of the many factories and co-ops that surged in the seventies and eighties, led by Inditex but also shared in by El Corte Inglés, Cortefiel, and other Spanish clothing chains, then at home, making personally tailored clothes for neighbors. When we first arrived here, twenty-five years ago, my mother urged me to attend sewing classes in the village. They were given by a woman who also made clothes to order, aside from teaching us. I went, more than anything, to get out of the house. Every afternoon I would make the five minute walk to the center of the village to learn how to sew. At first it was interesting, and somewhere at the back of some wardrobe I still have some of the pieces of clothing I made for myself. My fellow students and I would copy designs from catalogues and magazines. We would do everything ourselves, from drawing the patrons to sewing the last button. After a while, though, it became boring, having to stitch, rip up, and re-stitch, rip-up and re-stitch. Of the four girls I met there, only one went on to work in a local clothing factory, D-Due. Some of us continued to make our own clothes at home, the rest just dropped it; making clothes to order stopped bringing in decent pay because people preferred to buy cheaper clothes at the chain stores.
When I first started, there were many women sewing out of their homes, either through piece work or making tailored clothes. Right now I can think of only two women who are still dedicated to the sewing machine. Why make clothes at home or to order, when the fabric and all the necessary accessories to make a blouse cost four times the price you can pay for it at one of the chain stores? And so the circle goes. Less pay means you search for cheaper clothes, which only creates a bigger demand for cheap labor. People call for buying from local manufacturers. Sometimes a family just can't afford it. It's not always a question of exchanging ten cheaply made shirts for five fair-trade ones. It's sometimes a question of owning two cheap shirts or none. The quest for cheap labor so the 1% can get even richer is destroying all competition.
Someday, the need of a company to make billions in profits each year will come back and bite the companies when there's no one left to buy even their products.
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