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Alta Gracia Project

The Alta Gracia Research Project is a multi-year effort to document the development and eventual success or failure of Alta Gracia, the only apparel factory in the developing world to:

  • pay workers a โ€œliving wageโ€ (over 300% more than the legal minimum wage);
  • recognize a legitimate union and negotiate a collective bargaining agreement;
  • maintain high safety and health standards;
  • all verified by an independent labor rights organization.

Over the period 2010 โ€“ 2014, the Project published three academic reports that are available online below. Subsequently the initiative was merged with an effort to develop a book to tell the full story of the Alta Gracia factory in a more complete and broadly accessible fashion. Sewing Hope: How One Factory Challenges the Apparel Industryโ€™s Sweatshops, was published on October 3, 2017. It examines the origin, evolution, impacts and significance of this unique apparel factory.

Joining Professor John Kline as co-author of the book is Sarah Adler-Milstein who, as Field Director for the Worker Rights Consortium, was instrumental in the development of a living wage formula and compliance audits of labor standards. Written from personal experience and based on the lives of factory workers, the book reveals how adding just $0.90 to a sweatshirtโ€™s production price can change the workersโ€™ lives: from getting a life-saving operation to reuniting families; buying school uniforms to first-ever bank loans.

An initial Research Report issued on August, 30 2010 traced the factoryโ€™s origins in the anti-sweatshop movement and its initial start-up period:

  • Alta Gracia: Branding Decent Working Conditions

A Research Progress Report was released on December 5, 2011 that examines the first 18 months of operations at the Alta Gracia apparel factory in the Dominican Republic:

  • Alta Gracia: Work with a Salario Digno

The third Research Report was released in August of 2014. This report analyzes the factoryโ€™s growing success; documents its impact on the lives of workers, their families and the local community; and contrasts this model with failures in the apparel industryโ€™s current system of factory labor codes and monitoring:

  • Alta Gracia: Four Years and Counting

Many universities have labor codes of conduct covering the production of licensed apparel carrying their college logo. The Issue Primer Reassessing Collegiate Anti-Sweatshop Efforts: Can University Licensing Codes Meet Workersโ€™ Basic Needs? draws on a study of nearly 70 different university codes and assesses the major alternative approaches to code reform.

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