{"id":157,"date":"2013-05-20T21:32:34","date_gmt":"2013-05-20T21:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.up.edu.pe\/blogs\/csanborn\/Lists\/EntradasDeBlog\/ViewPost.aspx?ID=34"},"modified":"2022-10-13T06:04:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T06:04:06","slug":"peruvian-textile-workers-past-and-present-english-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/peruvian-textile-workers-past-and-present-english-version\/","title":{"rendered":"Peruvian Textile Workers, Past and Present (English version)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u200b\"1Gamarra<\/p>\n

The Peruvian government has recently received letters from major\u00a0transnational apparel\u00a0companies<\/a>\u00a0and trade unions, criticizing the working conditions in this country\u00b4s textile industry, and especially a legal regime that allows very short term contracts for workers and discourages unionization.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for the government and the industry argue that such flexibility is necessary to maintain global competitiveness and generate new employment.\u00a0 Foreign critics are charged with\u00a0\u201clabor imperialism\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and hypocrisy (for example, when the same firms enjoy similar labor regimes in the U.S., or do business in Bangladesh).\u00a0 \u00a0As one local manager of a Korean multinational put it, foreigners\u00a0have no business teaching\u00a0Peru lessons in labor rights, \u201cwithout knowing our history\u201d (El Comercio 19-5-131FRENTE A FRENTE.PDF<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It is precisely that history that first brought me to Peru, many years ago, to participate in a research project on the social history of Lima in the early 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century.\u00a0 Under the guidance of historian Steve Stein, then at SUNY \u2013 Stony Brook, my task involved studying the textile workers, a small group of men and women who played a large role in founding Peru\u00b4s organized labor movement. \u00a0\u00a0Between 1981 and 1982 I interviewed numerous retired textile workers, still living in the old factory neighborhoods of La Victoria, R\u00edmac and Vitarte, as well as pouring over archives and family memories.\u00a0 \u00a0Both for nostalgia and for comparative purposes, I want to share a summary of this work, (1Textiles en Lima.pdf\u00a0<\/a>),\u00a0published in Spanish in a volume edited by Aldo Panfichi and Felipe Portcarrero,\u00a0Mundos Interiores: Lima 1850-1950<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(Lima: CIUP 1995).<\/p>\n

Between 1900 and 1930, textile workers became 14% of the Lima work force, or roughly 4,988 people.\u00a0\u00a0 Entire families worked in the factories, where women might comprise up to 60% of the crew and employment of minors was widespread.\u00a0\u00a0 Although these workers were largely\u00a0mestizos<\/i>\u00a0(or mixed race) from the coast, in a largely indigenous nation, they were seen as inferior\u00a0cholos<\/i>\u00a0by the white managers and foreign owners, whose treatment ranged from good-hearted paternalism to outright exploitation.<\/p>\n

Textile workers at that time were paid by the piece and had up to 16-hour work days.\u00a0 Although the factories were modern for the times, the laborers\u00b4 health was threatened by the constant noise of the machinery, persistent dust and cold humid air.\u00a0 \u00a0Yet in these conditions, textile workers banded together to form a strong sector union and a national labor confederation, leading strikes and protests that conquered the eight-hour work day for all Peruvians \u2013 in 1918 \u2013 and other fundamental rights.<\/p>\n

Today, nearly a century later, Peru\u00b4s textile industry is much larger, diverse and globalized. \u00a0The public face of the sector is\u00a0Gamarra<\/a>, the successful garment emporium recently visited by Hillary Clinton,\u00a0and not the upper class and foreign\u00a0owners of yesteryear.\u00a0 According to various\u00a0<\/a>sources,\u00a0the industry now employs\u00a0over 180,000\u00a0workers<\/a>, of which less than 5 percent are unionized and have collective bargaining rights.\u00a0 By somereports<\/a>, the majority \u00a0work more than eight hour shifts, their pay is still by the piece, and there is considerable dissatisfaction with the work.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet surveys and testimonies suggest that many workers \u2013 such as\u00a0these three women\u200b<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 fear being fired for trying to unionize.<\/p>\n

Peru is not Bangladesh, that is very clear.\u00a0 \u00a0But as history tells us, there is still much to be done.\u00a0\u200b<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>:\u00a0In El Comercio today (21-5-13), the\u00a0President of the\u00a0National Industrialists Society<\/a>\u00a0(SNI) says\u00a0there are 411,000 workers in Peru\u00b4s textile and garment industry, of which 99,000 (24%) have formal labor contracts and 78,000 of these are under the legal framework questioned by the abovementioned international brands and the IndustriaALL Global Union.\u00a0\u00a0This means that the situation of the other 76% is probably worse.<\/p>\n

In the major Peruvian weekly Caretas this week (No. 2283, 16-5-13), the\u00a0Mayor of the La\u00a0Victoria district\u200b<\/a>warns of serious risks in the Gamarra textile emporium, where there are approximately 20,000 firms operating in precarious conditions, and at least 70% of the constructions are informal and may not comply with acceptable building standards.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe do not have the extremes of\u00a0Bangladesh, but there is heavy overcrowding, the informality is widespread, and salaries are low\u201d, the mayor says, \u201cAnd yes, there is the danger that at any moment something can blow up\u201d.\u00a0\u200b<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Versi\u00f3n en Espa\u00f1ol: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/los-y-las-trabajadores-textiles-ayer-y-hoy\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u200b The Peruvian government has recently received letters from major\u00a0transnational apparel\u00a0companies\u00a0and trade unions, criticizing the working conditions in this country\u00b4s textile industry, and especially a legal regime that allows very short term contracts for workers and discourages unionization. Spokespeople for the government and the industry argue that such flexibility is necessary to maintain global competitiveness
Leer m\u00e1s…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discriminacion-y-derechos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}