One Bears These Things

Interview by Kimberly Espinosa

Can you please introduce yourself?
My name is Petra Hernández, and I am from Guerrero, Mexico.

What did you do for work? How long ago did you leave that job?
I am not working right now. I worked as a seamstress in March 2020. 

Did you leave work because of the pandemic?
No, [I left work] because I hurt my back and stopped working. 

How did that affect you long-term? Do you still have to go to doctor’s visits?
Well, it’s affected me a lot because my back hasn’t recovered. My shoulder still hurts a lot, and I can’t do strenuous movements. 

How did that situation occur? Is it something that you’ve dealt with for a long time?
The doctors told me that this happens when you do repetitive work, and for working all these years, this is what’s been happening to me. Yes, [it’s been a long time].

What was your position at work?
I did trimming, but it had more to do with flipping clothing. When [the clothing] is finished, you have to physically turn it over.  

Is it to check if the clothing is ready?
Yes. It’s when they’re about to hang it on a hanger, when it’s about to be hung up. One must do everything that is finalized, like flipping the clothing over; they tell us to flip it over. Turning it from one side to the other is flipping it, putting it on a hanger, and hanging it. I had to do all of that — put on adornments, cut strips, and cut mesh cloth. It’s like trimming everything. It’s not just one thing. There were different jobs we had to do.

Were you involved in other jobs aside from this one?
Yes. Since they paid me weekly, they made me do different things. As I said, I flipped the clothing, hung it on a hanger, put on adornments, cut strips, and flipped. Because the strips are placed, they could get stuck in the zipper, causing the clothing to slide off. I would finish one task and get assigned another. Due to the repetitive work, I injured my lower back. That’s why I couldn’t return to work.

Were you ever offered help in your job? Did you seek help?
No, they did not offer me help. They only told me to rest, and when I felt better, to come back to work. But they never said they would take me to the doctor or pay me for the days I stayed home. Nothing.

I looked for help to get my back treated. It hurt a lot. I worked with the same bosses for 17 years. I started working with them in 1998 and continued until 2020. But during those years, they laid me off for about three years, and I worked elsewhere.

Did they lay you off from work for taking time off or for other reasons?
Supposedly because there was no [work]. That was around July 2009. I did not work with them in 2010, 2011, or 2012. By the end of 2012, I began working with them again because they asked me to come back and work with them. So I returned and worked until 2020 before stopping due to [my injury].

Is that how you got involved with the group of people who work in the garment industry?
I got involved with [the Garment Worker Center] because they passed out flyers to the workers on the street. They said they would teach us how to sew. I saw the posters and decided to learn to sew on a machine, so I signed up.

Did you receive those flyers on the street? Was that before or after your accident?
Yes, on the street. They would go to where they saw people leaving work, and then they would distribute their flyers. I grabbed one, and so did the woman I was with. We both said to each other, “We must get in there to learn how to sew and make our own garments.”

It was before my accident. I started there three or four years ago, around the time I began going to the meetings. They were teaching us how to cut. They even had a program in which they modeled the clothing we made.

How did you like that program?
Well, it was fine. They all congratulated us there, so it was really nice. 

What other things or skills have you learned through the Garment Worker Center? Or what resources have they offered you on the side?
Well, through them I was able to get help for my back. Through them, I was able to get a lawyer. They helped us throughout the whole pandemic. They gave us food and monetary help. They have helped us a lot in those ways. In fact, the seamstresses were the only ones who offered help. We also like to go to the marches.

Have you invited other community members to participate? Have they had the same experience as you?
I started inviting others when I started going. I invited someone named Elvira and two Juanas. I do not know about their experiences because I don’t go to work anymore. I still communicate with Elvira; she is still there.

Do you not plan on returning to work because you still have pain from your accident or for another reason?
Yes, because of my pain. Right now, I feel that I will not be able to stand and move for long.

Do you have another person in your family providing financial support? What is your plan for the future?
I currently live with my two daughters. Between us, we pay the rent. But in the future, I’m not sure.

Do you plan on staying in the organization that has helped you?
Yes.

During the time that you worked in the clothing industry, what were other injustices that you had to confront during your experience? What other things have you experienced, such as salary or language barriers?
Well, the pay was very low. When I started, [the company] paid me $170. Because I had enrolled in school to study English, I babysat children before going there. One of my daughter’s cousins invited me to start working in the factory because there was a lot of work. So I stopped taking care of kids and began working there. I told the boss that I wanted to leave at 5:30 p.m. because I had school. She said, ‘If you leave early, then you have to start at 8 a.m. and leave at 5:30 p.m., and you will only get paid $150 because it is 30 minutes before clocking out.’ I stopped going to school so they would not take away more money.

Did you start going to school for English because of work or for other reasons?
I took care of children before I began working as a seamstress. I took care of others’ children and my own kids. I told myself I was wasting time — the kids will go to school, and I will pick them up in the afternoon. So I took the opportunity to go to school after dropping off the kids. However, when they offered me a job as a seamstress, I had to drop out of school. I dedicated myself to working there. I ended at 6 p.m., so when could I go to school? It was already too late. 

Was your place of work far from home?
Well, it is in downtown [Los Angeles], so yes. 

Did you have to travel by bus?
On the bus, yes. There were some years when no buses were available. I had to walk because I didn’t know what was happening with the [bus transportation system]. I walked to work, which took around half an hour. I just had to walk because there were no buses.

What time did you start work?
At 8:00 a.m., and since it took 30 minutes to walk, I had to leave early. Sometimes, there were inspections at work while I was eating breakfast downstairs. The managers would grab my things and tell me, ‘Go home because today there will not be work until tomorrow.’ But I did not know why.

However, it was because they did not want the inspectors to interview me. They didn’t pay me enough, so they didn’t want me to talk to them. They would just send me home and say it was immigration. My bosses were the ones who would say things like that. That’s what they would tell me, more so because they paid me the least. They always kicked me out.

And they didn’t pay you for those days?
Right. If I didn’t work that day, I was not paid. 

Did this happen regularly or once in a while?
Once in a while. Whenever there was an inspection. One time, my bosses sent me home, and I didn’t know why. I still came back [to work] and my manager told me, ‘It’s better to hide or things could go wrong.’ So I hid in there and waited until the immigration authorities left.

The immigration authorities never found you?
No, because [my boss] would send me home. Later, though, yes. When I left that job and moved to a different employer, I’m not exactly sure what happened there either, but [the immigration authorities] came and spoke to me. However, I think that because I spoke with the inspection authorities, I was laid off. When I told them how much I was making, how many hours I had worked, and everything, they sent me about $2,000. Eventually, my papers came, and I sent them back. Sometimes, I think it’s because of [speaking with inspectors] that I was laid off.

Did you see this change across the years, or do you think this always happened?
Things did change. The employers would yell at all the people badly as if they wanted to throw the clothes in their faces. There was also one time recently, about three years ago, when I went to work at a new company that was demanding a tremendous amount of work, and they also shouted at me.

Did you discuss these problems with your co-workers, or was this topic avoided?
No. A lot of my co-workers had experienced the same mistreatment and verbal abuse. Sometimes the employers yelled, ‘How could you not learn how to do this when you’ve been working here for so many years?’ [My manager] would always tell me that I didn’t have to do it well. To leave garments as they were. I wouldn't. I would try to do a good job, and that’s why she would yell at me. She only cared that we did the work quickly.

Did this make you want to leave your workplace? What made you decide to stay?
I wanted to run away whenever they yelled at me or mistreated me. But one bears these things because they need to work, earn money, and pay rent. For survival, one has to grit their teeth and bear the mistreatment that comes their way.

This mistreatment unfortunately happens to many workers, and that’s why it is so important to know one’s rights in the workplace. I’m glad that the Garment Workers Center can organize and unite workers to share this important information and do so in multiple languages. Do you have any regrets about being involved with the Garment Workers Center?
I had a stable job. I didn’t want to go to [the Garment Worker Center] meetings because I was scared that my employers would find me and I’d lose my job. We were scared of losing our jobs because of our involvement there. Due to that, many people don’t want to go to meetings. But being there, one sees that there is help available and that does make a difference for people.

Have you recounted your personal experiences to people who perhaps hold that fear about organizing in the workplace? What do you do to encourage such people to get involved?
No, because the people I invited at the time needed support for different reasons. I informed them so they could have better information. When I started at the Garment Worker Center, I didn’t know much about it, and I didn’t know how to express myself.

Is there anything else you'd like to share about your work experience in the garment industry?
[My employers] said that employees older than 30 years old should not work, but that hasn’t happened so far. Only people 30 years old or younger.

What about where you work?
[My bosses] didn’t have an ironer because they didn’t want someone inexperienced to do the job. So I would iron — or others who were older than 40 years old — but they wouldn’t hire anyone older than that.  

Is this something they did by looking at someone and estimating their age, or did they confirm age by looking at a form of identification?
It was more about whether a person looked old or not. The employers would say, ‘We’re busy. We don’t need anyone.’ I asked one of my bosses why a co-worker left, and she said, ‘Because she is too old. I only want someone 30 years or younger.’ It’s a form of discrimination.

I was doing a lot of work — flipping clothes, hanging the hooks, among other tasks — and my hands would hurt. I told my boss, “Miss, is no one going to help me with this? Is it just me doing all of this work?” And she told me ‘Yes,’ and then went quiet. A little while later, she paused, and while laughing, told me, ‘No more work for you. You are too old. It’s better that you go home and stay in your house.’

Did you terminate communication with your boss as soon as you got hurt, or are you still in communication with her?
I don’t speak to her. When all of this started, my lawyer told me not to answer if they called me and that the legal team would talk to them on my behalf. I gave her my boss’s number, and she communicated with my lawyer thereafter. They never call me now. I already know that my bosses said they don’t want me to return to work there again.

Apart from age-based discrimination, were there any racial conflicts or other forms of discrimination, such as linguistic barriers, that you experienced while working there?
My employers were married, and the husband spoke and understood Spanish. He said that his wife didn’t understand Spanish, but I noticed that she understood some Spanish. When I asked her something, for example, that I wanted a raise, she would respond, ‘I don’t understand. What pay raise? I’m paying you well already.’ At that time, they were paying me $2.80, and the minimum wage was $10 an hour. Yet when I asked her for a raise, she told me that they were already paying me well and that I didn’t need more.

She left to go and think, and within an hour, she came back and said, ‘Okay, okay, I’ll give you a raise to $10.’ This conversation was in December, and she said she’d start the raise in the new year. She raised my salary to $10 and no more than that. But the years passed by. Supposedly, they paid me according to the hours, but that’s not the truth because they never paid me [the agreed-upon amount].

Another time, I got a raise to $13 an hour. [My boss] told me that they paid me $13 an hour, but I did the calculations, and they weren’t paying me properly. Instead of being paid for 30 hours at that rate, I was only paid for 10 hours. Well, I was only paid for 9.5 hours because they only gave me half an hour of lunch and didn’t give me any other breaks. I only had a 30-minute lunch break and nothing more.

And you worked how many hours?
I worked from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. No more than a 30-minute lunch break with no other breaks.

You didn’t receive other benefits like medical insurance, right?
No. With them, no. 

You told me about the injustices that you faced while working there. However, were there any things you enjoyed about the work there, such as your relationship with your co-workers or the actual work that you did with the garments?
I enjoyed working there because I had no co-workers. In many places, it’s the co-workers who take your job. You can’t work comfortably. There, I did all the work because they didn’t let us work together. It was just me. My boss would cut the fabric for the clothing, while I was assigned to hang and turn the clothing and any other tasks that would come up.

I enjoyed working by myself because, among co-workers, there can be a lot of jealousy. No one gets anxious this way. I don’t like to work in a big group. I enjoyed working there because I knew what they expected of me and was able to do it.

Do you know how much the company sold the garments you worked with and at which stores?
Yes, I do know. [My bosses] would send me to the company to bring a design or a specific size ‘X.’

Were the prices of the garments high?
There were some that, at some companies, were valued from $60 to $90. The rest were about $19 to $30. Some companies supposedly pay for each garment by the dollar.

What happened when there was a mistake in the garment? What happened to the garment and to the workers who made the garment?
They would sell garments with mistakes to the companies at a discounted price, but they never simply left them. [The owners] preferred to throw away the clothes rather than give them to the workers.

You told me a moment ago that you continued to work at this job because you needed work. However, with more awareness now, do you ever wish to place a demand or organize with the workers who also worked with those bosses concerning the mistreatment there and end the cycle of abuse? Would you want to do something like this? What are your thoughts?
I do not want to. The majority of workers get along well with her and don’t want to do anything like that. They prefer to keep their jobs rather than do anything that may jeopardize their career. I’ve spoken to them about my experiences before, and they responded by saying they prefer working at their jobs. Times are tough. [The employees] said the people who organize are bad-hearted.

What do you think about your rights now and before? How have your advocacy efforts changed over time?
Everyone has the right to speak up and be treated well. Everyone deserves a fair wage.

What are you doing now as part of the Garment Worker Center?
I am connecting with people by organizing meetings. We’re planning for the annual May Day march, and I’m going with the Garment Worker Center.

How has the pandemic affected you on a personal level?
Until now, thanks to God, I haven’t fallen ill. I got vaccinated. I rarely leave my house; I don’t go out to avoid catching COVID-19 and because I have a bad back. The pandemic has affected me in that many businesses are closed and nothing feels the same as before.

What memories from the pandemic will remain with you in the future?
I hope that everything will return to the way it was before. In the past, everything was normal. I don’t know if things will ever go back to the way things once were.