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71 images Created 26 Sep 2015

EL SALVADOR: LIFE IN THE MAQUILAS

In the maquilas of El Salvador, in Central America, women workers manufacture clothing for major international brands . The work hours are very exhausting and salaries very low . And those who try to join a trade union or face the owners, asking for better rights and work conditions, are fired or even worse, threatened with death by the armed criminal gangs that control most areas of the capital, San Salvador, and where most of the factories are.
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  • Marta, 43 years old. She  started working in a maquila in 2003. She works in the "zona franca" factories area of San Marcos, outside San Salvador, next to the highway to the airport. Recently she founded her own syndicate movement called SSINT to fight fir the rights of her co-workers. She earns approximately 7 US dollars per day, 250 per month, including the extra hours. She takes more than 2 hours to reach her work place from where she lives, in a "Colonia", controlled by the dangerous armed gang called MS.
    MAQUILAS001.jpg
  • Marta, 43 years old. Here in the house of her nephew, ex-maquila worker, now mother of a 4 months baby, here in their simple house in the forest inside the hills outside San Salvador. Marta  started working in a maquila in 2003. She works in the "zona franca" factories area of San Marcos, outside San Salvador, next to the highway to the airport. Recently she founded her own syndicate movement called SSINT to fight fir the rights of her co-workers. She earns approximately 7 US dollars per day, 250 per month, including the extra hours. She takes more than 2 hours to reach her work place from where she lives, in a "Colonia", controlled by the dangerous armed gang called MS.
    MAQUILAS002.jpg
  • Marta, 43 years old. Here in the house of her nephew, ex-maquila worker, now mother of a 4 months baby, here in their simple house in the forest inside the hills outside San Salvador. Marta  started working in a maquila in 2003. She works in the "zona franca" factories area of San Marcos, outside San Salvador, next to the highway to the airport. Recently she founded her own syndicate movement called SSINT to fight fir the rights of her co-workers. She earns approximately 7 US dollars per day, 250 per month, including the extra hours. She takes more than 2 hours to reach her work place from where she lives, in a "Colonia", controlled by the dangerous armed gang called MS.
    MAQUILAS003.jpg
  • Forest area in the hills just outside San Salvador, where most maquila workers live in very difficult and poor conditions
    MAQUILAS004.jpg
  • Marta, 43 years old. Here in the house of her nephew, ex-maquila worker, now mother of a 4 months baby, here in their simple house in the forest inside the hills outside San Salvador. Marta  started working in a maquila in 2003. She works in the "zona franca" factories area of San Marcos, outside San Salvador, next to the highway to the airport. Recently she founded her own syndicate movement called SSINT to fight fir the rights of her co-workers. She earns approximately 7 US dollars per day, 250 per month, including the extra hours. She takes more than 2 hours to reach her work place from where she lives, in a "Colonia", controlled by the dangerous armed gang called MS.
    MAQUILAS005.jpg
  • Andre is a "bordadora", a talented seamstress who works from home for the clothes factory Confetti, for which she sews manually extreme difficult clothes' decorations. Once a week she and other "bordadoras" go to a small house inside her village, Las Casitas, 30 km from San Salvador, where the owner of the factory collect their work and pays them. She gets paid around 2.85 US dollars for piece. It takes her a whole day to sew one piece. She has to deliver around 10, 15 pieces per week, so she basically works no-stop all week long with lots of stress and pression as the owner takes her out 20 cents of dollar for every piece that she is not able to deliver on time. Usually, the clothes they work on, are then sold in the United States for around 200 US dollar in the upscale clothes shops of the 5th Avenue in New York
    MAQUILAS006.jpg
  • Andre is a "bordadora", a talented seamstress who works from home for the clothes factory Confetti, for which she sews manually extreme difficult clothes' decorations. Once a week she and other "bordadoras" go to a small house inside her village, Las Casitas, 30 km from San Salvador, where the owner of the factory collect their work and pays them. She gets paid around 2.85 US dollars for piece. It takes her a whole day to sew one piece. She has to deliver around 10, 15 pieces per week, so she basically works no-stop all week long with lots of stress and pression as the owner takes her out 20 cents of dollar for every piece that she is not able to deliver on time. Usually, the clothes they work on, are then sold in the United States for around 200 US dollar in the upscale clothes shops of the 5th Avenue in New York
    MAQUILAS007.jpg
  • Andre is a "bordadora", a talented seamstress who works from home for the clothes factory Confetti, for which she sews manually extreme difficult clothes' decorations. Once a week she and other "bordadoras" go to a small house inside her village, Las Casitas, 30 km from San Salvador, where the owner of the factory collect their work and pays them. She gets paid around 2.85 US dollars for piece. It takes her a whole day to sew one piece. She has to deliver around 10, 15 pieces per week, so she basically works no-stop all week long with lots of stress and pression as the owner takes her out 20 cents of dollar for every piece that she is not able to deliver on time. Usually, the clothes they work on, are then sold in the United States for around 200 US dollar in the upscale clothes shops of the 5th Avenue in New York
    MAQUILAS008.jpg
  • Andre is a "bordadora", a talented seamstress who works from home for the clothes factory Confetti, for which she sews manually extreme difficult clothes' decorations. Once a week she and other "bordadoras" go to a small house inside her village, Las Casitas, 30 km from San Salvador, where the owner of the factory collect their work and pays them. She gets paid around 2.85 US dollars for piece. It takes her a whole day to sew one piece. She has to deliver around 10, 15 pieces per week, so she basically works no-stop all week long with lots of stress and pression as the owner takes her out 20 cents of dollar for every piece that she is not able to deliver on time. Usually, the clothes they work on, are then sold in the United States for around 200 US dollar in the upscale clothes shops of the 5th Avenue in New York
    MAQUILAS009.jpg
  • Andre is a "bordadora", a talented seamstress who works from home for the clothes factory Confetti, for which she sews manually extreme difficult clothes' decorations. Once a week she and other "bordadoras" go to a small house inside her village, Las Casitas, 30 km from San Salvador, where the owner of the factory collect their work and pays them. She gets paid around 2.85 US dollars for piece. It takes her a whole day to sew one piece. She has to deliver around 10, 15 pieces per week, so she basically works no-stop all week long with lots of stress and pression as the owner takes her out 20 cents of dollar for every piece that she is not able to deliver on time. Usually, the clothes they work on, are then sold in the United States for around 200 US dollar in the upscale clothes shops of the 5th Avenue in New York
    MAQUILAS010.jpg
  • Andre is a "bordadora", a talented seamstress who works from home for the clothes factory Confetti, for which she sews manually extreme difficult clothes' decorations. Once a week she and other "bordadoras" go to a small house inside her village, Las Casitas, 30 km from San Salvador, where the owner of the factory collect their work and pays them. She gets paid around 2.85 US dollars for piece. It takes her a whole day to sew one piece. She has to deliver around 10, 15 pieces per week, so she basically works no-stop all week long with lots of stress and pression as the owner takes her out 20 cents of dollar for every piece that she is not able to deliver on time. Usually, the clothes they work on, are then sold in the United States for around 200 US dollar in the upscale clothes shops of the 5th Avenue in New York
    MAQUILAS011.jpg
  • Andre is a "bordadora", a talented seamstress who works from home for the clothes factory Confetti, for which she sews manually extreme difficult clothes' decorations. Once a week she and other "bordadoras" go to a small house inside her village, Las Casitas, 30 km from San Salvador, where the owner of the factory collect their work and pays them. She gets paid around 2.85 US dollars for piece. It takes her a whole day to sew one piece. She has to deliver around 10, 15 pieces per week, so she basically works no-stop all week long with lots of stress and pression as the owner takes her out 20 cents of dollar for every piece that she is not able to deliver on time. Usually, the clothes they work on, are then sold in the United States for around 200 US dollar in the upscale clothes shops of the 5th Avenue in New York
    MAQUILAS012.jpg
  • Andre is a "bordadora", a talented seamstress who works from home for the clothes factory Confetti, for which she sews manually extreme difficult clothes' decorations. Once a week she and other "bordadoras" go to a small house inside her village, Las Casitas, 30 km from San Salvador, where the owner of the factory collect their work and pays them. She gets paid around 2.85 US dollars for piece. It takes her a whole day to sew one piece. She has to deliver around 10, 15 pieces per week, so she basically works no-stop all week long with lots of stress and pression as the owner takes her out 20 cents of dollar for every piece that she is not able to deliver on time. Usually, the clothes they work on, are then sold in the United States for around 200 US dollar in the upscale clothes shops of the 5th Avenue in New York
    MAQUILAS013.jpg
  • Andre is a "bordadora", a talented seamstress who works from home for the clothes factory Confetti, for which she sews manually extreme difficult clothes' decorations. Once a week she and other "bordadoras" go to a small house inside her village, Las Casitas, 30 km from San Salvador, where the owner of the factory collect their work and pays them. She gets paid around 2.85 US dollars for piece. It takes her a whole day to sew one piece. She has to deliver around 10, 15 pieces per week, so she basically works no-stop all week long with lots of stress and pression as the owner takes her out 20 cents of dollar for every piece that she is not able to deliver on time. Usually, the clothes they work on, are then sold in the United States for around 200 US dollar in the upscale clothes shops of the 5th Avenue in New York
    MAQUILAS014.jpg
  • Estela Marina Ramirez, 45 years old. She started working in a maquila when she was just 20 years old. In 2005, while she was working at the "Hermosa" factory, she couldn't take it anymore and decided to leave her job and found the LSI syndicate (Liga sindical internacional) in order to help protecting other workers from the abuses and discrimination they were suffering from. Since then, she became in El Salvador an important and respected figure in the fight against maquila's owners and in defense of the workers' rights.
    MAQUILAS016.jpg
  • A commemorative paint shows two famous syndicate leaders killed by extremists. Juan Chacon, killed in 1980 and Elizabeth Velasquez, killed by a bomb inside the syndicate center in 1989, during the war in El Salvador
    MAQUILAS017.jpg
  • Rosy, 44 years old. She lives in the small town of Arce, around 40 minutes from the capital San Salvador. She has been working as a maquila worker since 1995. She currently works in onw of the 6 factories in El Salvador of the famous brand "Fruit of the Loom". She suffered from cronic stress disorder and depression caused by the constant and high pressure at work. She works around 9 hours per day earning an average salary of 220-275 US dollars depending on the production bonus and the amount of clothes she manages to sew every week. She lives in her house with her 2 kids
    MAQUILAS018.jpg
  • Rosy, 44 years old. She lives in the small town of Arce, around 40 minutes from the capital San Salvador. She has been working as a maquila worker since 1995. She currently works in onw of the 6 factories in El Salvador of the famous brand "Fruit of the Loom". She suffered from cronic stress disorder and depression caused by the constant and high pressure at work. She works around 9 hours per day earning an average salary of 220-275 US dollars depending on the production bonus and the amount of clothes she manages to sew every week. She lives in her house with her 2 kids
    MAQUILAS019.jpg
  • Rosy, 44 years old. She lives in the small town of Arce, around 40 minutes from the capital San Salvador. She has been working as a maquila worker since 1995. She currently works in onw of the 6 factories in El Salvador of the famous brand "Fruit of the Loom". She suffered from cronic stress disorder and depression caused by the constant and high pressure at work. She works around 9 hours per day earning an average salary of 220-275 US dollars depending on the production bonus and the amount of clothes she manages to sew every week. She lives in her house with her 2 kids
    MAQUILAS020.jpg
  • View of the valley on which lays San Salvador, capital of El Salvador, seen from one of the many hills that surrounds the city
    MAQUILAS021.jpg
  • Sergio Chavez, famous Salvadorian syndicate leader. He started working in defense of the maquila's workers in 1998. During the war in El Salvador, he was forced to emigrate to Denmark due to life threats He received for his activities as union official
    MAQUILAS022.jpg
  • A football field inside a maquila factory around 40 minutes by car from San Salvador
    MAQUILAS023.jpg
  • Workers inside the TexOps factory, around 40 minutes by car from San Salvador. Famous and modern factory in El Salvador, TexOps produces sport and yoga clothes for famous brands around the world, in particular in Italy and USA. There are around 1250 people working here in this factory
    MAQUILAS024.jpg
  • Workers inside the TexOps factory, around 40 minutes by car from San Salvador. Famous factory in El Salvador, TexOps produces sport and yoga clothes for famous brands around the world, in particular in Italy and USA. There are around 1250 people working here in this factory
    MAQUILAS025.jpg
  • Workers inside the TexOps factory, around 40 minutes by car from San Salvador. Famous factory in El Salvador, TexOps produces sport and yoga clothes for famous brands around the world, in particular in Italy and USA. There are around 1250 people working here in this factory
    MAQUILAS026.jpg
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