The Alta Gracia clothing line display at the Johnson Center bookstore.The newest addition to clothing options in the store, Alta Gracia claims to be the first company to offer employees a “living wage.”
With rising costs of living in a time of economic struggle, more corporations are becoming aware of the mistreatment of workers and recognizing their rights to unionize.
In an attempt to also raise awareness, several colleges and university bookstores across the nation are partnering up with a new apparel company that promotes fair pay and works out of a factory that respects workers’ rights and ensures a safe and healthy work environment.
The George Mason University bookstore is among those taking a stand against worker abuse and mistreatment.
Alta Gracia is a new brand of T-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies owned by Knights Apparel that works out of a factory in Villa Altagracia, Dominican Republic. There, workers are paid 33.8% of the legal minimum wage, which is equivalent to approximately $3 an hour.
In a short statement about Alta Gracia’s initiative, CEO of Knights Apparel Joe Bozich explained the unique motivation behind this hopeful frontier.
“To my knowledge, this is the first apparel brand anywhere in the world to compensate the people that are making the product not based upon what’s required of us, but based upon what we calculate as a living wage,” said Bozich.
With wages this much higher than the usual, workers at the Alta Gracia factory are able to provide food, health care, education and other necessities for themselves and their families.
The Mason Bookstore is a division of Barnes and Noble, and therefore must adhere to the Fair Labor Association’s (FLA) code of conduct which states that the bookstore cannot sell products that were made using unfair labor practices or in sweatshop conditions.
Mason bookstore manager Barb Headley reiterates Barnes and Noble’s stringent rules.
“Barnes and Noble is very strict about what they sell,” said Headley. “They make sure we don’t sell any products that were made in a sweatshop environment.”
When asked about the bookstore’s decision to sell these products, Vice President of Merchandising for Barnes and Noble College Booksellers Joel Friedman ensured that it was a corporate decision.
“We are working closely with Alta Gracia and Knights Apparel to put as many of their products in our stores as we can,” said Friedman. “So far, we have Alta Gracia products in approximately 150 stores, and we plan to have them in 175 stores by December. We operate about 650 stores nationwide.”
Also, according to Friedman, Barnes and Noble College Booksellers remains the single largest retailer of Alta Gracia products in the United States.
Respecting fair wages and treatment of workers everywhere is not only a legal obligation, but a genuine concern of Barnes and Noble and the Mason bookstore.
Aside from this newly-found partnership, the Mason bookstore is embarking on multiple conscientious initiatives such as the sale of a brand of pens from Pilot that are made of recycled water bottles.
Pilot’s Bottle-to-Pen product, also known as B2P, is another example of a green initiative that has been a great focus of several corporations in recent years.
These pens are made from 89 percent recycled plastic bottles and still hold the same functionality standards as other top-selling Pilot pens.
This wave of environmental friendliness and humanitarian awareness at Mason is a fast-growing initiative and will continue to have a great effect on the university and its surrounding community.
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