The Women’s Studies Program is sponsoring a workshop on Invisible Workers: Life in the L.A. Sweatshops. It is being presented by Solomon Namala, Instructor of Economics, on Mar. 6 from 12:30 to 2pm in the Social Science Building (SS-306).

Marissa Nuncio, coordinator from the L.A. Garment Workers and Sweatshop Watch, is the speaker for this event. Her organization helps organize garment workers in downtown LA, most of whom are women and immigrants.

Namala has stated that many of these workers are employed by subcontractors who contract for labels such as Disney, Forever 21, Guess, and many more companies.

“These workers, because of their gender and immigrant status are exploited in terms of wage, hours of work and at times even physical and sexual abuse,” said Namala. “Ms. Nuncio will speak to us about these conditions and inform us of alternatives to change this situation.”

Specifically, Nuncio will talk about the labor force, which is predominantly female, in the garment industry, their conditions of work and employers’ policies and what we can do to assure better working conditions for these workers.