#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #SPAIN #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Spain, CNT #431: Shoe sideboards: Exploited by Ruth Adsuar - DOSSIER: The struggle of women (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Forty years ago the footwear industry in Elche joined the era of globalization,

relocating work centers and those that remained in the city saw their volume and
functions reduced. Under the motto of making production as cheap as possible but
always maintaining the "Made in Spain" so as not to lose subsidies, the
businessmen went to great lengths to sell that they made a quality shoe, hiding
that they obtained it at the expense of the slave labor of thousands of people,
mostly women. The businessmen decided to disperse the production chain and
atomize the workforce as much as possible. The women returned to their homes or
to clandestine workshops for the sake of a dubious conciliation and, since then,
alone, each with their machine, they have had to wage war on their own to survive.
Dressers, women who sew the different pieces that make up a shoe, are essential
in the industry and, at the same time, they are the weakest link. Despite the
fact that the Collective Agreement of the sector recognizes the home contract as
a right, nobody puts it into practice. The women who work at home work an average
of 10 hours a day, they are paid piecework, per pair made, they pay for
electricity, needles, thread, the machine they work with, and depend on an
intermediary who can change the price of the pair from one day to the next,
always falling. Complaining means running out of work and becoming part of a
black list of rebellious workers whom nobody wants or exploits. In sweatshops,
the situation is the same. When they work indoors, in factories, they may be able
to opt for a contract of a few months that does not recognize the entire day
worked or that forces them to pay part of Social Security. All jobs in which
violence is our daily bread, they threaten them to accept unworthy conditions and
end up charging sixty cents for a pair of sandals that the brand sells in the
market for hundreds of euros. They can promise to charge 1.75 euros per pair but
in the end they can end up charging 1.50. Nothing guarantees neither price nor
work beyond the day to day. Obviously, they are not entitled to unemployment,
sick leave, days off, anything.

Dressers, women who sew the different pieces that make up a shoe, are essential
in the industry and, at the same time, they are the weakest link

In this context, it should be noted that the footwear industry yields millionaire
results. In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the sector had a turnover of
approximately 2,646 million euros. Meanwhile, the dressers who lost their jobs
organized to sew free masks. Data from the Tax Agency for 2021 placed three
neighborhoods in Elche (Carrús, El Toscar and SectorV-El Plà), among those with
the lowest income in all of Spain, according to statistics for personal income
tax on postal codes. Ads appear on local radio and job search websites that
demand dressers for "outdoors" (workshop or home). Unworthy jobs, without
contracts and with miserable salaries for a feminized sector that brings together
women who do not contribute, do not pay taxes, do not exist. An obvious photo of
the shadow economy that administrations insist on ignoring and not investigating.

Administrative laziness is a flagrant fact. The City Council has posted on its
Agenda 2030 website a 2017 study in which the Miguel Hernández University
analyzed the perception of the people of Elche about the underground economy and
concluded that "almost 90% of the population thinks that these practices are
frequent or very frequent" and that, according to 53% of those surveyed, "the
group pointed out as the most benefited by the underground economy is that of
businessmen". A study by the University of Alicante in 2018 (The submerged
economy in the province of Alicante: the game of masks), stated that 88% of the
work of the appliance was done in the submerged economy and calculated that there
were more than 7,300 women working without contract. The proposal of the Elche
City Council to tackle the situation was, in 2018, to promote self-employment and
promote responsibility against tax fraud, equalizing responsibilities between
workers and employers. The cynical proposal sought to approach the issue from a
"positive perspective". The promised Submerged Economy Table is still not convened.

Lumbar, cervical, circulation problems, depression, "shoe paralysis" or "dead
hand syndrome" are some of the consequences of years working without occupational
risk prevention

At the same time, on the website of the Valencian Association of Footwear
Entrepreneurs (AVECAL), we can see a news section supported by the Elche City
Council or a series of agreements with the City Council itself or the Generalitat
Valenciana. Public organizations deny the tremendous reality of the submerged
economy and avoid confronting those most responsible for it, the businessmen.

Meanwhile, the first generation of exploited women has already reached retirement
age and they do so in painful physical conditions due to the hard work and
without a minimum contribution that guarantees them an income worthy of survival.
Lumbar, cervical, circulation problems, depression, "shoe paralysis" or "dead
hand syndrome" are some of the consequences of years working without prevention
of occupational risks, exposing oneself to toxic fumes from the products with
which they work in their homes and carrying out marathon days. The Association of
Shoe Dressers and Workers of Elche, established in 2018, fights to recognize the
years worked and be able to opt for a decent retirement, so that their own
illnesses are recognized, they request aid for the creation of cooperatives and
that compliance the Collective Agreement. In 2021 they collected more than 45,000
signatures in support of the recognition of the years worked that they presented
to the Ministry of Labour. Until now, the administrations have listened to them
and have expressed their support, but they continue without taking any action to
reverse this situation.

https://www.cnt.es/noticias/aparadoras-del-calzado-explotadas/
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