This week my schedule was completely full with interviews, workshops and a protest, it has been one of the busiest weeks thus far. Even though I am more than half way done with my internship there is still so much work to be done, a handful of interviews to do, factories to communicate with, and to learn how the different maquila federation work.  I have learned a great deal about the industry and heard just about every excuse a factory can make to deny that their factories is being operated under sweatshop condition. In the case of the factory shown above, workers tried to organize but sadly all efforts were put to a whole when more than half of those workers were fired because there was a mysterious personal cut. There is really not much that I can do about the situation, but one things that I am doing is educating students about the condition that our universities clothes are being made. These thoughts are motivating me to try to apply the work that I am completing to a high level of consumer consciousness. Even though it would be impossible to fix anything within two months at least there has been some improvement that I have notice while conducting factory investigations, one regarding workers attitude towards unionizing, second realizing that students care about the workers and lastly the gratification that workers seem to express towards United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) for sending interns to Central America, because workers are in desperate need of support in their struggle for a living wage salary.

Joanna