Labor Day Shirts

I’ve been working in a garment factory for some years now. From the day I was hired to do wholesale promotional t shirts, never did I experience an increase in my salary. Despite repeated demands from the management, those small gifts became just a dream for me and my co-workers.

During the first couple of years, I was satisfied with how much the company paid us. When there was a drastic increase in the sales of the products that we manufactured, we tried to talk with the management and see if there would be a possibility of a bigger paycheck as awards, but all our clamors went to deaf ears.

Perhaps because of the somewhat activism in our ranks, the manager sent me away to help the undergarment department. The job was so tedious, and required me to work extra shifts just to meet weekly quotas. I missed a lot of events especially in the house. I even forgot to celebrate my birthday.

That’s how bad things went.

Now, after some five years of hard work with no sign of a bigger income, I decided to actively participate in union activities. This could be, as I thought, a better way to voice our concerns with the management. In every activity that we organize, we always use our wholesale promotional long sleeve t shirts to show our unity. But then again, unity is not enough. Things should be done now more than ever.

On Labor Day, we plan on staging a strike using our wholesale promotional short sleeve t shirts with our name on it. I have to admit that at first, I was quite not agreeable with unions and strikes. But now I face the opposite direction. Ironically enough, we will be using something that actually came from the factory. Hopefully they see the irony so that they give us what we want,