"The only thing I could do was sew": an interview with Li Qin Zhou.

Jeung, Russell

My name is Li Qin Zhou. I was born in 1944. I was born in Baiyun, a rural area of Guangzhou. I only had one year in middle school, and then we were farmers. We grew vegetables on the farmland from the government. It was state-owned. My life in China was hard, especially in the 1960s. I experienced starvation and the Cultural Revolution.

I'll talk about when I came to the United States first. I came here in 1986 and worked in a restaurant in Texas, when I was 41. My husband came here in 1982 and after two years, he sponsored my son and me to the United States.

I was very happy when I came to United States. The life in China was so hard since I only could get 50-60 cents per day. It was not enough money to buy food. When I came to the United States, I worked in a restaurant for $750 a month. I worked twelve hours a day, from 9 A.M. to 10 P.M., from Monday to Saturday

My husband's daughter from his first wife owned a restaurant in San Antonio, Texas. He worked for 12 hours a day, but his daughter only gave him $450 a month. And my 14-year-old son worked there after school--he washed all the dishes and swept the floor. He only got $300 a month. He worked from 3 P.M. after he got off from his school, and the whole family worked together.

After a few years, I was very tired of this job. In the restaurant kitchen, it was really hot--nearly 110 degrees! I had pain in my shoulders and back, and I could not keep working those long hours anymore.

So I took my whole family and moved back to San Francisco. I knew some people who were from the same hometown, and we moved to Kearney Street in Chinatown. The rent was about $300 per month. My husband worked for an ironing service.

I got a job in a garment factory in Chinatown through word of mouth from my friends. I didn't know anything else in San Francisco, and also couldn't speak English. I had no choice but to work in Chinatown. The work was different from my husband's; I sewed jeans. At that time in 1987, I made $18 per dozen jeans produced.

There were only eight to ten people in the company, as it was very small. The owner was the landlord. I was responsible for sewing army pants, which were very dirty and hard. I could get around thirty dollars per day The minimum wage was $4.25 per hour at that time, but I only could get $3.85 per hour.

Back then, my family earned about $1,400 per month, and the rent was $475 each month. We hardly saved money--we were in just the same situation as we were in China! My son didn't eat fish for two years, and once he asked me to cook fish for him. So I needed to work extra hours from 5 P.M. to 9 P.M. My boss gave me a key and let me work at night.

I didn't really like my job. It was very hard to sew the jeans, but I worked long hours. One time, my husband gave a call to me and urged me to get off duty. The time was already 9 P.M., and he said it was about time I come home to have dinner.

This garment factory closed in 1994 and then I worked in another factory, Wins, from 1994 to August 2001. (2) All those years there, my salary was increased only if the minimum wage went up. My wages went from $4.50 per hour to $4.95 per hour. (3)

This factory exploited us a lot. The supervisor always shouted at us. We were not allowed to drink water and could not talk to the each other when we were on duty. We needed to do those things secretly The boss had a closed-circuit television camera to monitor us.

In 1994, there was lots of work to do and there were 400 to 500 workers in that factory. At that time, they owned two big factories. Yet due to the exploitation, many of my coworkers resigned in 1995 and 1996. We needed to line up all the time to go to lunch and to go to the restroom as well. We only could go to the toilet during lunch time, and we just got 30 minutes for lunch. By the time we lined up, we only had 15 minutes left for lunch!

That factory kept cheating us, as the supervisor discretionarily reduced our salary. For example, I worked for 72 hours and they just counted me as working 70 hours. That was the reason why many people resigned. At first, I didn't fight these injustices. I didn't want to complain because I was old, and I kept doing the job.

But in 2001, Wins didn't pay me my salary for four and half months. China entered to the World Trade Organization (4) and as a result, my factory did not have enough orders to run the daily operation normally. Under this situation, the factory cheated us. In a meeting, the boss asked us to lend him money by working without pay. He needed to use our salaries in hopes of buying needed materials, like cotton. The boss also warned us that because we weren't good at English, we wouldn't be able to find any other job.

So we compromised without signing any contracts. Because we needed to work, we agreed to work without pay for them. After two months, we didn't get any salaries. After three months, we still didn't get any salaries. After that, the boss gave us checks, but said to cash them later, in about half a month. But the fact was we could not cash them afterwards. They were worthless checks.

After working for four months without pay at Wins, it was closed. Waaa!!!! I had to go work in another factory. While I was working, I was staring at the clock. I earned $46 on the first day I was astounded that I was actually getting paid four dollars per hour again. However, the hourly rate was lower on the second working day. The supervisor cut off our hourly wages without reason. I only got $20 per day and I resigned finally This was my last job.

I sought some advice from the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), and they helped us fight Wins to get my salary back. CPA really helped us a lot, to apply to the Garment Fund to compensate for our lost wages. (5) After that, I went to vocational training for three months.

The training was useless. There were many posters about the training program, that it would help us find a job. We had two days a week for the training, with three hours of classes each day. So actually, we only got six hours of training a week. It should have lasted longer than three months. After the training, I tried to find a job but in fact, I couldn't find any job. My friend recommended that I work in a hotel, but they tested my English ability. I was unable to get a job because I don't know English well. Now I'm retired.

When I think of my ten years of garment work, it is nothing special. I just needed to work. When I was in China, my life was also hard, so I'm used to this hard life. Even if I didn't want to work, I still needed to work and earn a living. I need to eat, so I work. Work in the garment factory was hard, but I didn't have many choices, especially as a woman. I didn't know English and didn't have many skills, so the only thing I could do was sew.

NOTES

(1.) The author expresses his gratitude to the translators, as well as Fei Yi Chen and Shaw San Liu of the Chinese Progressive Association for their help in translating and coordinating the interview. A special thanks to Ms. Zhou for her time and cooperation.

(2.) According to the California Labor and Workforce Agency website, Wins sold garments to K-Mart, JC Penny, Sears, TJ Maxx, Sam's Club, Merwn's, Bebe, It's my Baby, Kandy Kiss, Cut Loose, Two Star Dog, Flapdoodles, M.B. Sport and the U.S. Army/Air Force Exchange. http://www.labor.ca.gov/caworks4utl. htm

(3.) In 1994, California's minimum wage was $4.25 per hour. In 2001, it was $6.25 per hour.

(4.) When the People's Republic of China gained entry to the World Trade Organization in December 2001, U.S. trade restrictions and tariffs on Chinese-produced textiles were reduced, and consequently, more companies outsourced their production to China.

(5.) The California Garment Worker Fund was established in 1980 to ensure that garment workers received their pay when manufacturers failed to pay them. In 2002, nearly all of the 240 workers of Wins received almost $1 million in back wages from this fund.

Interview by Russell Jeung (1)

TRANSLATION BY WAI SUM LEUNG AND CHEUK LAP LO