Six a.m. Already the women driving into the grassy field that is the parking lot for the Workers’ Owned Sewing Company can feel the 95-degree heat of August days in Windsor, North Carolina. Six had not always been the hour the day shift began, but the Workers’ Owned factory has no air conditioning. So, at the beginning of the summer, the board of directors “called a meeting” at which the workers voted to start their day early in order to finish when the heat of the day became unbearable.
Ten a.m. Fifty women sit at their machines, sewing pieces of cloth into finished garments. Longtime civil rights activist and chairman of the board Tim Bazemore, one of two men who work here fulltime, is nowhere to be seen, although he often spends over 12 hours each day at the factory. This morning, Bazemore took a bit of time from WOSC to sell his hogs.
Although at first glance WOSC gives the physical appearance of an old-fashioned sweat shop, it is not. The machines are lined up in four rows for production, but no assembly-line demands make workers keep up to pace; no one has yet been fired, for working too slowly or for any cause. When one woman continually overstated her production, she was not fired; instead Bazemore and the workers’ board talked with her about the problem. They also discussed the issue in general terms with all the workers, and gradually the woman improved her behavior. Unlike the other factories where these women have worked, permission is not needed for a quick trip to the bathroom or to the water fountain.
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