Daily Life

Existing in the El Monte sweatshop was living hell. Experienced garment workers were recruited in Bangkok, Thailand with promises of good pay, weekends off, and high working standards. El Monte worker Malinan Radamphon recalled that the recruiter assured her “… in the States, no one can force you to do anything. It’s a free country.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

On arrival the workers were assigned an apartment in a seven-unit complex where they were held captive, sleeping upstairs and sewing downstairs.

The entire complex was enclosed by a security gate, razor wire, and a 24-hour guard. The workers slept up to nine in a room. The fear and disorientation of being held in a strange land, the guard force, and threats of physical harm to them and their families in Thailand, discouraged the workers from escaping. The workers usually sewed 16 hours a day, seven days a week. Exhausted, they drank hot beverages and splashed water on their faces to stay awake.

The workers sewed on modern machines in what had been the garages, dining rooms, and living rooms of the apartments. The air in the sewing rooms was hot, stale, and choked with dust from the fabric. A typical day was waking up at 6:00 a.m., beginning work at 7:00 a.m., lunch around noon, dinner around 6:00 p.m., and ending work around midnight. Conversation was discouraged and socialization was limited to fellow workers within each apartment.

The owner of the operation Sunee Manasulangkoon, referred to as Auntie Sunee, was a tyrant. She would come around every morning at seven to make sure everyone was at work. The bosses were harsh and rude, constantly pushing them to work faster. The workers received wages averaging 69 cents-an-hour. From their meager earnings the sweatshop operators deducted money to repay the contracted debt. Sunee Manasulangkoon’s daughter-in-law, Rampa Suthaprasit, ran a company store in the garage of unit A where she sold canned food and personal supplies at inflated prices.

On Wednesdays the workers would give her a shopping list for meat and vegetables. The workers could write home to family and loved ones, but the sweatshop operators censored the letters, reading them and not mailing any that had descriptions of the captivity or horrible work conditions. Isolated and afraid, the workers resigned themselves to their fate. Asked about trying to escape, Malinan Radamphon explained “It was no use for me to even think about escaping because it was impossible given the barbed wire, given the 24 hour guards. I just accepted this fate that I am going to have to stay here and endure…”