Lea la versión en español de este artículo aquí.
Gregorio Mancilla lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children. In 2022, he was part of a successful campaign led by the advocacy organization The Garment Worker Center to change state law so that workers like him are consistently paid at least minimum wage. This transcript is based on a conversation with Mancilla, and has been translated from Spanish and edited for clarity and length.
Mancilla: For me to be able to say that I “made it” would mean that I overcame many obstacles, and that I achieved all my goals.
I have worked approximately 34 years in the garment sewing business. I operate two machines — one makes buttonholes and the other one attaches the buttons.
Well honestly, in my personal life, it hasn't been easy, with three kids, to provide support the entire family. Everything's expensive. Gas is very expensive, food is very expensive. The electricity — same there.
[My wages are] not a lot, but it’s better than before — when the companies would pay us per garment. They would pay about $4 to $5 an hour. Now we know it's $16 an hour.
[The state of California ] established laws that now, more than anything, guarantee minimum wage. Before, we didn't have that guarantee in this job. I had to work more than 10 hours a day to make the minimum wage.
It affected my family because I wasn’t with my kids most of the time. I even had to work on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. I was always far away from my family. And now that it's guaranteed that at least I'm making minimum wage, I can cover most of the expenses, and I spend a lot of time now with my family.
So were there changes? Yes, there were changes.
I have a daughter who's 25 years old. She just finished college. I also have another daughter who just turned 18. She's in university. And then I have a third daughter who's 10 years old.
We live in an apartment. It’s got a bedroom — a bedroom for my daughters. [My wife and I are] the ones in the living room. That's what I can share [about] the way that I live with my daughters and how we can survive.
My eldest daughter wanted to go to college. So over time, I saved enough money from work because I knew that daughter had that dream. I worked a lot in the garment industry to cover our expenses, and it was hard. I wasn’t making minimum wage. I was able to save $30,000.
My goal was that I get to see her finish college. And when she did finish, we celebrated real nice at a restaurant.
For me, I feel like I’ve achieved my goals. For me, I feel like I've already made it.