Korean business people find prosperity in contract garment work.

Korean business people find prosperity in contract garment work

Inside a brick building at 37th and Main Streets in Los Angeles about 60 sewing machines hum each work day, while a workforce of men and women, old and young and almost entirely Hispanic, push brightly colored red, blue, green and orange fabrics along metal teeth.

The machine operators work in rows of three or four machines, some sew collars only, some pockets while a row of workers stitch shirt fronts and shirt backs together. The workers are dressed casually but work rapidly at the repetitive jobs because they are paid by the number of pieces they sew.

The owner of the shop, Yun Kim, is a Korea native who became an American citizen in 1985. That was 10 years after he opened his first shop with 15 rented machines and his mother as one of the machine operators.

Kim is one of an estimated 900 Korean nationals who own contract shops in Los Angeles that sew cut work for large clothing manufacturers. Koreans, more than any other ethnic group, now seemingly dominate the garment industry of about 2,000 shops.

Kim admits being wary of talking about his shop. The media, he said, only concentrates on the negative aspects of the garment business and this has hurt him in his personal and professional life.

When he meets other business people and they ask him what he does for a living, Kim says he tells them `"I make garments.' And some people respond, `You do that dirty sweat shop work,'" he said.

Kim adds he is as hurt by the image as he is proud of the clients he sews for, Calvin Klein, Stussy, Body Glove and Disneyland. "I guarantee the minimum wage," he said.

Citations for labor violations in the Los Angeles area have increased by about 17 percent in the last five years, said Roger Miller, regional manager of the enforcement division of the state Department of Industrial Relations.

In fiscal 1990, the bureau issued citations in about 70 percent of the 1,670 inspections of shops, Miller said. The fines totaled $1.2 million.

The most common violations include failure to register the shop with the labor department, lack of workers' compensation insurance and failure to pay minimum wage. Most of the fines are assessed at $100 per employee, so that if a contractor is cited for a number of violations, the fines "can run into the tens of thousands of dollars," Miller said.

State inspectors are finding that 20 to 30 percent of the shops are not registered with the labor department, Miller said. "For the most part, the larger shops will have worker's compensation. We find problems with minimum wage in all shops (that are inspected)," he said.

One of the problems is that contractors pay workers by the piece and that doesn't add up to the minimum wage of $4.25 an hour, Miller said. The state does not care if the sewers are paid by the piece, as long as their wages are at or higher than the minimum wage, Miller said.

At his shop, Kim asked his floorman who was the best sewer that week. The floorman pointed out Joel Huesca, a 24-year-old from Mexico, who was working on hems of T-shirts. Huesca, who could not speak English, said through an interpreter that what he likes best about working for Kim is that there is always work.

Huesca was putting out 400 pieces a day, at 18 cents a piece, Kim explained. His daily pay was $72, more than twice the $34 a day he would earn at minimum wage.

"Koreans are business-minded people. They are trying to have employees produce the number of garments that (must) be produced," said John Choi, executive director of the Korean-American Garment Contractor Association. "If you pay them eight hours a day, they will produce maybe 50 pieces. If you pay them a piece rate they may produce maybe 80," Choi said.

Choi said he came to the United States in 1973 with his family and virtually no money. He worked as a salesman in an import-export business during the day, and pumped gas at night. His wife worked as a seamstress in a contract sewing shop. His two teenaged sons worked after school as janitors, cleaning offices, Choi said.

"We worked hard. All of us, worked three years to save some money." Choi said. After saving $10,000 and borrowing some more, Choi opened his own contract sewing shop, employing 15 people. The business, which Choi's son has now taken over operation, now employs 40 people, Choi said.

Since he started his business, the number of Korean contractors in Los Angeles has tripled, Choi added.

Korean immigrants are often college educated but can not get a job in their profession because their degrees are not recognized by American business, Choi said. Many Korean immigrants prefer to start their own business, rather than work for someone else, Choi said.

The contracting business is attractive because it takes a fraction of the capital to start up as compared to opening a gas station or market, Choi said. "A lot of people are attracted to this type of business. They say, `Maybe I'll try with five machines.'`If they`produce good, quality garments, they'll`get more orders," he said.

Joe Rodriguez, executive director for the Garment Contractors Association of Southern California, said that he doesn't know why Koreans dominate the garment industry. It just seems that whenever contract shop sells the business these days, a Korean contractor is the buyer, Rodriguez said.

In years past, there were more Jewish and Hispanic contractors, Rodriguez noted. "I've heard that there used to be a Hispanic Contractors Association. They're no longer in business." The Garment Contract Association has 200 members and virtually no Korean members, Rodriguez said, although he said he is constantly trying to recruit them.

Members of the garment association are concerned about labor violations and in fact, routinely report other contractors to the labor department, Rodriguez said. Although he admits that he could not say for certain if any of his association members had been cited for labor violations.

Contractors who do not abide by the labor laws "are a source of very unfair competition for us. People who don't pay taxes," Rodriguez said. "We want to eliminate these people from the industry. It gives us a bad public relations image, a black eye."

Kim said he could not agree more. Although, he added, he can understand how violations could occur with smaller newer contractors. Inexperienced contractors will overestimate the amount of work they can do for a client, Kim said. "He has to do overtime work, but he doesn't pay overtime," Kim said.

Small contractors do not have computers, like Kim has, to plot out the number of pieces, such as collars and pockets that are needed to complete an order. Small contractors also make the mistake of sewing all different types of fabric and garments on their machines.

Small shops do not have enough machines or workers to create specialty lines, for collars, pockets, hems and the like. Small shops are unable to take the more efficient assembly line approach for a contract, Kim said.

Kim became a sewing contractor rather reluctantly, he said. When he first came to the United States more than 15 years ago, Kim ran a Tae Kwon Do studio in Rosemead. His mother, who owned her own dress shop in Korea got a job in Los Angeles as a seamstress, Kim said.

It was his mother who asked Kim to open a sewing shop. "I was upset about it. A man doing that kind of work, a needle job" Kim said.

But Kim said he opened his first shop after realizing that he may not be able to teach Tai Kwon Do at 40 or 50. He opened it with 15 rented machines and a mostly Korean work force, "mostly Korean ladies who came (to the U.S.), like me, immigrant and old ladies, you know."

Despite some setbacks, "I did not fail, luckily," Kim said.

Five years ago, Kim decided to become a U.S. citizen. He said he realized that the United States was the place his children have grown up and that it is now his home.

PHOTO : Garment industry shop owners fight negative image of working conditions of contract employees

PHOTO : Contract work: Many shops are now owned by Koreans