American Power Source, a private company owned by Roxanne Forreiro is paid millions of dollars by the United States government for military uniforms. Recently (February 2005), American Power Source was awarded a 5 year $10.8 million contract for a portion of the newly-designed Army combat uniform. You would expect the workers to have a decent salary, right? Well, you're wrong. Workers at the company barely make enough to support their own families. A worker named Lois McMillan says, "I worked 63 hours last week and made only $397." She is a single mother of four children, but luckily she has a sole provider to help her through hard times. Queen Phinizi says that she works around 56 hours a week sewing 1,600 garments a day. Her coworkers and herself are barely paid above minimum wage and their employer cut their wages twice and increased their workload.
The 200 (African-American dominated) employees at American Power Source are proud to be making uniforms for the United States military and support the soldiers in combat, but pride isn't enough to endure the abuse and struggle they go through everyday.
(http://www.behindthelabel.org/infocus.asp?id=92)
