Students in the market for a new Michigan sweatshirt may take several factors into consideration: blue or maize, fitted or loose, hooded or crewneck. But at least one store on campus has introduced another option to think about, urging customers to buy ethical University clothing the same way they might “buy organic”.

New collegiate apparel label Alta Gracia, named for the Dominican factory where the clothing is constructed, is now available at the Barnes & Noble College Bookstore in the Michigan Union. The label claims to be the first of its kind because workers at the Alta Gracia factory earn a living wage — the equivalent of $115 per week — instead of the legally required minimum wage, which is $34 per week in the Dominican Republic.

The living wage arrangement is the result of negotiations between the factory’s management and its workers’ union. Officials at Knights Apparel, which operates the factory, say they maintain a strong relationship with the workers’ union to foster a comfortable and humane environment for employees.

Knights Apparel operates a number of other factories, but is operating Alta Gracia using this experimental business model in hopes that the company and other apparel manufacturers can learn from the model.

As of now, the Barnes & Noble College Bookstore is the only store on campus that sells Alta Gracia apparel. Karen Discala, spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, said the Alta Gracia line of apparel received a “tremendous amount of enthusiasm” from students since the stores began selling the products in September.

Discala said the stores priced the apparel in line with other similar items, so as not to pass on much of the increased labor costs to consumers.

Rishi Narayan, co-owner of Underground Printing and Moe Sport Shops, which has stores in a variety of locations near campus, said that because selling Alta Gracia apparel in their stores would require negotiations with Knights Apparel, the owners would only consider selling the merchandise if more students began asking about the origins of clothing sold in the store.

“The trend is more towards the ‘being environmental’ aspect of clothing and the sustainability,” Narayan said, adding that ethical manufacturing “hasn’t been the focus of a lot of questions.”

At an event organized by University Students Against Sweatshops last Tuesday at the Ginsberg Center, an employee from the Alta Gracia factory, Yenny Perez, talked about how her experience with the factory’s new management compares with the old. The factory was previously operated by a Korean-owned company, BJ&B, and manufactured products for Nike and Reebok until halting operations in 2007.

In translated Spanish, Perez said that conditions at the BJ&J-owned factory were “very harsh."

“If a higher-up or a manager ever thought we weren’t doing our work correctly, they would take all of our work and throw it to the floor,” Perez said.

She explained that verbal harassment was very common and workers were seldom given permission for sick leave, or to take time off to care for a sick child.

And after one attempt to organize a union, she said managers became “unreasonably suspicious of any small crowd of workers just talking” at the factory.

Since the town’s economy depended on the factory, Perez said that when BJ&B closed it, citing competition overseas, “there was nothing to do.” Many residents relocated in search of employment, but with the reopening of the factory under Knights Apparel, there is hope that the community will grow, Perez said.

The workers are “very excited” to be part of “a factory that will serve as an example for all others,” Perez said. “Every worker that is in that factory now is just another benefit to the whole community,” she added.

Students active in the issue expressed an interest in the label, saying they would likely buy clothing advertised as ethically made.