Business Venture No Small Miracle

For three long years, Juana Acosta toiled inside a dingy garment factory stitching pieces of material together at a furious pace and earning only a pittance.

Regardless of how swiftly her fingers flew around the stabbing needle of the sewing machine, Acosta rarely earned more than $3 a day. On her best days, when her pace was faster or the pay was higher, she took home $20.

“No matter how fast I went, it seemed like I always went home with pennies,” said the 50-year-old former garment worker.

Sick of sweatshop salaries and working in jobs that paid below the minimum wage, Acosta and four other women started a housecleaning business, a cooperative in which the workers are part owners.

They knew there would be obstacles.

Acosta and her colleagues are low-income, immigrant women with few skills, little business experience or education, and limited English. Some of them share their financial responsibilities with their husbands, while others struggle as single mothers.

But they wanted more than dead-end jobs. They yearned for economic security and a way to improve their lives without depending on public assistance.

The housecleaning business was launched last year with the help of a $45,000 grant from the National Catholic Churches’ Campaign for Human Development. In addition, a local grass-roots group called VOICE, Valley Organized in Community Efforts, donated $2,000 to help the business get off the ground.

With legal assistance from San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services, the five partners run every aspect of the fledgling company, including bookkeeping, financing and advertising. And with Mary Immaculate Church as their base, choosing their name was simple: the Miracle Workers.

For the last year, the partners have met every week inside the church rectory and learned about starting a business, securing a license and insurance and devising a way to build clientele.

Inside a cramped church office, they dream of financial independence. They view the effort as not just a business, but a keen combination of community organizing and economic development.

“From here, I can finally see the future,” said Margarita Villa, 26, a single mother and one of the partners.

Like most of the Miracle Workers, Villa and Maria Pinedo, 37, are holding other jobs while the business expands.

In 1986, Pinedo moved to Los Angeles from Mexico to work for an auto parts company that was setting up shop in the U.S. But a few years later, the business failed and she was laid off.

Although she found a job as an office assistant at a Toluca Lake health clinic, the pay is barely enough to support her and her two children. Now, as part owner of the Miracle Workers, she not only supplements her income but also paves the way for other women like her.

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“We’re learning how to work as a group, and that’s important. Our goal is to be professional so we can help those who come after us,” she said.

The women adopted the idea of establishing church-based worker cooperatives from Solano County in Northern California, where eight co-ops specializing in housecleaning and landscaping employ more than 100.

Mahlon Lang, director of the UC Davis Center for Cooperatives, said about 60 worker co-ops exist throughout the state and have been increasing, especially in cities where immigrant communities are growing.

“These co-ops are really carving a niche, particularly for people coming into the country with limited skills and connections,” Lang said.

The women share all the responsibilities and rewards, as well as hardships and headaches of running their own business.

Last month, for example, some of them became upset when one partner left on vacation without letting someone else take on her client for the good of the business.

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Elizabeth Corletto, a community organizer who has helped the Miracle Workers, said those problems are part of the process.

“They’re learning about leadership and responsibility,” Corletto said. “All that takes a lot of patience.”

Pattie Apregan hired two of the Miracle Workers to clean her sprawling five-bedroom home in Hidden Hills and was impressed with the results.

“I was just fascinated by the whole thing. These are clearly women who want to better themselves and grow. They have that incentive because they’re the owners,” she said.

With three regular clients in their customer file, Corletto said, the Miracle Workers hope to one day get a contract to clean schools throughout the Valley.

Clearly, making profits is part of their goal. But, Acosta said, she has gained other things more important than money.

“I have self-confidence I never knew I had,” she said. “And even more important is the bonds we’ve formed. I needed support from people struggling like me. These are my sisters.”