Labor News
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S. Korean Police End Labor Protest, By Jae-Suk Yoo ~ December 27
Sweatshop Swindlers, Jennifer Ehrlich ~ Dec. 18
Plan Would Certify Working Conditions, Bruce Finley ~ Nov. 26
Kathie Lee Sweatshops, Part III ~ Oct. 31, 1999
Santa's Little Sweatshop, By Jeff Elliott (1996)
U.S. Military Clothing Supplier Sued ~ Dec. 7
Nicaraguan Factory Hit With Labor Suit, By Joanna Ramey ~ Dec. 7
Regressive Bargaining Confronts Public Sector Union Coalition, Public Sector Union Coalition ~ Dec. 6
Four Shot Dead in Bangladesh Strike, BBC ~ Dec. 5
Military Post Exchanges Are Selling Sweatshop Goods, By Jon Fremont ~ December
Critics Calling U.S. Supplier in Nicaragua a 'Sweatshop', By Steven Greenhouse ~ December 3
Exploitation of Foreign Workers Decried, By Robert F. Smith ~ December 2
Activists Allege Labor Violations, Liu Shao-hua, Tapei Times ~ Dec. 2
Agreement Reached by Workers, Company, By Susan Luth ~ Dec. 1
Can Labor Change The World?, Labor Notes ~ Dec. 1
Bangladesh Must Clean Up Its Garment Industry, Warns International Union, ITGLWF ~ Nov. 29
Forty-Eight Die in Bangladesh Death-Trap Factory, ITGLWF ~ Nov. 28
Scores of Women and Children Killed in Factory Fire in Bangladesh, ICFTU ~ Nov. 27
EU, US Call For New Sanctions Moves Against Burma, Reuters ~ Nov. 25
Company Is Told to Stay and Face New Union, By Anthony DePalma ~ November 23
Where Will You Be Shopping? Asif Ullah ~ November 15, 2000
Fire Puts Thai Durable Back In The Spotlight, Sunthorn Pongphao, Anan Paengnoy, and Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation ~ Nov. 18
Woods Meets Nike Protesters; Tiger Woods Was Escorted Through An Angry Crowd, Thai Labour Campaign ~ November
Tiger Woods Gets Unwelcome Homecoming In Thailand, Robert Horn ~ Nov. 16
Mil Colores: Solidarity Works--First 3 Workers Reinstated Today! NLC ~ November 16
Tiger Woods Says He Is In Thailand To Win, AP ~Nov. 15
College Groups Fight FLA Affiliation, By Pamela E. Spencer ~ Nov. 15
University Arizona Students Fight FLA, By Susan Luth ~ Nov. 15
Big Mac, Big Trouble, By Patrick Cockburn ~ Nov. 14
Workers Appeal To Tiger Woods, By Junya Yimpraser ~ Nov. 14
Nike Immorally Starving Its Workers ~ Nov. 14
A Letter to Tiger Woods ~ November 14
Are Slave Labor Products Being Sold In Stores In Your Area? ~ November 14
Burmese Junta's New Orders Prohibiting Forced Labour Is To Remain Secret, says ICFTU ~ Nov. 13
Protesters Clog Traffic in Downtown Stamford, By James O'Keefe ~ Nov. 9
SAS Lock Themselves to Doors of Univ. of Arizona Admin Bldg to Protest Sweatshop, By Tim Bartley ~ Nov. 9
A World of Sweatshops: Progress is Slow in the Drive for Better Conditions, Businessweek Online ~ November 6
Thai Durables Must Respect Government Order Says International Union, Thai Labour Campaign ~ November 5
Federal Board Backs College Unions, By Anjetta McQueen, AP Education Writer ~ November 2
Eliud Almaguer's House Burned as Duro Workers Tragedies Continue, The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras ~ November 1
Can Labor Change the World?" Labor Conference, Labor Notes ~ November 4
Myanmar Villagers Say Forced Labor Persists, Despite ILO Threat, AP ~ November 2
Report Says Global Accounting Firm Overlooks Factory Abuses, By Steven Greenhouse ~ Sept. 28
Re: "Two Cheers for Sweatshops": Letter to NYT Magazine Editor, By Tatyana Margolin & Todd Tucker ~ Sept. 27
Inside a Chinese Sweatshop: "A Life of Fines and Beating", Dexter Roberts and Aaron Bernstein ~ Sept 26
Thai Durable Workers in Fourth Month of Strike, Junya Yimprasert ~ Sept. 26
Re: Two Cheers for Sweashops: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudun, Michael Scimone ~ Sept. 26
Re: Two Cheers for Sweashops: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudun, Peter Micek ~ Sept. 26
Re: Two Cheers for Sweashops: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudun, Robert J.S. Ross ~ Sept. 26
Battle Goes Forward in Managua Real Signs of Progress, National Labor Committee ~ Sept. 25
Two Cheers for Sweatshops, By Nicholas D. Kristof And Sheryl Wudunn ~ Sept. 24
Activists Angry at Cal Student Store, Ian Umeda ~ Sept. 29
NLC Delegation Arrives in Nicaragua But Kernaghan Kept Out ~ Sept 21
Garment Makers' Compliance With Labor Laws Slips in L.A., By Nancy Cleeland ~ September 21
A "Fair Labor Practice " University Code of Conduct, SAWSJ
U.S. Labor News, Labor Alerts ~ September 19
Oregon Farmworkers: Gearing Up For Victory. Walk For Farmworker Justice. Mt. Olive Pickle Boycott. Student Action with Farmworkers Conference. Immigration Petition. Support Screen/TV/Radio Advertiser Strike
Real Reformers, Real Results, by Keith Meatto ~ September/October 2000
Nicaragua's Trade Zone: Battleground for Unions, David Gonzalez ~ Sept. 16
Over 2000 Workers Stage a Protest in Din Daeng, Junya Yimprasert ~ Sept. 16
CRISA Loses US Contract, Sues Its Workers, Labor Alerts ~ Sept. 16
Hopeful Sign In Nicaragua Campaign, Labor Alert ~ September 15
Rumblings of New Development in the Global Economy, Daniel Zwerdling, NPR ~ August 18
Global Labour Report Denounces Repression, Luc Demaret, (ICFTU) ~ Sept. 12
Two Advisors to Workers of Master Toy Company Ordered Arrested, Junya Yimprasert ~ Sept. 12
Campaign To Support Unions in Nicaragua's Las Mercedes Free Trade Zone Having Iimpact, Campaign for Labor Rights ~ Sept. 9
Modern-Day Slavery, September 9
Like Cutting Bamboo - Nike and Indonesian Workers' Right to Freedom of Association, Community Aid Abroad ~ September
The Story Of A Maquiladora Worker, By David Bacon ~ September 6
The Spirit of Thai Durable Workers In Their Demonstration, September 6
Nike Campaign: New Developments, Campaign for Labor Rights, September 1
Media Owners Fight Workers, Gov't On Wage Hike, By Muddassir Rizvi ~ Aug. 22
Coroners Inquest Needed into Death of Farm Workers, United Farm Workers ~ August 23
Just South Of Texas, Democracy Faces Its Hardest Test, By David Bacon ~ August 15
Message To Administrators: No Corporate University!, U.S.A.S. (Eugene, OR) ~ August 20
Anti-Sweatshop Activists Test Nike's "Living Wage" In Indonesia, Laura Castro ~ August 19
Duro Workers Win Union Registration, Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras ~ Aug. 15
Revitalized Unions Pour Money, Labor into Democratic Campaigns, Nancy Cleeland ~ Aug. 15
Employees Struggle To Overcome Cambodia's Sweatshop Conditions, St. Louis Post-Dispatch ~ August 14
Evergreen Campus "Food Fight" Ends In Student Victory, Kevin Pranis ~ August 11
New Report Exposes Key Issue in Verizon Contract Negotiations, Jobs with Justice ~ August 11
Communique From The Nike Truth Pilgrimage ~ August 9
Nike Truth Tour ~ On the Road Day 6, August 8
An Open Letter: Nike's Response To USAS's National Protest Against The Company ~ August, 2000
Nike Truth Tour ~ On the Road Day 5 ~ August 7
Verizon Workers Form Picket Lines as Talks Continue, By Simon Romero ~ August 7
Nike Truth Tour - On the Road Day 4 ~ August 6, 2000
Nike Truth Tour - On the Road Day 3 ~ August 5
Nike Truth Tour - On the Road Day 2 ~ August 4
Women Workers Expose And Protest Against Domestic Servitude Protest Demonstration, Center for Economic and Social Rights ~ August 3
Nike Truth Tour - Report from the Road Day 1, August 3
Strategy Shift Proposed For Nicaragua Campaign, Campaign for Labor Rights ~ August 2
Also see Pages on International Boycotts Against Walmart and 20th Century Film The Beach
S. Korean Police End Labor Protest
By JAE-SUK YOO, AP ~ December 27, 2000
ILSAN, South Korea (AP) - Riot police broke up a sit-in by thousands of striking bank workers Wednesday, but union leaders vowed to ignore government threats and push ahead with the work stoppage, which has shut down two major banks.
Columns of police armed with clubs and shields marched into the crowd of strikers in a bank training center where they had been holding their protest for six days. Officers scuffled with a few protesters, but the raid was mostly peaceful.
"Don't go back to work. Continue the fight,'' a strike leader shouted through a microphone as helmeted police herded the workers into groups, then pulled them one by one out of the facility in Ilsan, four miles north of Seoul.
Before the raid, police helicopters clattered overhead, the wind from their rotors tearing off the canvas walls of the workers' tents.
The operation came amid government fears that other workers would stage sympathy strikes, expanding the protest that has already become a major irritant to President Kim Dae-jung's economic reform program.
Fearing massive layoffs, the unions launched the strikes Friday to protest plans to merge South Korea's two major commercial banks, Kookmin and Housing & Commercial Bank.
The walkout has virtually shut down the two banks: Most of their 1,020 retail outlets, which handle one-fourth of the country's retail banking, have closed their shutters.
Some 15,000 union workers launched the protest. Since then, they have slept in tents in an arena or on thin Styrofoam boards in the Kookmin training institute, defying subzero temperatures as well as police orders to go home.
Over the holiday their numbers dwindled to around 7,000.
After the workers' eviction Wednesday, the government ordered strikers to report to work by the next day or face suspension and fines and said it would prosecute 10 union leaders.
But strike organizers said they would take a rest over the New Year's break and resume protests in 2001.
"We will continue our fight until the management repeals the merger plan,'' said Lim Chang-jin, a spokesperson for Housing & Commercial Bank.
Just before the police raid Wednesday, several hundred bank computer technicians slipped out of the Ilsan center and occupied a training center in Yoju, 25 miles southeast of Seoul. Police surrounded the building to keep other workers out.
Thousands of riot police deployed around schools and churches in Seoul to prevent workers from regrouping for more protests. Strike leaders said they planned to regroup at Korea University in the capital. Meanwhile, unions at some of the nation's other 20 banks were debating whether to stage sympathy walkouts Thursday.
The banks' merger ties in with economic reforms that grew out of the 1997-98
Asian currency upheaval, a crisis that forced South Korea to seek emergency funds from the International Monetary Fund. Most South Korean banks are struggling under huge debts incurred by the collapse of thousands of companies during the crisis.
The banks said their merger would create the largest bank in South Korea. They said their main foreign shareholders - Goldman Sachs of the United States and ING Insurance International BV of the Netherlands - led the merger.
President Kim's government has said painful restructuring is necessary to make the economy more competitive and transparent. But bank union leaders have accused the state of reneging on promises to avoid layoffs.
END
Jennifer Ehrlich, South China Morning Post ~ December 18, 2000
For the young women who eat, sleep and work inside the massive footwear factories on the outskirts of Dongguan City, it's a rare Sunday off.
With the plants closed for the day, the atmosphere in San Tun Industrial Park is festive. Pink, blue and red flags are strung from the factory gates. Pop songs pulse from a roller rink. The alleys, where vendors sell snacks to the tens of thousands of migrant workers who keep Guangdong province's factories running, smell of coal-burning barbecues.
Foreign investment - US$1.46 billion (about HK$11.4 billion) last year alone - has transformed the farm fields of Dongguan into one of the fastest-growing manufacturing cities in southern China, packed with miles of grey factory blocks, workers' dormitories and new highways that bring streams of cars and trucks roaring through it all.
Many of the women roaming the streets in pairs today wear plastic badges identifying them as among the thousands who work at the Yongsheng shoe factory. A Taiwanese company, Gongsheng Youxian, owns this plant and another nearby, both of which make the insides of brand-name athletic shoes for sale in other parts of Asia, Europe and the United States. Yongsheng is distinguished from the factories around it by a red-and-gold banner with gold characters that read: "Achieving Superior Working Standards With SA 8000."
SA 8000, or Social Accountability 8000, is a yardstick for socially responsible factory management modelled after ISO 9000, the International Organisation for Standardisation's benchmark for quality control. A New York-based group, Social Accountability International, set up the SA 8000 factory-monitoring system in 1997. It is an ambitious and internationally acclaimed programme aimed at improving labour conditions around the world by recognising, and thereby rewarding, factory managers who maintain decent working conditions.
But of the 57 factories around the world that are SA 8000-certified, 39 are in China. To become certified, a plant must open its doors and books to independent auditors who periodically inspect the facilities, identify problems and verify good labour conditions. Factories that make the grade are entitled to display the SA 8000 logo, gaining a competitive edge in bidding for contracts with image-conscious overseas companies.
Big corporations with brand names to protect are starting to invest in giving the impression they care whether factory workers in China have a day off. They have seen the bad press and boycotts US-based sportswear giants Nike and Reebok International have received after repeated exposes of child labour and sweatshop conditions at their subcontractors' factories across Asia.
Of even greater concern to multinationals is legal fallout. In September, the US Customs Service in Hong Kong investigated McDonald's after a Sunday Morning Post investigation revealed one of the fast-food chain's suppliers in Shenzhen - City Toys, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Pleasure Tech Holdings - employed children to make the Hello Kitty, Snoopy and Winnie the Pooh toys sold with McDonald's meals in the SAR and elsewhere.
Almost every company with overseas factories now has a workplace code of conduct pledging its anti-sweatshop ethic, and almost every company with such a policy has tried to protect itself by self-policing its suppliers' factories. SA 8000 is intended to be an improvement on corporate self-policing by holding the companies accountable to outside auditors. A couple of dozen organisations, sensing an opportunity to do well by doing good, have emerged to carry out the audits and inspections needed to certify factories.
Unfortunately, however, SA 8000 and similar programmes have so far largely failed to spot and improve deplorable working conditions, prompting labour activists to blast them as little more than publicity stunts. And now, even the factory-monitoring organisations themselves admit their audits often fail in mainland shoe, toy and clothing factories, where products are cheaply manufactured by a seemingly endless supply of migrant workers.
The Norwegian classification society Det Norske Veritas, which has investigated most of the Chinese factories displaying the SA 8000 banner, is so fed up it is prepared to pull out of SA 8000 audits in southern China altogether. Sangem Hsu Shuaijun, the head of the society's industrial activities in China, said enforcing fair labour standards in the chaotic industrial climate of southern China was impossible.
"You have in southern China all the factors working against the auditors," said Mr Hsu. "There are the multinationals, which want low labour costs; the factory managers, who don't like us because of fines for non-conformity; and even the local Chinese Government in many places, which wants this business and does not want it threatened. All this is working against the cause of the workers."
Det Norske Veritas gave the Yongsheng factory, where parts are made for such brand-name athletic shoes as Adidas and K-Swiss, its SA 8000 seal of approval. Yet Yongsheng workers said they were forced to work 12- to 14-hour days under a harsh system of fines, without sufficient food. The conditions at Yongsheng are typical of southern China and do not begin to approach the worst to be found in the region. As an SA 8000 factory, however, Yongsheng has been able to secure lucrative contracts with US-based companies, despite conditions that violate the SA 8000 standard and China's own labour laws.
"People faint on the factory floor sometimes because they are tired," said Cheng Ying, a 30-year-old Yongsheng worker from the southwestern province of Sichuan. "The hours are too long, and some girls can't take it."
Ms Cheng knew the work was going to be hard when she left her seven-year-old son with her husband on their farm and travelled thousands of kilometres to Dongguan City. She earns 400 yuan (about HK$370) a month but had expected to be paid for overtime during her first few months on the job.
Many women at Yongsheng said they paid for accommodation in a factory dormitory and three meals each day of food that is insufficiently nutritious to prevent some workers from occasionally fainting. Pay could be delayed, they said, and many feared fines - for accidents in workmanship, too many bathroom breaks, lateness, laziness, talking, arguing and spilling rice - that could easily eat up their meagre wages. The cost of getting sick was deducted from workers' pay packets, Ms Cheng said.
Lukars Chang Wenchun, responsible for carrying out SA 8000 audits at Yongsheng, said the factory was following the rules and that when auditors had found problems with working hours and wages, the problems had been fixed. The factory had stopped fining employees for mistakes, he said, but had previously deducted as much as 20 per cent of wages for mistakes on the job. "We are diligently trying to carry out SA 8000," said Mr Chang.
The failings of the SA 8000 programme have attracted the attention of labour rights groups, and a recent report entitled Made in China issued by the National Labour Council, a US-based human rights group, detailed abuses in a dozen Chinese factories making products for US-headquartered companies.
One SA 8000-certified factory highlighted in the council's report, Taiwanese-owned Zhongshan Chung Hoo Industrial, has subsequently had its certification suspended. Mr Hsu, of Det Norske Veritas, said the certification society was aware of the problems at this plant, and so revoked its certification, but added that the conditions at Zhongshan Chung Hoo were mirrored in factories across southern China.
"Right now, in labour-intensive industries in southern China, the SA 8000 standard cannot be enforced effectively. All of the factories that are SA 8000 and manufacture products for multinationals have been audited over and over again. We audit them, and often they have their own internal monitoring groups. But as with McDonald's and Nike and others, the factories always manage to find a way around the auditors."
Certification was a cat-and-mouse game, Mr Hsu said. To weed out factories where there was no intention of improving conditions, the certification society contacted its SA 8000-certified suppliers demanding accurate information about wages and working hours. Det Norske Veritas expected to lose 50 to 60 per cent of its SA 8000 business in China as a result.
SA 8000 auditors were being asked to assume an enforcement role that was more properly the responsibility of the state, according to Anita Chan, a sociologist at Australia National University who researches labour conditions in southern China. But in Dongguan, she said, officials had a conflict of interest in enforcing labour laws because local government entities were joint-venture partners in the factories. "There is a lot of money to be made by auditing, but the state should be enforcing its own laws. [That would be] much better than private companies coming in and doing it in a randomly funded manner."
Labour activists complain that no one has a business interest in seeing factory-monitoring programmes work or in China enforcing its own labour laws. Debate rages in the human rights community about whether factory monitoring programmes work and whether multinational companies intend for them to be anything other than window dressing.
Cheap labour was the reason the factories were on the mainland, and factory monitoring programmes were there to please consumers not protect workers, said Alice Kwan Ming-wai, a researcher at the Hong Kong-based Christian Industrial Committee, which monitors labour rights around Asia. "Since the workers are not involved in the audits, SA 8000 is strictly a thing between transnational companies and consumers. It is a publicity stunt."
SA 8000 is the latest in a long line of factory monitoring programmes at Yongsheng. Despite this - and even though the women working at Yongsheng knew they were making Adidas-brand shoes - Adidas was unaware it had any connection with the plant.
Only by initiating an investigation through Gongsheng Youxian, the Taiwanese company that owns its main supplier in Dongguan, did Adidas discover it uses Yongsheng for overflow production on an as-needed basis.
This situation arose even though Adidas has an ethical code that says each of its suppliers must have decent labour conditions. It also has a policy of sending inspectors to check.
An Adidas inspection team did visit the factory last month to follow up on queries from the Post, and spokesman David Husselbee described conditions there as "generally okay".
The company said the factory accepted women had fainted on the job, but due to mandatory morning exercises which have now been cancelled, not because of malnutrition.
Adidas is part of the US-based Fair Labour Association - which also includes Nike and Reebok - created in 1998 to set up still more independent monitoring systems.
Stephen Vickers, the Hong Kong-based managing director of PriceWaterhouseCoopers Investigations Asia, said factory monitoring needed to be supplemented by more than just spot visits and that companies did not invest enough money for social audits to realistically uncover problems and begin to solve them.
He said corporations tended to view labour issues as a box to check rather than as critical to their business. "The questions are: Does the client want to do this? Is there a budget? Does the auditor really have the ability to do it?"
Auditors acknowledge their visits are snapshots at best and rarely carry an element of surprise. For example, when SA 8000 auditors visit Chinese factories, their inspections are conducted every six months, like clockwork, and are announced in advance.
Mr Hsu, of Det Norske Veritas, said if Chinese factories complied with China's labour laws and the social audits, their labour costs would rise and companies would go elsewhere. "China has strong labour laws," he said. "But if the Chinese Government's laws were followed to the letter - including social benefits, vacations and eight-hour workdays - I don't think these factories would survive."
But Aron Cramer, the vice-president of San Francisco-based Business for Social Responsibility, disagreed. He said multinational companies would not cut and run so easily because, in a global economy, demands for transparency would only increase and companies would be forced to pay attention to labour conditions wherever they located their plants. Companies could use their business relationships as leverage to ensure adequate labour standards, and SA 8000 and other auditing programmes could be the tools for making sure this happened.
"The business relationship companies have with their suppliers can be a powerful tool. That can be overlooked," said Mr Cramer. "Some independent monitoring can create powerful incentives for suppliers."
Jennifer Ehrlich is a staff writer for the Post's news desk.
END
Plan Would Certify Working Conditions
Bruce Finley, Denver Post ~ November 26, 2000
Nov. 26, 2000 - A new national effort to give consumers information about conditions under which products are made is moving ahead with certification of monitoring groups to inspect 4,000 factories worldwide.
Eventually, companies and universities that agree to meet human rights standards will be able to put "fair labor" labels on their products, Sam Brown, executive director of the Washington, D.C. -based Fair Labor Association.
"Now a person has no way to know the conditions under which their goods are produced. And a lot of people, for reasons of conscience, want to know," said Brown, a former Colorado state treasurer.
"Working people in this country ought to have some concern about working people in other countries. The American people are pretty decent. Bottom line: Most Americans don't think of themselves as, don't want to be, exploiters of people in less powerful positions. We're going to give Americans a chance to act on their conscience."
The label won't go as far as guaranteeing no hardship in production of goods abroad. "Fair labor" will mean that a company has agreed to meet standards and is trying to comply, Brown said. "We hope consumers will discriminate in a way that rewards better labor practices." Companies would agree to:
· Ban forced labor and child labor.
· Ensure a safe and healthy working environment.
· Curb abuses of overtime such as not paying for it or compelling it.
· Avoid abuse quota systems that saddle workers with much more work than they can handle.
· Foster basic civil liberties, including freedom of association and collective bargaining, so that workers' rights to self-determination aren't impeded.
The effort began a few years ago when President Clinton invited human rights and business leaders to explore common ground at the White House.
Today, a dozen companies and 147 universities are participating in negotiations that would have them commit to internal monitoring plans aimed at meeting standards. Universities are involved because they put logos on sweatshirts and other products that usually are made abroad.
Companies also would allow external monitoring by groups accredited by the Fair Labor Association to inspect factories and verify that standards are met.
Supply chain auditing groups such as Amherst, Mass.- based Verite already have begun inspecting factories for companies, including many in China. Verite is a nonprofit group that relies on foundation and donor support, with companies paying one third of the audit costs up front.
Fair Labor Association leaders say they are discussing how to ensure the independence and integrity in the external audits. Meeting labor standards may cost companies money. Human rights advocates estimate consumers could face prices up to 5 percent higher for goods made in accordance with "fair labor" principles.
Other human rights groups such as the Workers Right Consortium favor a more confrontational approach to achieve corporate responsibility. Companies that refuse to identify where their products are made are targeted for pressure tactics including protests.
This past year, groups of activists drove around the United States stopping in Denver and other cities to protest in front of Nike stores -even though Nike is among the business leaders in setting up and enforcing labor codes of conduct in supplier factories abroad.
END
Kathie Lee Sweatshops, Part III
Oct. 31, 1999
Former talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford is in hot water over sweatshops again, but this time she's fighting mad and says she deserves "more than an apology" from the labor group that monitor sweatshop conditions. The fuss began September 20, when the National Labor Committee released a new report on El Salvador sweatshops where women work in abysmal conditions to sew Kathie Lee clothes and other garment lines sold by Wal-Mart and Kmart. Workers are paid below subsistence level for working up to 20 hour shifts, have no sick leave, must pay for pregnancy tests required by the company, and are subject to constant abuse, according to the findings.
Readers may recall our 1996 series, Santa's Little Sweatshop, which described how Gifford claimed to be "wiped out and devastated" over disclosure that clothes sold under her name were made in sweatshops in Honduras and just blocks from the studio where she appears daily. Gifford pledged to fight sweatshops everywhere in several high-profile phot-ops with President Clinton and other leaders. But less than a year later, investigators raided three Manhattan sweatshops where her clothing line was made.
Making the announcement about the newest batch of sweatshop discoveries was Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee and well-known in 1996 as the man "who made Kathie Lee Gifford cry." "I have a signed agreement by Kathie Lee stating that she would never again tolerate sweatshop conditions and that she would open them up for inspection by local religious and human rights leaders," said Kernaghan in a press release. "None of these promises have been kept."
Kernaghan said that neither Kathie Lee or actress Jaclyn Smith, who has a clothing line made in the same sweatshops, responded to workers' requests for meetings. "These two American celebrities have reaped millions from the sweat and toil of women in third world countries around the globe. They can afford these workers the dignity of at least hearing their complaints. We know from past experience that Kathie Lee will do little about abusive factory conditions, but at least hearing these workers out is within her control," said Kernaghan.
It was also predictable that Gifford would fight back with her own PR spin. At the September 22 National Labor Committee news conference her husband shouted down Kernaghan, according to the New York Daily News, the only newspaper that reported these events. "I resent what you have done to my wife," Frank Gifford confronted the labor activist. "You have assassinated her character." He complained that the criticism had driven their children to tears. Kernaghan later told reporters that her husband was on the same New York to D.C. flight and had tried to intimidate him.
Then in a 15-minute tirade the next day on "Live With Regis and Kathie Lee," Gifford herself addressed the issue to her nationwide audience. Her company has thousands of employees and she gives $1 million annually to charities. She has helped 250 disadvantaged children. "I'm looking around and I'm thinking I'm the only one who is trying to do the right thing... If I get so fed up with these vicious personal attacks against my integrity and my character, and I say, finally, 'You know what? Enough, let someone else take over this battle,'" she told viewers, as the studio audience applauded. "I would gladly, gladly give up my clothing line gladly, but I have a responsibility."
Gifford had an interview scheduled with the New York Daily News for the same day, but cancelled because she wanted to wait "until she has collected all the facts," a spokesperson told the Daily News. Asked whether he would apologize to Kathi Lee, Kernaghan told the Daily News, "Oh no, never. This isn't a personal thing. Wal-Mart owes an apology to these workers they have locked in factories around the world." Nor did he express much pity for the Gifford's plight. "It's not nice to have people make fun of you," he said. "But she still comes home to a mansion in Connecticut, and they're doing just fine." (October 31, 1999)
END
By Jeff Elliott (1996)
Over half the garment companies investigated by the Labor to be sweatshops. It's now officially "the holidays," which also means "the shopping season." Chances are that you're spending lots of money buying nice things for friends and family, and chances are that they're also purchasing nice things for you and yours.Come Christmas morning, pine trees in a million living rooms will be surrounded by cheerfully wrapped boxes.
But the items inside those boxes weren't made by Santa's merry elves. Chances are that something under your tree was made in a sweatshop -- quite probably, by the hands of children. If the gift is trendy clothes, the odds are high; if the gift is expensive running shoes, it's all but promised that the person earned just pennies for making them. More than ever before, sweatshops are booming. Over half the garment companies investigated by the Labor Department are found to be breaking laws -- and that's not even counting the manufacturers that have their work performed outside the U.S., where some governments condone (and even encourage) sweatshop conditions.
The Department of Labor estimates that there are over 10,000 sweatshops in this country. Where are America's sweatshops? The government's most recent list of violators show Southern California in the lead. It was also near L.A. where last year police found the worst situation in memory. In a guarded apartment compound surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, Thai women were working 17-hour shifts for less than $2 per day. That clothing was sold at department stores like Macy's, Mervyn's, and Montgomery Ward.
Although the New York City area is close behind L.A. in the number of sweatshops found, this isn't just another "big city problem;" Garland Texas, roughly the same size as the Santa Rosa/Rohnert Park area, consistently appears on the Department's list. (Pity the employees of Truong Sewing as they make clothes for the "de corp" label, and those slaving away at JNT Sewing/Laurel Ann, as they sew garments for Focus Apparel Group of Dallas.)
With its high immigrant population, Garland offers cheap labor, and sweatshops appear wherever cheap labor can be found. And in this country, that usually means near Asian and Hispanic communities -- no different from conditions that produced the illfamed turn-of-the-century sweatshops, where European immigrants toiled in near-slavery conditions. Although the barbed wire compound in L.A. was horrifying, news reports about it probably appeared in your newspaper's back pages -- if anything appeared at all. When sweatshops finally made the headlines last spring, it was because of a celebrity's tearful claims of innocence.
Talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford held a weepy press conference after it was revealed that her Kathie Lee clothing line, sold by Wal-Mart, was made by sweatshop workers in Honduras. That was just the beginning; soon it was revealed that some of the clothes were also made in a New York City sweatshop, just blocks from the studio where she appeared daily. And although the workers there were earning less than minimum wage, they hadn't been paid in weeks. Husband Frank Gifford appeared at the sweatshop with $9,000 in cash for the unpaid workers. With cameras rolling, he said his wife was too "wiped out and devastated" to appear at the shop herself, and apologized for the both of them. Wal-Mart also issued a press release stating that it deplored sweatshops -- and would compensate the Giffords for any expense.
With the help of a top-notch PR firm, Kathie Lee began repairing her tarnished image, transforming Gifford into a labor activist, sworn to fight sweatshops everywhere. The campaign was launched with help from an extremely sympathetic report presented by ABC's "PrimeTime Live." Why did the network rush to save Gifford's image? Norman Solomon pointed out in his Media Beat column that both ABC and her talk (sic "former") show are owned by the Walt Disney Company -- a corporation with much to lose should the public become too upset about sweatshops.
As the Monitor reported in January, Disney and other corporations have depended upon sweatshops in Haiti to sew Pocahontas pajamas and other Disney theme clothing, where workers are paid just 12 cents an hour. But if there were any doubts about the working conditions in the sweatshop that made Gifford's clothing, reporters had the opportunity to hear a first-hand report from Wendy Diaz, a worker from the factory in Honduras. Although only 15 year-old, Diaz said she had worked at the factory since she was 13. Managers often grabbed women and girls, she said, and she was only allowed to go to the bathroom twice in her 11-hour shift. She made $3.74 for her long day's work.
Few reporters covered Diaz that day, however; at another press conference, a dry-eyed Kathie Lee was standing next to then New York Governor Pataki, supporting a state ban on apparel made in sweatshops. "I am proud to stand with Governor Pataki if it can advance efforts to end substandard working conditions," Gifford stated. At about the same time, Wendy Diaz was telling other reporters what she thought Mrs. Gifford's efforts. "Kathie Lee hasn't done enough because the mistreatment continues," Diaz said.
Gifford's media blitz worked. Photos of her with Pataki, then later, President Clinton, shot across the wire services. Network news programs broadcast sound bites from her Congressional testimony on child labor -- although curiously, there wasn't TV coverage of Diaz and human-rights advocates telling Congress that Eddie Bauer, J. Crew, and Kmart likewise sold clothing made by underage Honduran workers. Besides the Kathie Lee clothing, they said, Wal-Mart's Jaclyn Smith signature line was also made by sweatshop children. The story became more about Gifford's redemption than hellish sweatshop conditions -- all the better for columnists to joke that her tearful protests were a welcome change from her singing and peppy talk show chit-chat.
Called "the guy who made Kathie Lee cry," labor activist Charles Kernaghan relentlessly pushed Gifford and Wal-Mart to accept responsibility for the sweatshops. The corporations play down sweatshops overseas and will "just push our ignorance as far as they can go," Kernaghan said during an interview at his New York City office.
Denial is the first line of defense used by the companies, he said. Kernaghan said that manufacturer Eddie Bauer refused to admit that it used the same Honduran sweatshop as Gifford's clothing line until he produced a Honduran worker who actually made the clothes. Nor does Kernaghan believe that the manufacturers are ignorant of working conditions. "A company like Wal-Mart, for example, is very hands-on. Companies monitor the quality of these garments -- they don't put $10 million worth of fabric into a factory in El Salvador -- Liz Claiborne also has these giant factories in El Salvador that they contract with -- they don't put the fabric in there and walk away and say, "hey, we'll see you six months from now." They're in there every single day -- looking at the quality. If they wanted to do sweatshop monitoring they could do monitoring.
"And in fact, what we said to the Kathie Lee Gifford and the Wal-Mart people -- they were in that factory in Honduras, Global Fashions, six times to do inspections. How could they miss the locks on the bathrooms? How could they miss 130 kids working in the plant? How could they miss the armed guards? How could they miss the tension, the lack of water?"
Another defense used by manufacturers is the problem's immense scope. At a midsummer industry conference, a representative from Nordstrom said that the department store has 65,000 contractors which change continually -- how could they keep track of everyone? But as Labor Secretary Robert Reich has pointed out, sweatshops are fairly easy to spot -- just look for dirt cheap prices. When a manufacturer buys something from a subcontractor at a steeply-discounted price, chances are that there's a little guy, somewhere, that's getting screwed. Increasingly, that "somewhere" will be in the very poorest countries found anywhere. Sixty percent of the world's clothing is now made in developing countries, with China alone making about 13 percent of the global supply.
Estimates of the number of children working have doubled to 250 million. More than ever before, sweatshops cover the globe. Last month, the International Labor Organization (ILO) released a study that shows a dramatic shift of work from Europe and North America to Asia and the developing world. In countries like Malaysia, the number of workers making shoes, clothes, and fabrics have increased 600 percent since 1970. By contrast, over half of the clothes-making jobs in countries like Germany and England are gone. According to the ILO study, there is also a steady "shift of full-time in-plant jobs to part-time and temporary jobs and, especially in clothing and footwear, increasing recourse to home work and small shops." In other words: even more sweatshops.
Countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Indonesia are also home to businesses that run sweatshops in still poorer countries like Laos, Nepal and Vietnam. Indonesia serves as a typical example. While the country spends billions to build a glittering hi-tech future, it keeps wages competitive with countries like Haiti. Just earlier this year, Indonesia's Ministry of Manpower approved a complex, multi-tiered increase in the minimum wage -- bringing the average paycheck up to about two bucks per day.
And it's no coincidence that countries with the cheapest labor are also places where child labor is heaviest. According to another ILO survey, some 61 percent of child workers --nearly 153,000,000 young souls -- are found in Asia. All told, some 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working, more than double the estimates of a few years ago.
Don't believe that you're Christmas gifts are sweatshop free as long as you stay away from clothes, however. As Kernaghan described, "sweatshops are absolutely not limited to apparel. Sporting goods, electronics, shoes, sneakers, agricultural products, coffee, bananas -- you name it -- it's made under some pretty rough conditions." "Subcontractors are promised that there will be a military contingent no more than 10 minutes away to handle labor problems"
Besides clothes, some of the conditions involving shoe makers are most controversial. In particular, the situation with Nike promises to be even more controversial in coming months than last summer's Kathie Lee melodrama. Nike CEO Phil Knight joined Kathie Lee Gifford in her visit with President Clinton, promising Nike would join a group of "responsible" corporations that would study a range of international labor issues. Knight is also vocal about the benefits he brings to countries like Indonesia where povery is extreme. "Whether you like Nike or don't like Nike, good corporations are the ones that lead these countries out of poverty," Knight in a recent Washington Post interview. "When we started in Japan, factory labor there was making $4 a day, which is basically what is being paid in Indonesia and being so strongly criticized today. Nobody today is saying, 'The poor old Japanese.' We watched it happen all over again in Taiwan and Korea, and now it's going on in Southeast Asia."
Hogwash, say Nike critics. The company is no kindly benefactor; Phil Knight's flinty heart would make Mr. Scrooge proud. Michael Moore lists Knight as his #3 "corporate criminal" in his best-selling book, "Downsize This!" Moore also jokes (?) that his next film will be called "Phil & Me," as he torments Nike's CEO as he earlier did the head of General Motors. Knight's claims of corprate beneficence are easy to dispute. Nike began operations in Japan during the early '60's -- when four bucks was worth, well, four bucks. Japan does not allow children to work; in parts of Indonesia, half of the children do. And workers interviewed in Indonesia say that yes, they're making $4 per day -- but that's because they're also working about 12 hours a day.
Max White, a member of Global Exchange and a leader of a group calling for a Nike boycott, recently visited Indonesia, where he met a woman who was paid about a week's wages after her hand was permanently crushed by a factory machine. White and others say that Nike relies on Indonesia's ruthless dictatorship to keep workers in line. "Subcontractors are promised that there will be a military contingent no more than 10 minutes away to handle labor problems," White was told.
White told the Campaign for Labor Rights that Nike will follow Indonesian companies as they move into the poorest nations in search of ever-cheaper labor. "I am convinced that Nike and Reebok are on the point of pulling out of Indonesia and going to Vietnam, just as they pulled out of Korea and went to Indonesia and China in the early 90's. Nike and Reebok are now doing only month-to-month contracting in Indonesia because they are preparing to leave. "One reason we feel obliged to increase the pressure on Nike, through a boycott, is to try to prevent Nike from continuing its cut-and-run policy whenever the minimum wage in a given country even begins to approach what the workers require for a reasonable life."
Nike will also likely draw fire because of celebrity spokesperson Michael Jordan. Paid about $20 million a year to endorse company shoes, the basketball star has expressed indifference to the situation in Indonesia. In June, he was quoted as saying, "I don't know the complete situation. Why should I? I'm trying to do my job. Hopefully, Nike will do the right thing, whatever that might be." A letter writing campaign to Jordan is currenty underway, asking him to demand fair wages and worker treatment from Nike.
Little reform will happen unless independent observers can monitor conditions So what's to be done? At least two things must happen to improve the current situation, almost everyone agrees. An important role is played by you, the consumer. Boycott companies that are known to use sweatshop labor, and don't buy from chain stores that promote those products. Let your local stores know why you're no longer shopping there. Write to celebrities like Michael Jordan, urging them to use their considerable clout to improve conditions.
While grassroot action can motivate change, little reform will happen unless independent observers can monitor conditions, interviewing workers without company goons or soldiers interfering. And corporations (as well as many governments) are fighting against this bitterly. "The industry has gotten a lot more canny," believes Trim Bissell of Campaign for Labor Rights, a watchdog group. "Now, instead of refusing to agree to independent monitoring, they simply announce compliance while trotting out a new and improved version of same-old-same-old self-monitoring or monitoring via private firms answerable to the transnationals. Many people will be confused by the new industry strategy."
As an example, Bissell notes that Reebok has proposed a joint venture with Nike to monitor working conditions of their own subcontractors. Says Bissell, "Such an assertion flies in the face of everything we know about the industry. It's definitely a buyer's (shoe company's) game. The Nikes and Reeboks of the world call all the shots. They dictate the price per item which virtually guarantees that the consumer goods we buy were made under exploitative conditions. Which leads to the central contradiction in Reebok's plan: a classic case of the fox guarding the chicken coop.
"What is at stake here is the core issue of the international labor rights movement. Companies like Nike and Reebok know that they can issue the most flowery codes of conduct in the world or they can join the Labor Department in producing guidelines for a "no sweat" label -- as long as they get to pick who will check up on their (non)compliance."
Nike shareholders rejected independent monitoring during the annual meeting this September, as Nike security guards and sheriff's deputies kept Max White and other critics away from the Beaverton, Oregon meeting. Shareholders also were told that quarterly revenue had topped $2 billion for the first time in Nike's history, and that future orders for the next five months were up a record 66 percent.
Labor Secretary Robert Reich continues to promote the Administration's "No Sweat" campaign, which it began stepping up garment enforcement in 1993. Since then, the Labor Department boasts that it has recovered more than $10 million in wages for more than 34,000 garment workers. But critics say that the Department of Labor is too easily appeased by corporate promises to monitor conditions themselves. And even companies that do write ethical codes for their subcontractors often omit one important freedom from their list: the right of workers to organize a union.
Looking back on the brutal business of sweatshops, it seems like we've come full circle. At the turn of the last century, workers slaved long hours. They were not allowed to use bathrooms, talk, or take breaks -- exactly the same as conditions spreading today around the world. At the close of our century, it seems that we've made no progress at all. But after a horrific sweatshop fire in 1911, public outrage grew. Consumers demanded proof that no one suffered or died to make their clothes. The National Consumers League "white label" guaranteed that factory laws were obeyed and no one was required to take work home -- where it was likely to be done by children. From these roots and this consumer anger, the labor union movement became something that could no longer be ignored.
If only voters and shoppers could see the faces of those millions and millions of workers in Indonesia, L.A., Garland, Texas, and other sweatshop hotspots, then perhaps that the situation today will likewise bring about a new movement born of outrage. Think of those faces while Christmas shopping. Each of them has more important things to do than wasting their childhood as slaves for Kathie Lee, Wal-Mart, Disney, or the next corporation waiting in the wings.
END
U.S. Military Clothing Supplier Sued
(AP) ~ Dec. 7
A Nicaraguan garment factory that supplies discounted clothing to American soldiers imposes sweatshop conditions and starvation wages on its workers, a lawsuit filed Tuesday contends. The lawsuit, filed by labor-rights attorneys in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeks punitive damages against the Chentex factory and its Taiwan-based parent, Nien Hsing. It contends Nien Hsing pays workers at the plant less than 20 cents for each pair of blue jeans sewn. The jeans retail for between $25 and $30, but workers receive what amounts to less than 30 cents an hour.
At a Tuesday news conference, a sweatshop watchdog group said the jeans are sold to American military personnel through the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which supplies servicemen and women. According to the National Labor Committee for Human Rights, the service imported 64 tons of blue jeans made at the Nicaraguan plant last July, August and September alone.``This factory in Nicaragua actually presents the true face of the global economy,'' said Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the watchdog. "It's one of oppression, starvation wages, mass firings, blacklisting, union busting and enormous corporate greed.''
Pentagon officials admit to doing business with the company, but they say they found no evidence of poor working conditions when a delegation visited the Chentex plant several weeks ago. "We do business with them,'' said Capt Eric Hilliard, public affairs officer for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. "We went down there, checked it out, and we saw that things were up to par.''
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service is one of the world's largest retailers, operating 1,423 stores on U.S. military bases nationwide. It had $7.3 billion in sales last year. Kernaghan said he uncovered the link to the Pentagon while reviewing the company's sales documents. Several American department stores -- including Kohl's, Kmart, Wal-Mart, Target and J.C. Penney -- also had garment contracts with the company. Since last spring, the National Labor Committee has staged numerous demonstrations outside various Kohl's stores, demanding that the company cut its ties with the Nicaraguan plant. More protests are planned elsewhere, Kernaghan said.
Two congressional Democrats, Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Ohio Rep. Sherrod Brown, also attended the news conference. Brown traveled to Nicaragua in July and vouched for the deplorable treatment of the garment workers. McKinney, who in October introduced legislation that would require U.S. corporations to disclose information about their overseas operations, asked the General Accounting Office to conduct a study. "We have to understand these goods come to us at a tremendous human cost, and it's not necessary,'' said McKinney, who sits on the Armed Services and International Relations committees. Kernaghan said the Nicaraguan workers are asking for just eight cents more per garment -- a raise he says would raise them from "misery to poverty.'' "How in the world can we spent $60 billion on Star Wars and not be able to pay eight cents more for a pair of jeans?'' McKinney said.
On the Net: Nien Hsing site, National Labor Committee for Human Rights and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service
END
Nicaraguan Factory Hit With Labor Suit
By Joanna Ramey ~ Dec. 7
A group of lawyers involved in human rights cases joined with apparel union UNITE Tuesday in suing the California subsidiary of a Nicaraguan apparel contractor that has been the target of sweatshop allegations. The case, described as precedent-setting by attorneys involved, seeks unspecified reparations from C&Y Sportswear Inc., the U.S. branch of Nicaraguan jeans maker Chentex Garments. Michael Ratner, an attorney for the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, said the lawsuit is the first to be filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act. The act is an internationally recognized law under which cases of human rights abuses involving executions, torture and forced labor have been successfully waged.
The lawsuit argues that alleged labor violations at Chentex are tantamount to human rights violations and thus are covered by the act. "In this day and age of globalization, this [lawsuit] might be even more important" beyond Chentex, Ratner said at a news conference in Washington. Chentex allegedly produces jeans for several retailers, including Kohl's and Wal-Mart, as well as the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which operates retail stores on military bases, according to Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee.
Kernaghan, a longtime anti-sweatshop sleuth, said the Chentex story shows the "true face" of the global economy. "We're just scratching the surface here," said Kernaghan, who will be leading an anti-sweatshop demonstration down New York's Fifth Avenue tonight. The NLC's inquiry into Chentex sparked the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and announced at a news conference on Capitol Hill. "This suit could have profound implications for the apparel industry," said Alan Howard, UNITE assistant to the president, who attended the news conference.
Chentex has been under fire since May, the target of labor rights groups who allege 700 unionized workers at the 1,750-worker plant were illegally fired for seeking an 8-cent hourly wage increase. They also claim maltreatment of workers on the job and blacklisting and assaults of fired workers. The Chentex case even prompted U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky in October to single out the company in a letter to Nicaraguan officials for failing to follow Nicaraguan labor codes. Barshefsky warned Nicaraguan officials that the U.S. could withdraw trade benefits if conditions at Chentex don't improve.
Carlos Yin, chief administrator at Chentex, in a phone interview disputed claims in the lawsuit and those made by Kernaghan. Yin said 700 workers were not fired. Rather, 12 workers were dismissed, after review by Nicaraguan labor officials, for holding an illegal demonstration inside the factory during working hours, he claimed. He also defended Chentex worker pay, saying the average worker makes $150 a month, which he said is higher than most competitors in the country.
Chentex is also under fire from Capitol Hill lawmakers. Reps. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) and Cynthia McKinney (D., Ga.) said Tuesday they plan to ask the General Accounting Office to investigate the Army and Air Force Exchange Service and how it determines where to buy apparel. The Pentagon branch operates 1,400 stores and had $7.3 billion in sales last year. "We need to know the conduct being engaged by AAFES, which is in the name of everyone in the U.S.," said Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D., Ga.), at the news conference. However, AAFES found nothing amiss at Chentex during an August inspection, said Captain Eric Hilliard.
While Wal-Mart officials couldn't be reached for comment, a spokeswoman with Kohl's said a review by outside auditors of Chentex earlier in the year found some "deficiencies" in workplace safety, which were then corrected. The Kohl's spokeswoman said Chentex's wages meet Kohl's contractor guidelines, which require workers be paid the local minimum wage or prevailing industry wage, whichever is higher. As far as the Chentex labor dispute, she said: "It is not our role to be involved in labor disputes between third-party employers and their employees."
END
Regressive Bargaining Confronts Public Sector Union Coalition
Public Sector Union Coalition ~ Dec. 6
A coalition of unions (International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers Local 17, Teamsters 117, and Service Employees International Union 519) have been in wage negotiations with King County for the past two years. Over an 18 month period, slow but steady progress was made which was memorialized in a series of tentative agreements.
In July 2000, a new lead negotiator took over for management. Things went downhill quickly. At this point, the employer has repudiated the tentative agreements, engaged in direct dealing by sending wage proposals directly to union members, and embarked upon a belligerent regressive bargaining campaign including:
*stripping overtime eligibility from hundreds of employees; and
*increasing the work week 15% without a corresponding pay increase.
*cutting pay rate increases by 50%.
Many may remember that this is the same employer which engaged in a brutal series of unfair labor practices against IFPTE Local 17 shop stewards and then sought a judicial gag order to try and stop Local 17 from publicizing those abuses. At the time, the thousands of e-mails from our supporters was instrumental in getting the gag order request rescinded.
Today we are requesting that our supporters send polite but firm e-mails saying:
"Stop the regressive bargaining, give them a fair Class/Comp settlement."
Please send your e-mails to: SAM.PAILCA@METROKC.GOV
and CC: them to solidarity2001@netscape.net
END
Four Shot Dead in Bangladesh Strike
(BBC) ~ Dec. 5
At least four people have been killed and over 100 wounded after Bangladeshi police opened fire on striking dock workers at the port of Mongla. About 2,000 dock workers have been on strike since Friday to try to force the authorities to employ more casual workers. Trouble began on Tuesday morning after a union leader was arrested. Dock workers demanding the release of their leader clashed with the police, who fired tear gas and bullets on the stone-throwing protestors. Police say they opened fire in self-defence against the angry workers, some of whom, they say, were carrying firearms. But union leaders say that the police opened fire on their peaceful demonstration, without provocation.
END
Military Post Exchanges Are Selling Sweatshop Goods
By Jon Fremont ~ December 4
Phone: (202) 225-1605
"Our government is supporting and coddling sweatshop labor" Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) a member of the Armed Services Committee and ranking member of the International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee criticized the Army and Airforce Exchang Service (AAFES) policy of purchasing goods from overseas sweatshops. "Workers at the Chentex factory in Nicaragua are paid 18 cents per pair of jeans that are sold to AAFES. Workers there were fired for seeking an 8-cent wage increase.
As a major purchaser of clothing from this factory, and as a governmental agency, the AAFES must put pressure on the Chentex factory to honor this modest increase in pay. "Evidence showing that the AAFES is a major purchaser of sweatshop made goods is deeply troubling," stated McKinney. "The US government is supposed to be a force for good in the world, not an enabler of oppression. The American people need to know that taxpayer money is being used to sponsor the degradation of labor rights and human rights abroad. Surely our Department of Defense, which pays $500 for a hammer, could afford an 8 cent increase in a pair of jeans. The United States government is the last place that should be supporting and coddling sweatshops labor and the violation of human rights," said McKinney.
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is the author and sponsor of the Corporate Code of Conduct Act (HR 4596). This legislation gives strict guidelines for US companies to follow in their overseas operations in terms of labor rights, human rights, and environmental protection. "The US needs to stand up for worker rights abroad," concluded McKinney.
AAFES Statement
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
I would like to commend the work of Charlie Kernaghan and the National Labor Committee for calling this important press conference. I would also like to thank my friend and colleague Representative Sherrod Brown for all the work he has done on behalf of worker rights and human rights around the world, and in particular, for the workers of the Chentex factory in Nicaragua. The National Labor Committee has revealed some troubling information today. Unfortunately, I was not surprised when I learned about the two faces of the US government. How could I be surprised, when I see the human rights legacy of the Clinton Administration to the oppressed and indigenous peoples of the world;
* decreased emphasis on human rights;
* increased US corporate global penetration;
* more wretchedness for the already wretched of the earth;
* a loss of America's moral soul.
The plight of the workers in the Chentex factory is not an isolated incident. This is happening all over the world. What kind of message is the US sending to developing nations in our trade strategy? On the one hand, Charlene Barshefsky asked Nicaragua to clean up its act, and respect the rights of the workers in the Chentex factory. On the other hand, the US military is one of the largest purchasers from that very same factory. So now we have the USTR saying one thing, and the Pentagon doing another.
The US speaks then with forked tongue, and the lives of the poor workers do not improve. It must make the US look like a hypocrite, if we talk about human rights, worker rights, and then have the AAFES buy millions of dollars of goods from Chentex, in a way that violates those very principles. The message sent is that not only does the US government tolerate sweatshops, it supports sweatshops. The actions of AAFES undermine our ability as a nation to promote American values abroad. AAFES should become a model of human and worker rights. AAFES should set the standard for US companies.
Our quality of life in the US is unnecessarily bound to making more miserable the quality of life of the wretched of the earth. So now we call upon AAFES to respect and follow its own core values:
a. Integrity
b. Trust
c. Accountability
d. compassion
I ask AAFES in particular, to exercise its conscience, say that slave labor, sweatshop labor, child labor are abhorrent practices that run counter to everything that we as a nation stand for. The combination of the pitiful low Chentex wage and the paltry amount being asked for by the workers is terrible but illustrative of our point. They don't want to give the workers another 8 cents. This coming from a military which spends billions of taxpayer dollars without batting an eyelash. Paying $500 for a hammer, spending $60 Billion on the Star Wars program, and calling for another $60 Billion for deployment of a system that doesn't work. In the end it will cost every family of four in the United States $1,760.56. This same military tells us they can't spare another 8 cents more for a pair of jeans.
It seems these companies react to unions like slaveholders reacted to slave revolts; but time is not on the companies' side. These conditions are not sustainable and the people will fight back, and when they do, they'll have the support of people like us. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said; "Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere." We wouldn't stand for this kind of behavior in America. In today's global economy, thanks to reckless pursuit to sit atop the globalization heap, it's increasingly difficult for conscientious shoppers to know that what they're buying has zero content sweatshop labor.
That's why I introduced the Corporate Code of Conduct Act. This legislation would assure the American people that no US Corporation is receiving subsidies and then going abroad and violating human rights. If these companies aren't careful, "Workers of the World, Unite" won't be just a hackneyed, out of date slogan. It'll mean survival for people of conscience and for the wretched of the earth. After this press conference today, Sherrod Brown, other concerned colleagues and myself will send a letter to the Department of Defense requesting a briefing from AAFES. We will call for a GAO investigation into the labor and worker practices of AAFES. We will hold them to their core values, and press them to use their influence at the Chentex factory to reinstate the workers fired because the chose to exercise their right to unionize. Furthermore, the bogus charges against the 11 brave union leaders must be dropped. I plan to contact Chentex directly about these allegations, and travel to Nicaragua to see the situation at the factory first hand.
Actions:
* Briefing From AAFES
* GAO Investigation into AAFES
* Travel to Nicaragua
* Call to Chentex
* Ask Chentex to
a) reinstate workers
b) drop charges against 11 union leaders
END
Critics Calling U.S. Supplier in Nicaragua a 'Sweatshop'
By Steven Greenhouse, New York Times ~ December 3
An arm of the Pentagon has come under fire for procuring large quantities of apparel from a Nicaraguan factory that labor rights groups say is a sweatshop and that the United States trade representative has voiced serious concerns about. Several members of Congress say it is wrong for the Pentagon agency, which runs 1,400 stores at military bases and made $7.3 billion in sales last year, to obtain apparel from the Chentex factory, which a Nicaraguan union has accused of firing more than 150 union supporters. In an unusually stern letter, The United States trade representative, Charlene Barshefsky, warned the Nicaraguan government in October that the United States might rescind some trade benefits unless it moved to ensure that Chentex complied with labor laws.
Labor rights groups in the United States have mounted an intense campaign against Chentex, a factory with 1,800 workers that is owned by the Nien Hsing Textile Company, after Nicaraguan workers accused the company of illegal firings. Many workers also complain about low pay, monitored bathroom visits, large amounts of mandatory overtime and being screamed at and occasionally hit bymanagers. Cynthia A. McKinney, Democrat of Georgia, who sits on the procurement subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, said it was wrong for one federal agency, the Pentagon, to buy large amounts of apparel from Chentex while another, the trade representative's office, had singled out the factory for criticism.
Representative McKinney and several other House members are working closely with a labor rights group that has obtained shipping documents showing that the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, a nonprofit Pentagon arm that runs the post exchanges, is one of the Chentex's largest customers. Other major customers have included the retailers Wal-Mart and Kohl's. "The United States government is the last place that should be supporting and coddling sweatshop labor and the violation of human rights," Ms. McKinney said. Labor rights groups and several House members say the Chentex battle is important because it seeks to upgrade wages and working conditions in poor nations at a time when the American economy is importing more goods than ever and American companies are relocating operations to low-wage countries.
Fred Bluhm, a spokesman for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, said that in light of the many criticisms of Chentex the exchange service sent officials to Nicaragua to examine the Chentex operation. "Our representative who went there found no problems," he said. Carlos Yin, the general manager of Chentex, said in a telephone interview that his company treats its workers well. He accused the union of exagerating problems and he insisted that only 12 union supporters had been fired, all of them union leaders. He said they were dismissed legally, asserting that it was the union leaders who had broken the law by calling a one-hour work stoppage and two-day strike without the workers' approval. "We didn't do anything wrong," Mr. Yin said. "Nicaraguan law protects the workers very strong, and we can't go against the law."
But Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee, a New York-based labor rights group, said the company dismissed far more than 100 union supporters after they went on strike demanding a 40 percent wage increase. At a factory that sews 35,000 pair of jeans a day, employees earn about 20 cents for the work they put into a pair of jeans that often sell retail for $30 in the United States. The workers, in effect, demanded to be paid 8 cents more per pair.
Mr. Yin, the factory manager, said all of his workers earn at least the minimum wage, which union leaders say is set unrealistically low in developing countries in order to attract foreign investment. Last summer, Representative Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, visited Nicaragua and met mother who worked at Chentex 60 hours a week, while her husband worked at another Nien Hsing factory for 70 hours a week, and yet they lived in a hut with a dirt floor. "The couple had a 3-year-old daughter with discolored tips of her hair, probably from a protein deficiency," he said. "These are people who work 60, 70 hours a week, and their standard of living is just abysmal."
Mr. Brown, who got 67 House members to sign a letter to President Clinton last July about conditions at Chentex and another Nicaraguan factory, Mil Colores, said he would hold a news conference this week criticizing the Army and Air Force Exchange Service. I'm outraged that American taxpayers are being made part of this sweatshop global economy in this way," he said.
END
Exploitation of Foreign Workers Decried
By Robert F. Smith, Herald ~ December 2
Many of the items consumers purchase this time of year are produced with the exploitation of foreign workers, founders of the Olympic Living Wage Project said in Brattleboro on Friday. This was the message the founders of the Project delivered to more than 300 area elementary and high school students at the Second Annual Child Labor Education and Action Conference. Organizers of the conference at the School for International Training said consumers had a role to play in stopping the exploitation. At least 16 schools from Vermont and Massachusetts had students attending the conference, including Austine School, Brattleboro High School and Middle School, Wilmington, Putney School and Green Mountain High School.
The event was sponsored by the Brattleboro High School's chapter of the labor conference. The conference chairwoman, Senior Laura Freeman, said that this year's attendance was more than double that of last year's program. Other CLEA members Willie Gould, Colin Robinson and Rob Curry-Smithson said they were very pleased with the turnout and were hoping to see several other schools form CLEA chapters as a result. Freeman said it was one of the main reasons they were having the program early in the school year, to allow students time to organize in their schools. "We really want people to understand that no local action against child labor is too small," Freeman said. "Just being aware of this is already an important part of the fight toward ending sweat shops."
Featured speakers for the conference, Jim Keady, a former professional soccer player and college coach, and Leslie Kretzu, a documentary filmmaker, created the Olympic Living Wage Project to try to make changes in the way major multi-national clothing corporations treat their overseas work force. Keady said that he felt the way these corporations operate "undermines the ideals" which the Olympics claims to stand for.While many of these companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising, often using sports heroes like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods to sell their products, they also use third world labor forces working 12 hour days in sweat shops for pennies a day to make the products, Keady and Kretzu said. "We need to help the people who are being exploited by the companies in our country," Kretzu told the students. "You can do something about it. You have the power."
One of the main things Keady and Kretzu emphasized to the students at the conference was the need to get people to think about what they are buying and where it has come from, to shop with an informed conscience. "When you go Christmas shopping, think about those workers on the other side of the world," Kretzu said. "You need to constantly ask the question, 'Why?' Why is there so much child labor in so many countries?" Keady said that each person has to look at their own personal responsibility in encouraging sweat shop labor conditions by the way they spend their money. "Look at yourself in the mirror and ask, 'Am I part of the problem, or am I part of the solution?'" he said. "I have the feeling, because I've been there myself, that we'll see that we're all part of the problem."
Kretzu said that cheap labor supplied by some 250 million workers in third world countries - many of them women and children - allows these firms to make large profits for their shareholders and company officers, some of whom have created personal fortunes in the billions of dollars. Keady told how, as a coach at St. John's University, he had been forced to resign in June of 1998 because of his refusal to wear equipment provided by Nike. Following that, he offered to go and work at a third world Nike factory, an offer the company refused. Instead, he and Kretzu decided to travel to Indonesia on their own, live with the Nike workers, and film the experience for a documentary. They lived with Nike workers in Tangerang, Indonesia, a suburb of Jakarta, for a month, eating the food the workers ate, sharing their quarters, using the same wages to survive. It was a harrowing and eye-opening experience, they said. "Some people will tell you that these are great jobs for 'those' people," Keady said. "But I know those aren't great wages for anyone, that no one can live comfortably on $1.25 a day. I was terribly hungry, tired, exhausted everyday. I lost 25 pounds in one month."
Kretzu and Keady showed a short video they had made from 45 hours of film they shot while in Indonesia. They said it was dangerous for many workers to appear on film, as there is fear of violent reprisals or loss of jobs and income. During the afternoon, there were workshops for the students at the conference, dealing with the problem of child labor and sweat shops and what can be done about them. Keady and Kretzu urged students to write their congressional representatives, to discuss labor issues in class, publicize and educate others about the issue, and for student athletes to tape over company logos on their equipment and tell others why they did it. "We are asking people to be rebels," Keady said. "You can be a rebel. You can be different and not go along with the mainstream, not go along with the consumer mentality. You can say, 'I want to change the world, I want to leave a legacy.'"
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Activists Allege Labor Violations
Liu Shao-hua, Tapei Times ~ Dec. 2
WORKERS' RIGHTS: Union activists asked the foreign ministry to investigate claims that a Taiwanese-owned factory in Nicaragua has trampled the rights of workers, an allegation the company strenuously denies.
Around 70 union activists yesterday appealed "for the sake of both human rights and Taiwan's reputation" to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to look into alleged violations of labor rights by Chentex textile factory in Nicaragua.
Chentex, a Taiwanese factory owned by Taipei-based Nien Hsing Textile Co Ltd, was criticized by US activists and local union workers for violating labor rights.
Ten activist representatives who went to the ministry told Lin Ki-tseng , vice minister of foreign affairs, and Huang Nan-huei, director general of economic and trade affairs, that Chentex's notoriety had become an international issue damaging Taiwan's reputation.
Since May, hundreds of workers have been fired by Chentex in a labor dispute over wages, local union leaders said. Chentex took 11 union leaders to court for criminal damages and for calling an illegal strike. Since then, a series of actions targeting Chentex and the Nicaraguan government have taken place in the US and Taiwan.
A delegation of US religious, labor, human rights and student leaders, led by Congressman Sherrod Brown, went to Nicaragua to investigate and alleged "systematic human and workers' rights violations" at the factory.
It was reported that when President Chen Shui-bian visited Nicaragua in August, some local union leaders and the investigating delegation were forcibly made to leave the country for fear they might disturb Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman's meeting with Chen.
Sixty-four US congressmen wrote a letter about the matter in July to US President Bill Clinton.
The US has expanded free trade tariffs and quota benefits to Nicaragua.
In September, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation wrote to the International Labor Organization to protest Chentex's alleged violations of workers' rights.
In October, Charlene Barshefsky, the US trade representative, wrote to the Nicaraguan government demanding that conditions be improved at Chentex and Mil Colores, a US owned factory. She also set a deadline of next June for a US-Nicaragua discussion on worker rights.
In order to show the support of Taiwanese workers for the Nicaraguan unions, the Taiwan Solidarity With Nicaraguan Workers group was formed in October. It comprises four labor groups and is supported by many labor leaders.
Activists appealed to the foreign ministry on three counts yesterday. First, they asked that a human rights code be incorporated into the ministry's regulations governing investments in countries with diplomatic ties with Taiwan; second, that the ministry identify Taiwanese factories overseas involved in disputes over labor rights; third, that it investigate the extent of Taiwanese diplomats' collusion with businessmen.
Activists questioned the ministry's provision of a NT$10 million investment subsidy to Nien Hsing and said that Huang Ming-wei, the ministry's former military attache in Nicaragua and currently Nien Hsing's general manager in Nicaragua, was an example of ministry officials' collusion with businesses.
Activists requested that the ministry look into alleged violations of human rights by Nien Hsing and suspend its subsidy to the company before investigating further.
But Huang Nan-huei said the ministry was no longer subsidizing Nien Hsing. "We only subsidize companies for the first five years. Nien Hsing established its business in Nicaragua eight years ago," he said.
Huang said that a meeting on this issue was held last Tuesday in Taipei and that some businessmen investing in Nicaragua and the Nicaraguan ambassador to Taiwan had attended. With Nien Hsing's report in hand, Huang emphasized Nien Hsing's contribution to generating US$150 million a year for Taiwan and employing 10,500 Nicaraguan workers.
"Nien Hsing's statement at the meeting was very different from your analysis," Huang said, suggesting the activists engage in direct talks with Nien Hsing to further their understanding.
But activists questioned the foreign ministry's acceptance of Nien Hsing's statement and what they said was the ministry's ignorance of international pressure over this issue. They showed ministry officials a pile of copied documents about US action on the issue and a press cutting about Chentex published in the British financial daily, the Financial Times, three days ago.
They also expressed doubts over Nien Hsing's attitude toward talking with activists. Activists protested to Nien Hsing in Taipei earlier in November and 15 of them shortly afterwards received a letter issued by Nien Hsing's counsel on Nov. 13 accusing them of breaking the law.
"We hope the ministry can send officials to Nicaragua to investigate the whole issue instead of listening to Nien Hsing's explanation alone," said Chen Hsin-hsing, an activist who is also a sociology professor at Shih-Hsin University.
With New Party Legislator Cheng Long-shui assisting in the negotiations, ministry officials finally agreed to invite activists and Nien Hsing officials for a talk in the near future.
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Agreement Reached by Workers, Company
By Susan Luth, The Michigan Daily ~ Dec. 1
Workers at Van Dyne Crotty Inc., a laundromat located in Toledo, Ohio, have come to an agreement with their employer through their union, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees. The agreement was settled Monday in a contract that has been in negotiation for nearly six months. It ended in a period where, according to claims from UNITE members, the company refused to bargain in good faith with its workers. Management from Van Dyne Crotty refused to comment.
The University contracted the laundromat in May to clean various laundry from the University's cafeterias and hospitals. Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality said they are pleased with the decision. They have supported UNITE members through several actions, the most recent of which was the delivery of a letter to President Lee Bollinger and General Council Marvin Krislov. The letter was hand delivered on Nov. 15 asking Bollinger to threaten to withdraw the University's ties with Van Dyne Crotty if working conditions did not improve. University spokeswoman Julie Peterson said the University had looked into the matter until it was resolved.
Workers for the company have been without a contract since June. They were in negotiations with their employer until last Tuesday when a contract was finally ratified. Among other things, the contract gave workers improved wages, a 401(k) plan and health care insurance."This is a major victory for the workers at Van Dyne Crotty, and we are excited that our solidarity with the workers helped them win a better contract," said SOLE member David Lempert, and LSA sophomore. Researcher Dan Hennefeld said the three-year contract was ratified by a large margin of people. He believes it satisfied the needs of both the workers and their employer. "I don't think (the workers) got everything they wanted, but I don't think they had to make any major concessions, either," Hennefeld said. "We will strive to monitor everything that's going on," LSA freshman Jackie Bray, a SOLE member, said.
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Labor Notes ~ Dec. 1
That's the subject of next year's Labor Notes Conference, April 20-22 in Detroit. Labor Notes is an independent labor newsletter published by and for rank-and-file union members and labor activists since 1979. But it's a lot more than just that - it's a network of activists working to build a stronger labor movement. Every other year, hundreds of these activists come together at the Labor Notes Conference to talk about their experiences fighting for more democratic unions, more militant organizing strategies, and cross-border organizing.
This year, they want us to be a part of it all. I think the conference s an exciting opportunity for student activists to forge stronger alliances with the people rebuilding our labor movement. One suggestion or a workshop at the conference is an interest group meeting between tudents, anti-global corporatization activists, and international union ctivists. Here's some more details:
Speakers: Bill Fletcher, Assistant to the Prez.; AFL-CIO Tom Leedham, reform candidate for Teamsters president; Carl Biers, Association for Union Democracy; Marta Ojeda, Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras; Ray Markey, AFSCME DC 37 Committee for Real Change; Monica Santana, Latino Workers Center, New York; Kim Moody, Labor Notes; Steve Early, CWA Verizon strike staff; Daniel Ximenez, Argentine general strike of 2000; Molly McGrath, USAS
A few of the forty workshops:
Labor and new alliances, The fight for global justice, Building workplace power, Union democracy, Winning strikes, Living wage campaigns, Jobs with Justice, Fighting racism on the job
Dates: April 20-22, Friday through Sunday, 2001 Cost: $80; $70 if before January 31. For cash-starved students, there are opportunities to volunteer at the conference and knock off some of the registration costs - contact the Labor Notes office. Location: Cobo Conference Center, downtown Detroit
Nearby hotels (mention Labor Notes for these rates): Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center - $99 all rooms; 313-965-0831, Crown Plaza Pontchartrain - $129 all rooms; 313-965-0200, Best Western-Detroit - $89 single or double; $99 triple or quad; 313-887-7000
Contact: If you're interested in working on building the interest-group meeting or USAS participation, talk to Molly McGrath 608-213-3314 or Dan 504-865-9638
If you want to go, contact the Labor Notes office: Labor Notes 7435 Michigan Ave. Detroit, MI 48210 313-842-6262 E-mail: labornotes@labornotes.org
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Bangladesh Must Clean Up Its Garment Industry, Warns International Union
International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation ~ Nov. 29
The government of Bangladesh has been warned that it should not allow a bunch of greedy and exploitative employers to put in jeopardy its workers and the economy of the nation. The warning comes in the wake of a fire on Saturday at the Chowdhury Knitwear and Garments Ltd. factory, which killed 48 workers, ten of them children, and left hundreds injured. "If Bangladesh is to have a future as a garment producer and exporter, government and employers must act immediately to clean up the industry, says Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation in a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. "If they fail to act, they will see their markets disappear, which would be a tragedy for the 1.5 million workers who depend on the garment industry for a livelihood, and for the nation as a whole."
The clothing industry is Bangladesh's biggest export sector, and accounts for about 80 percent of its total annual export earnings. Says Kearney: "International trade is increasingly being carried out on the basis of socially-acceptable practices. A great many countries in Europe and the US, which are key markets for imports from Bangladesh, now adhere to codes of conduct covering issues such as health and safety and child labour".
"The fire at Chowdhury Knitwear and Garments Ltd. was as inevitable as it was tragic. In reality, the disaster could have occurred at any one of a thousand factories. The situation of lawlessness in the garment industry, where companies make no effort to enforce the law, has cost hundreds of lives over the past few years, and will undoubtedly cost many more lives in the years to come unless the government of Bangladesh starts enforcing its labour laws throughout the country. The criminal neglect of