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.'"
END
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.
END
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.
END
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
END
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 health and safety in garment factories in Bangladesh is nothing short of murder. Consumers worldwide will no doubt question whether such a lawless industry should really be in a position to be able to market its goods internationally", says Kearney.
The ITGLWF has urged the government to publicly undertake to carry out an urgent factory-by-factory inspection to assess fire and other safety hazards, as well as compliance with fundamental labour laws such as the prohibition of child labour and the payment of the minimum wage. "Where problems are detected, says Kearney, "employers should be notified of the corrective action they need to take. In cases where fire hazards exist, corrective action must be undertaken immediately, and if companies refuse to do so, their licenses should be revoked".
The ITGLWF has further asked the government to undertake a review of its labour legislation to ensure it is in line with international labour standards. "Should the government fail to take urgent measures to clean up the industry, its inaction will imply complicity with the large numbers of employers who break the law with impunity, and will make the government guilty of accessory to murder", warns Kearney. In an earlier letter, Kearney urged Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina to take immediate steps to investigate the disaster, to bring to justice those responsible and to ensure full compensation is paid to the victims and their families.
In a letter to the two employers associations in the sector, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers? Association (BGMEA) and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers' Association (BKMEA), Kearney said the world would be looking to employers' associations to respond immediately to the crisis, to make a contribution to families, and to commit itself to cleaning up the industry.
The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation is an International Trade Secretariat bringing together 225 affiliated organisations in 110 countries with a combined membership of 10 million workers. For more information, contact: Neil Kearney (General Secretary) at 32/2/512.2606 (office) or 32/75932487 (cell phone)
Laura Carter, Assistant to the General Secretary (Policy) International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF) 708 3rd Street, Nelson BC V1L2R2 Canada Tel/Fax: 1/250/354.2016 Brussels fax: 32/2/706.5423
END
Forty-Eight Die in Bangladesh Death-Trap Factory
ITGLWF ~ Nov. 28
Following a fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh which left 48 dead and hundreds injured, many of them critically, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been urged to take immediate steps to investigate the disaster, to bring to justice those responsible and to ensure full compensation is paid to the victims and their families. The call comes in a letter to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers? Federation (ITGLWF). "The fire was a tragedy for the workers and their families, and it is a tragedy that children were involved", says ITGLWF General Secretary Neil Kearney.
The fire occurred on November 25 at the Chowdhury Knitwear and Garments Ltd factory, located in the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) estate in Shibpur, some 60 kilometres from the capital city of Dhaka. The fire is believed to have started at about 7 pm on Saturday night on the top floor of the factory, in the ironing department. The fire quickly engulfed the entire top floor, which was cluttered with machines, bundles of fabric, and over 800 cartons of garments that had been prepared for shipment to U.K. Flames and smoke spread throughout the four-floor building. Some 600 workers who were working at the time surged towards the single narrow staircase, but found both the main gate and the emergency gates locked.
Most of the 46 victims died of suffocation or were crushed to death in the panic. Some died after throwing themselves out of the windows and being impaled on the pointed tops of the iron railings surrounding the factory. The relatives and survivors believe that a further eight workers are missing, and are demanding that the company hand over the daily attendance book. Most of the victims were teenage girls, and at least ten were children. The youngest was ten years old. Says Kearney: "Chowdhury Knitwear and Garments appears to have breached every labour law in the book. Children were employed, in spite of public claims that child labour is largely eliminated in the garment sector; long working hours were imposed; wages were well below the already inadequate minimum wage of 930 takas (US$ 17) a month, and clearly fire safety was non-existent".
"Unfortunately, such disregard for basic rights is typical of a large part of the garment industry", he added. Only three months ago twelve people died in a similar tragedy at the Globe Knitting factory fire in the capital, Dhaka. According to ITGLWF General Secretary Neil Kearney, the government shares the blame for the tragedy for failing to implement health and safety standards. Also at fault are the international buyers and retailers who profit from these sweatshop conditions. Investigations are currently underway to identify Chowdhury Knitwear Ltd.'s overseas customers. The government has responded by setting up a an enquiry to investigate the causes of the accident, and the district administration has provided 500 takas (approx. US$ 10) to cover burial costs, as well as 25 kilos of rice as immediate relief.
The ITGLWF is demanding that the company owners and directors be held personally liable and that criminal charges be brought against them. "They should also be forced to pay exemplary compensation to the families of those who died and to those injured. In the short term, the government should advance funds to the injured and the families of the deceased until compensation can be secured from the owners" says Kearney.
The ITGLWF is further demanding that the public enquiry should operate in total transparency, and that while examining the specific reasons for the deaths, it should also consider the implications for the rest of the industry.
END
Scores of Women and Children Killed in Factory Fire in Bangladesh
ICFTU ~ Nov. 27
Yet more workers paid the price of employer negligence on Saturday November 25: 46 employees, including at least eight children, died in a fire at their textile factory.
The doors were locked.
Dhaka, November 27 2000 (ICFTU OnLine): 46 workers died and hundreds of others were injured on Saturday in a fire that swept through the "Chowdhury Knitwear and Garments Ltd." Factory in Shibpur, in the Narsingdi district (Bangladesh). Several of the injured are still hovering between life and death.
The fire was started at about 7.00 pm by electrical wiring on the top floor of the factory where the clothing is ironed. Flames rapidly spread throughout the building, where 800 people were working overtime. As panic set in, they all surged towards the 4-storey building's only staircase, but the doors were locked. "I was working on the second floor" says 22-year-old Aziza from her hospital bed. "When I heard the others shouting 'fire' I ran to the stairwell, but everyone was pushing each other, I tripped on the stairs and the people behind me just walked over me. I don't remember anything after that. I woke up in hospital, with my right arm paralysed. The metal gates at the entrance of each floor of the factory are usually closed during working hours. On Saturday evening, only the second floor gate was open.
The others were padlocked but the factory security guard couldn't find the keys during the fire. We had to break the locks." Aziza, like many other textile workers in Bangladesh, earns only 500 takas (US$ 9) a month, working from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm. Sometimes she has to work overtime until 10.00pm, such as on Saturday.
Of the 46 victims, four were burnt to death, others were electrocuted or asphyxiated by the smoke. Many were trodden on or crushed to death as the workers rushed towards the exit.
The stairwell was so tightly packed that some workers tried to break the windows and throw themselves out to escape the flames. According to witnesses, some were impaled on the pointed tops of the iron railings surrounding the factory. Most of those who died were young women under 25 years old (85% of textile workers in Bangladesh are women), and at least eight were children. The list of victims posted at the entrance of a hospital close to the factory gives the names of five workers aged between 10 and 12 and three aged 14.
The "Chowdhury Knitwear and Garments Ltd" factory is in the BSCIC industrial zone, about one and a half hours drive from Dhaka, the capital. Saturday's tragedy is by no means the first of its kind in Bangladesh, whose development is based largely on the textile sector where health and safety conditions are often appalling. The leaders of the Bangladesh National Coordinating Council of trade unions, (BNCC, which represents the Bangladeshi affiliates of the international textile workers' federation, the ITGLWF) have demanded the arrest and trial of the factory's owner. They are also demanding a payment of 200,000 takas (US$ 3,700) for the family of each worker who died and 100,000 takas for the families of each worker injured.
"The employer, Ali Akbar Chowdhury, broke the law on at least three counts" says Z.M. Kamrul Anam, the President of the Bangladesh Textile Workers' League. Badruddoza Nizam, General Secretary of the Garment Tailors Workers' League adds "he employed children under 14, he paid wages below the legal minimum of 930 takas and he locked his factory's doors".
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Mrs. Sheikh Hasina, expressed her condolences for the victims of the tragedy and urged the owners of the factory to protect their workers' lives and compensate the victims. Will the government and employers of Bangladesh learn their lesson this time?
By Samuel GRUMIAU in Dhaka
Daniel Calamuci
American Center for International Labor Solidarity (Solidarity Center). AFL-CIO Europe
1925 K St. NW Suite 300, Washington DC, 20006 Phone: (202) 778-6385
END
EU, US Call For New Sanctions Moves Against Burma
Reuters ~ Nov. 25
GENEVA . The European Union and United States called on Thursday for new sanctions moves against Burma because its use of forced labour.
But Russia, China and India spoke against sanctions in a debate at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and diplomats thought a compromise to head off a sanctions call by the 174-nation body might still be possible.
The south-east Asian state is already a virtual pariah for crushing a 1988 uprising, refusing to recognise the victory of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a 1990 election and flooding neighbouring states with illegal drugs.
France speaking on behalf of the 15-member EU as well as other western countries including Norway, the United States and Switzerland said Rangoon's military junta had not brought its legislation and practices into line with recommendations made by the ILO last June. The deadline for complying is November 30.The EU acknowledged "progress in the direction of implementing some of the recommendations", but said that this was not enough to prevent punitive measures, including an ILO call on member governments, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to isolate Burma.
Burma's UN ambassador Mya Thang said his country was co-operating and that a decision by the ILO to seek sanctions would be "tragic and deplorable", tantamount to the UN labour agency's assuming the powers of the UN Security Council.He urged the ILO governing body "to choose the path of co-operation rather than the path of confrontation and coercion".
Japan's envoy Koichi Haraguchi called for the body to wait six months before reviewing Burma's progress. "Let us try to cure the patient," he said.
Malaysia speaking on behalf of Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam said their regional ally Burma was showing political will at the highest level to reach a solution. It urged the ILO to keep pursuing dialogue.
The debate centres on a report compiled by five ILO experts after meetings last month with Rangoon's military rulers, including Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, the powerful Secretary One of the State Peace and Development Council and intelligence chief. The report, which includes letters from the ministers of labour, home affairs and foreign affairs, says Burma has not directly met demands to pass legislation banning forced labour, which a 1998 ILO inquiry ruled was "widespread and systematic.
But a letter from Burma's Department of Labour, dated October 31 five days after the fact-finders left gave details of steps towards a forced labour ban, which a diplomatic source has said could avert the full weight of ILO sanctions.Trade unions have estimated that more than 800,000 Burmese are conscripted with little or no pay as army porters or in construction and agriculture in slave-like conditions.
Rangoon has long withstood Western pressure to transform its dictatorial regime into a more open and tolerant one despite sanctions imposed by many of the world's large economies. These curbs have had little effect on the impoverished country because its economy had long been shut off from the world already.
November 25, 2000, Saturday
END
Company Is Told to Stay and Face New Union
By Anthony DePalma ~ November 23, 2000
The Quadrtech Corporation could have been just another company relocating to Mexico in search of cheaper wages and lower operating costs. But a federal judge, acting on a union complaint, has blocked the company's plans and ordered it to stay in California, a decision that has delighted union officials and worried manufacturers.
On Tuesday, a judge in the United States District Court in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction preventing Quadrtech, a small manufacturer of earrings and ear-piercing machines, from laying off 118 newly unionized workers and moving its manufacturing operations to Tijuana until labor complaints against it are resolved.
The company announced plans to move to Mexico one day after a branch of the Communications Workers of America was certified to represent workers at Quadrtech. Most of the employees are female immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries who assemble jewelry and are paid the state's minimum wage of $5.75 an hour.
Lawyers at the National Labor Relations Board, which petitioned the court on behalf of the workers, said this was the first time an American company trying to keep out a union had been prevented from leaving the United States.
"It's an eye opener," said Jaime Martinez, a union official who helped organize the California plant. "It's an issue that goes to the core of organizing the unorganized."
The judge's order comes at a time when footloose corporations and the formation of an economy that moves freely across borders with little or no concern for workers left behind have been publicly attacked in Seattle, in Washington and in other cities where international financial leaders gather to shape the world economy.
Experts said the case was certain to focus attention on what has become a common practice in the United States: employers using threats of relocation to keep workers from organizing unions or seeking higher wages.
"What's at issue here isn't the movement of a single plant but the future of collective bargaining as a viable institutional practice," said Harley Shaiken, a professor of labor and the global economy at the University of California at Berkeley. `'If you can move a plant to avoid a union, you undermine the whole system, and if you move when you are involved in collective bargaining, you destroy the whole process."
The chairman of the National Association of Manufacturers, W. R. Timken Jr., said he foresaw trouble if the government and the courts intend to interfere in the business decisions of employers who seek to remain competitive.
"In the end, it's foolish to believe that any court can keep uncompetitive businesses captive by fiat," Mr. Timken said. "It just won't work."
Gregory Kennedy, the lawyer representing Vladimir Reil, the owner of Quadrtech, would not comment on the case. But in papers filed with the Federal District Court, Mr. Reil said the decision to move to Mexico was made for economic reasons.
In January, Mr. Reil transferred some equipment and dozens of workers from the plant of another company he owns, Onyx, in Harbor City, Calif., and opened Quadrtech in the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena.
But relations between management and the workers deteriorated quickly. After a work stoppage in May that the workers said was set off by the company's refusal to provide a chair for an ill worker, the employees began to organize.
A union vote was held in June, and the International Union of Electronic Workers, which later joined the C.W.A., was selected to represent the workers. The union was certified July 12. A day later, Mr. Kennedy told the union that Quadrtech would move to Mexico.
"We viewed that timing as more than mere coincidence," said James Small, assistant to the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Southern California. The union filed a complaint with the board after the relocation notice.
The board acted so quickly in this case, as opposed to others, because the violation of fair labor standards was so blatant, Mr. Small said.
Board investigators found that Quadrtech supervisors had told employees that the company was moving to Mexico because of the union vote, Mr. Small said. The board later established that the company had a history of anti-union actions, including threatening to fire workers who voted for the union, and telling workers the day before the election that Quadrtech would not be able to compete if it had to pay higher wages.
Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University, said implied or implicit threats to relocate have become a regular part of labor-management relations in the United States. She said she had conducted several national surveys of plant closings and had found that 68 percent of employers with manufacturing plants like Quadrtech's, which can pick up and move their operations, threaten to shut down or relocate in the face of union organizing campaigns.
"The more credible a threat," she said, "the more effective it is."
As global competitive pressures have increased, American manufacturers have shifted operations out of the United States to countries where wages are lower. Mexico has been a favorite destination, especially since the start of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. About 550,000 people were then employed in Mexican plants, called maquilladoras. along the border. Today, more than 1.3 million people work in border plants.
"It took 30 years to reach that first half-million jobs and only 6 years to double it," said Professor Shaiken of Berkeley. "Many of the plants and much of the employment increase in the maquilladoras results from U.S. firms shifting production to Mexico to take advantage of low wages, the lack of enforcement of labor and environmental standards, or both."
It appears that Quadrtech's threat to move was real. Weeks before the date the company scheduled for its relocation, Nov. 3, workers followed trucks taking equipment from Quadrtech to a warehouse in Tijuana, according to the board's investigation. When the employees tried to apply for work there, they were told the plant would open soon.
Because of the impending relocation, the labor relations board sidestepped its normal procedures and went to court to keep Quadrtech from moving while the legal complaint proceeded.
Barry J. Kearney, associate general counsel for the board's Division of Advice, said the board goes to court to block a few plant relocations every year, but they usually involve transfers within the United States.
Mr. Kearney said he had not heard of the procedure being used to block an out-of-country move "over the last 30 years."
In granting a preliminary injunction, Judge Carlos R. Moreno of the District Court for the Central District of California stated that the labor relations board has a "fair chance" of proving that Quadrtech intended to relocate not for economic reasons but to keep out the union, which is illegal. The judge ordered the company to bring back the equipment it had shipped to Mexico and to keep all workers employed until the complaint was resolved.
Lawyers said resolution of the case, including a trial before an administrative law judge and appeals, could easily take a year and a half.
END
Asif Ullah, 212-228-0450 ~ November 15, 2000
Largest Shopping Week Of The Year Will Be Largest Protest Week of the Year: 5th Annual YouthPeace Week
From November 24th - December 1st shopping centers across the country will be met with young activists. From Sarasota, Florida to Portland, Oregon, activists are planning to drop banners, distribute leaflets and parade streets with slogans among other things.
A year after the Seattle anti-WTO protest and half a year after World Bank/IMF protests in D.C., young people have proven that they will not rest as long as corporate greed runs our country. "We want shoppers to be aware of the blood staining their purchases," said Sam Delgado, a New York City activist.
The goal of the week is not to harangue consumers, but to offer a friendly reminder of where their purchases were made and how it got here. With a new wave of anti-corporate activism sweeping over local communities and college campuses, today's consumers are becoming more aware of their purchases.
International YouthPeace Week, now in its fifth year, strives to highlight the relationship between consumer goods, corporate globalization and the resulting militarism in third world communities.
For the last five years, hundreds of young people nationwide have participated in International YouthPeace Week. With toy exchanges, forum discussions on consumerism, leaf-letting at malls, screenings on corporate greed and dozens of other actions, International YouthPeace Week has been immensely successful in countering consumer obesity.
END
Fire Puts Thai Durable Back In The Spotlight
Sunthorn Pongphao, Anan Paengnoy, and Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation ~ Nov. 18
A fire at the Thai Durable Textile (TDT) factory yesterday has placed the controversial operation back in the spotlight.
Union leaders denied speculation that 390 protesting workers, laid off by the factory six months ago, were responsible for the blaze.
Factory director Mangkorn Tanasukarn said the cost of the damage and the fire's cause had not been determined. Police have opened an investigation into the fire.
Workers inside the factory said the fire appeared to have started in one of the spinning rooms, where they said they saw fla mes shortly after 2pm. The fire eventually gutted at least a third of the company's 97-rai compound.
More than 30 fire trucks rushed to the site and the fire was extinguished by late afternoon.
"We [protesting workers] are tense and sad because this incident may further affect the chance of management taking us back," said union leader Ubon Romphothong, who was laid off more than five months ago. Ubon and 389 other workers have been denied reinstatement even though the government exercised Article 35 of the labour law in October, which in effect requires a company to take its workers back. She vowed to keep the protest going even if it meant having to wait for the next administration to take office in January.
"We had nothing to do with the fire," said Suthep Soongnern, another protest leader. "We can't even get into the factory, so how could we commit arson? The police officers who were keeping their eye on us didn't see any of us go anywhere."
Article 35 is applied only when the government feels a labour dispute is affecting society as a whole and that the involved workers deserve to keep their jobs. Suthep said TDT had yet to state in writing that it would not abide by Article 35 as directed by the Ministry of Labour. This lack of written evidence had made it difficult for the laid-off workers to file a lawsuit, Suthep added.
The dispute began earlier this year when more than 1,300 workers were fired after they demanded that their old salaries be restored after four years of wage cuts. Workers saw it as a just demand, as the company had returned to profit over the past year.
However, TDT management took it as a challenge to their authority and dismissed the workers, including all key union members, prompting a crippling strike. The strikers were attacked on June 22 by 100 unidentified male strike-breakers. The factory owners also filed an unprecedented lawsuit against the strikers for damages caused by the strike, even though such action is a legal labour tactic.
The workers then moved most of their protest to Government House and later to the Ministry of Labour, which invoked Article 35.
However, they soon learned that management had not reinstated 390 of the strikers. Most of the rejected workers were leading union members of what is arguably the most important labour union in Thailand, as it has a long record of defending workers' rights, including 90-day maternity leaves and a social security scheme.
Rangsarit Chantarath, director-general of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare, acknowledged that the fire would only further complicate the dispute.
"The problem is getting worse," he said, referring to what has become the country's longest on-going labour dispute.
Assoc Prof Lae Dilokvidhyarat, director of Chulalongkorn University's Labour and Management Development Centre, said the possibility that protesting workers were responsible for yesterday's fire should be dismissed outright.
"Workers are fighting to get their jobs back. Burning down the factory would only give management an excuse [not to reinstate them]. Second, throughout the history of the labour movement bargaining has been conducted in a peaceful manner. And the workers have never resorted to threats, as it has proven to be unproductive," Lae said.
Lae criticised TDT's management for having hired "scabs" to replace certain laid-off union members more than five months ago. Without suggesting that the factory owners were behind the blaze, he said it might be beneficial for them if the factory were in the red.
END
Woods Meets Nike Protesters; Tiger Woods Was Escorted Through An Angry Crowd,
Thai Labour Campaign ~ November
Tiger Woods had to be escorted through an angry crowd of former Nike workers who ambushed him in the lobby of his Bangkok hotel. But Woods claimed he was unfazed by about 100 protesters who had waited for him near the exclusive hotel he is staying at during this week's Johnnie Walker Classic.
The demonstrators said they were part of a group of workers who were still waiting to receive compensation after being laid off by Nike in September.
The world's number one golfer is under a five-year sponsorship contract with Nike which will net him some $100m over the next five years.
Woods said: "They have their own opinions and they have things they want to try and accomplish, and you can't stop them from doing that.
Hailed a hero
"That's their right and so be it. It's just the way it is. You can't fight it," he said.
Woods, whose mother is Thai, would have been expecting a warm welcome in the country where he has been hailed as a hero and was awarded an honorary citizenship during past visits.
The demonstrators said they were part of a group of 1,016 who were still waiting to receive compensation totalling $932,000 after being laid off by Nike in September.
Thai Labour Campaign, Coordinator: Junya Yimprasert
Phone: + 66 1 617 5491, +66 2 692 7963 Fax: +66 2 692 7963
END
Tiger Woods Gets Unwelcome Homecoming In Thailand,
Robert Horn ~ November 16
If America loves Tiger Woods, imagine then how Thailand must feel about the world's number one golfer. After all, this is a country whose only world-class athletes have been a handful of (small) boxers. Tiger may be only half-Thai, but he's still the most famous athlete on the planet. And half of something that is the best is better than nothing. So you would think that if there would be any place in the grip of Tigermania, it would be Thailand, right now.
Well, wake up and smell the tom yum goong. Tiger seems to be about as popular in this crisis-hit Southeast Asian kingdom as the International Monetary Fund. Since he touched down in Bangkok on Tuesday to play in the Johnnie Walker Classic golf tournament, Woods has been the target of more vitriolic newspaper editorials, angry "letters to the editor" and internet chat room nastiness than that woman who designed the ballot in Palm Beach, Florida.
On his first night in town, his luxury hotel was invaded by 100 laid-off Nike factory workers who accused the global clothing and footwear giant -- which is paying Woods $100 million over five years to endorse their products -- of cheating them out of their severance pay. On the Net, Thais have also put the boot in. "There are lots of Thais who have done many things for the country, but nobody cares about them. Instead, some people pay attention to the American Negro who can only putt the ball better than most people do. What good has it made to Thai people? Tiger Woods doesn't even think he's Thai," said one message, typical of most, posted on the Pantip.com chat room. Said another: "I don't feel Woods is a Thai. The fact that he has half-Thai blood is only biological. His mind is totally American."
Say what? This is the same guy who once got in trouble with the black community in America for saying he sometimes felt more Thai than black. He's also cited his Thai Buddhist upbringing as something that keeps him calm and focused on the course. And yet, The Nation newspaper, in its Thursday editorial, said: "To suggest in any way that Thai culture and the Thai way of life is a continuing factor in his golfing greatness is preposterous. This constant reference to him as a Thai hero must surely be embarrassing.'' Maybe it's three years of suffering through an economic disaster, but some people in the Land of Smiles have turned distinctly surly for this visit by Woods.
Let's get something straight: Woods needs to play in Thailand like he needs the 17th hole at Valderrama. Nonetheless, he chooses to play in the land of his mother's birth, and plenty of Thais want to see him. Tickets for the four-day tournament sold out in no time and on Thursday more than 12,000 spectators turned up. Woods has always done well on his second-home turf, winning the Asian Honda Classic by 10 strokes in 1996 and defeating Ernie Els in a playoff to take the Johnnie Walker Classic in 1998.
Woods, however, was anything but hot when he teed off in Bangkok at the par-72, 6989-yard Alpine Golf and Sports Club on Thursday. Despite having nine victories under his belt, including three consecutive majors, and more than $9 million in prize money, this year alone, his game was slightly off and his performance in his last two outings were less than perfect.
Woods, playing with defending champion Michael Campbell of New Zealand, and Asian Golfer of the Year Kyi Hla Han of Burma, was uneven on the front nine. He bogeyed before he birdied, flubbing the par-3, 198-yard third. "I bladed my chip then missed a 12-foot downhill putt," he said. He came back with a birdie on the par-4, 376-yard fourth, and birdied both the par-5, 555-yard seventh, and par-4, 441-yard eighth. But he faltered on the ninth. His 2-iron off the tee landed in the left-hand rough. Then, using a sand wedge, his approach shot fell short of the green and rolled down a steep embankment. Once again, he bladed his chip shot and it died on the fringe, leaving him a 15-foot putt for par that he left short by about a foot.
At the clubhouse turn he was one-under par and trailing leader Wayne Smith of Australia, who was 7-under. "I thought this course played pretty hard. But then I got eight birdies. So that's a surprise," Smith said. He was followed by Australian Paul Gow, with a 6-under-par 66, and former British Open champion Paul Lawrie who shot a 5-under-par 67.
Woods steadied himself on the back nine, never bogeying while birdying the par-3 12th, the par-5 14th and the par-5 17th. He missed a birdie on the 18th when another 12-foot putt rolled just right. Woods finished with a 4-under-par 68 to put him in a tie for fourth, three shots back of the leader. "I made some errors I don't usually make, but on the whole, when you finish in the high 60's, you have to be pretty happy with that," Woods said later. Even if some Thais aren't too happy with him.
Article continues.....
END
Mil Colores: Solidarity Works--First 3 Workers Reinstated Today!
National Labor Committee ~ November 16
There has been a concrete advance in the Mil Colores case. Today the first three--of 26 union leaders and members fired in January when they attempted to legally reactivate their union--were reinstated at Mil Colores. Idalia Gutierrez, Irving Bustamante and Santos Diaz returned to work for the first time in nearly 10 months at 7 a.m. this morning. Tomorrow company owner Craig Miller and union representatives will sign a working agreement on the basis of the points they have resolved so far. On Monday, another union leader, Roberto Perez, will return to Mil Colores. And in two weeks the remaining fired workers are to be returned. There are still points to be negotiated regarding the seniority status, back pay and benefits of those returning. Also pending and still to be resolved is the reinstatement of three core Mil Colores union leaders: Jose Domingo Martinez, Rosa Esterlina Ocampo and Isabel Perez--obviously a very major issue for the union.
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National Labor Committee, 275 7th Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10001 Tel: 212/242-3002 Fax: 212/242-3821 Email: nlc@nlcnet.org
END
Tiger Woods Says He Is In Thailand To Win
November 15
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Tiger Woods, shrugging off protests by Nike workers, wants nothing more this week than to win the Johnnie Walker Classic.
The world's No. 1 golfer, who recently signed a $100 million endorsement deal with Nike Inc., tees off Thursday in the tournament, which he won two years ago.
"The sole reason I go to a tournament is to play for a win,'' he said. ``If you don't have that attitude, then there is no sense in going.''
Woods, whose mother is Thai, is a national hero in Thailand.
He received an honorary doctorate in sports science from a local university on Tuesday. About two dozen people protested outside the hotel ballroom where the ceremony was held, demanding that Nike improve working conditions for its 70,000 workers in Thailand.
The protesters urged Woods to speak on their behalf with Nike executives, pointing out that his one-day salary is as much as the daily wages of 14,000 Nike employees in Thailand.
Nike, the Beaverton, Ore., company, pays factories in Thailand, Vietnam and other countries to produce its shoes and garments. Nike says its working conditions are among the best, and that its workers are generally satisfied with wages.
Woods did not speak about the protest.
He did talk about the "hysteria'' surrounding him.
"No one can ever prepare you for that,'' Woods said. "All you know as a kid is to hit a golf shot and try to win tournaments and beat your heroes. No one ever thinks about the other side of it.''
Woods' main rival in the 132-man field is expected to be Spain's Sergio Garcia.
Woods' presence will raise every player's game, Garcia said.
"He is playing at a great level and we have to try and keep up with him. We are all trying to improve, and thanks to him we are doing that,'' Garcia said.
END
College Groups Fight FLA Affiliation
By Pamela E. Spencer, The State News ~ November 15
Members of Students for Economic Justice, a campus group devoted to battling for improved labor conditions in factories overseas, will paint the rock on Farm Lane tonight in an effort to spread knowledge about the anti-sweatshop movement. Adam Szlachetka, an SEJ member, said the rock painting goes hand-in-hand with the group's efforts to get MSU into the Worker Rights Consortium, a labor monitoring organization that several universities, including the University of Michigan, belong to. "We're continuing talking with administrators about that," Szlachetka said.
The group has also been gathering petitions from students all semester and will do more work on campus Thursday morning. MSU is a member of the Fair Labor Association, an organization that has been criticized for not working hard enough to ensure fair labor conditions for overseas workers. The recent SEJ initiatives come on the heels of a student protest Thursday at the Universityof Arizona in Tucson. Six students and two community members were arrested when they blocked access to the university's Demonstration Building by locking themselves to the doors. The students were protesting the university president's decision to remain in the FLA. "This shows how important an issue this is," Szlachetka said. "We support the struggle for workers' rights."
In support of the University of Arizona students' efforts, Szlachetka and other SEJ members plan to contact Arizona President Peter Likins to request that he address student concerns. The Arizona students remained chained to the building for eight hours before they were arrested and charged with misdemeanors, said Shamini Jain, a member of United Students Against Sweatshops and a student at the University of Arizona.
In 1999, the student group held a 10-day sit-in to protest the university's decision to jointhe FLA. Since then, despite talks with administrators, the relationship between the two groups has been strained, Jain said. In response to student concerns, the university joined the WorkerRights Consortium this summer. But Jain said the membership is in name only - designed to quiet student concerns. "We're basically not members of the WRC," she said. "We're putting all the effort into the FLA."
When the president announced publicly in October his commitment to join the consortium, the group decided to take action, insisting the decision was simply a publicity stunt. All workers in the university's administration building were sent home because the group had chained themselves to all but one door. Likins said he was shocked by Thursday's events. The University of Arizona was one of the first to join the FLA, in 1999. "I was disappointed," he said in a phone interview Tuesday. "We were in continuous conversation just two days before this action talking about ways we could work together."
Likins said it's too soon to say if the administration will continue to work with students.He maintains his university will continue to work with both the labor monitoring groups. "I feel very good about what we've accomplished in the FLA," he said. "It's a slow, hard process, but I really believe we are making progress."
The Worker Rights Consortium, started by students and human rights activists, keeps factory officials out of decision-making regarding labor conditions. The FLA, criticized for lack of factory disclosure, is made up of factory officials who ultimately determine what conditions are fair. Sam Brown, the executive director of the FLA, called the students' actions in Arizona adiversion to the real task of stopping sweatshops. "None of these little petty arguments have any impact on the people who are in the intolerable sweatshops and it's frankly kind of a waste of time," he said. "This is angels dancing on the head of a pin."
Brown acknowledged that the association has not begun monitoring companies et, but said officials will soon, and they have established a code of onduct. University of Arizona students should look at what the association has done so far, Brownsaid. "They were just angry, just generally mad at the president and the university," he said. "A large part of their complaint is about globalism and that we can't fight. What we can do is help the conditions of people who work in the global market."
Although nothing as drastic is planned at MSU, dialogue remains open between studentsand administrators, university spokesman Terry Denbow said. Denbow said while he hadn't heard about events in Tucson, he recognizes the seriousness of the issue. "We're working with the FLA and we're listening to all parties as we go," he said. "There are a lot of important voices out there that we should all listen to and we're makingprogress."
Earlier this year, students held mild protests and rallies calling on MSU officials to abandon the association in favor of the Worker Rights Consortium. While President M.Peter McPherson has acknowledged there are flaws with the FLA, he's not ready to ditch it. Although the university has no plans to withdraw from the organization, Denbow said work can be done to make improvements. "I think it is a vehicle for progress, but that doesn't preclude ideas from others as well and believe me, Michigan State's voice is being heard within the FLA," Denbow said.
END
University Arizona Students Fight FLA
By Susan Luth, Daily Staff Reporter ~ November 15
Members of the Students Against Sweatshops at the University of Arizona chained themselves to their administration building yesterday morning in protest of the university's decision to remain affiliated with a government-sponsored apparel industry labor code that they feel is weak and ineffective. "We're putting our bodies on the line for the sake of exploited workers everywhere," said University of Arizona junior and SAS member Lydia Lester.
Protesters formed human chains across the four main entrances of the building, blocking access. Three protesters put U-locks across their necks to bolt themselves to a door handle. Bartley said at about 1:30 p.m. in Arizona, university and city police formed lines around the building, threatening the nearly 150 students inside with arrest. After almost two hours, eight students were taken into custody without incident and were held in the Pima county jail.
The Fair Labor Association is a White House-sponsored coalition comprised of corporations and human rights organizations brought together in the wake of intense scrutiny of the apparel industry after sweatshop labor conditions were found in Central America factories that produced merchandise for former talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford. The University of Arizona joined the FLA in March 1999, as students across the country were protesting their administrations for joining the organization. That April, Arizona students stormed and occupied the office of their president, PeterLinkins, for 10 days.
The activists contended that the organization's factory monitoring system was flawed. The FLA does not have any rules enforcing women's rights nor does it make unannounced inspections. When it does come to inspect a factory, it only tours about 5 percent of the factory before deeming it sweat-free. "The FLA is not only flawed, it is contrary to the campaign against sweatshops," said University of Arizona graduate student Tim Bartley. "It keeps information secret, allows apparel companies to choose their own monitors and bolsters corporate power. It does nothing to empower sweatshop workers."The students say they feel their university should instead associate with the Workers Rights Consortium, a primarily student-developed organization they believe enforces a more firm code of conduct than the FLA.
The Arizona students claim Linkins promised to withdraw the university's association with the FLA by August if conditions did not improve. The students said the university failed to publicly disclose the locations of factories producing University of Arizona merchandise. Public disclosure by August was one of the students' demands of Linkins. "I think ultimately (Linkins) thinks he has the power to do whatever he wants with the university and that's why it's important for the community to mobilize and show him he is accountable for his actions," Bartley said.
Contrary to student opinion, Linkins said he has fulfilled whatever promises he has made to the SAS. In a written statement, Linkins said his decision to keep the university associated with the FLA is in the best interest of worldwide sweatshop conditions. "After studying all of the issues to the best of my ability and listening to the dialogues across the country, I am determined to do what, in my opinion, will make the biggest difference in eliminating sweatshops," he said. "To me this means remaining in the FLA."
Student activists across the nation have campaigned against the FLA for the past two years because in their view, the coalition's corporate ties delegitimizes the organization. University of Michigan anti-sweatshop activists said they endorsed the action taken by their colleagues at the Tucson campus. "We're proud of the students standing up against the administration," said LSA freshman Matt Hannah, a member of Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality, the University group fighting against sweatshop labor. SOLE member Scott Trudeau, an LSA senior said he agrees. "We don't think being in the FLA is going to help the workers," he said. "I don't see, and I don't think SOLE sees membership in the FLA as a credible way to actually empower workers in factories."
After anti-sweatshop activists in Ann Arbor occupied the office of LSA dean Shirley Neuman for three days this past February, University President Bollinger decided, along with Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, to join the WRC on a provisional basis. In March 1999, SOLE occupied Bollinger's office for three days.This summer Bollinger decided to join the FLA as well, to the anger of local activists. SOLE members have not said whether they will take a similar action against the administration.
END
By Patrick Cockburn (the Independent) ~ Nov. 14
Natalya Gracheva thinks that she is being watched. She works in the security section of the McDonald's food-processing plant known as "McComplex" on the outskirts of Moscow. Part of her job is to watch what staff are doing on television monitors, but two years ago, after she started a trade union at McDonald's, she claims one television video camera was trained permanently at her back. "They are waiting for me to make a small mistake in my work", she says. "I wouldn't be surprised if they sacked me tomorrow."
Gracheva, a bubbly 40-year-old woman, sounds alternatively amused and frightened by her experiences since she formed the union at McDonald's in the wake of the Russian financial crash of 1998. She remembers that when she first joined McDonald's, a few months after it opened its first restaurant in Moscow in 1990, the slogan of the company was: "We are a united family and we will survive everything together." But when the Russian economy crashed, she claims McDonald's workers found their real wages in roubles had dropped significantly - some say by up to seventy per cent.
Until then, working for McDonald's, which today has some 58 outlets in Russia, was a prestige job in Moscow. Its 700-seat restaurant just off Pushkin Square served 50,000 people a day and was a highly publicised symbol of Western capitalism in the heart of the former Soviet Union. Street photographers who used to take pictures of Soviet tourists visiting Lenin's tomb in Red Square moved to the street outside McDonald's, where they photographed customers embracing a wooden cut-out of Boris Yeltsin with the famous yellow "M" of the restaurant in the background.
This week, the McDonald's in Pushkin Square, decorated with models of European landmarks including Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower, was full - though not packed - with young Russians paying 12 roubles (30 pence) for a hamburger and 14 roubles for a cheeseburger. But the company has lost its old allure in Moscow, which 10 years ago led to 27,000 Russians applying for a single job and queues half a mile long outside its biggest restaurant. Instead, McDonald's is acquiring amuch less favourable image among Russians for paying low wages by international standards - one waiter at Pushkin Square said he earned 17 roubles (43 pence) an hour - and for what some people see as union busting.
The economic collapse of 1998 mortally wounded hopes among ordinary Russians that free market capitalism would improve their standard of living. Gracheva says the mood among the workers at McComplex changed overnight when they discovered that they had to accept McDonald's American-style work discipline, but were no longer paid such high wages to compensate. "It was a revolutionary situation", she says. "As their pay shrank, people lost their fear of being sacked."
Workers who joined Gracheva's union claim they then came under intense pressure from management to leave. One of them, Yevgeny Druzhinin, a forklift truck driver, appeared in court last month over claims by McDonald's that he had broken an expensive piece of machinery. For his part, Druzhinin argued that the accusations were fabricated to punish him for his union activity. The judge made no link between Druzhinin's union activity and the disciplinary action taken by the company against him - but the court decided that he was not, after all, responsible for the breakage as McDonald's alleged.
Soon after the decision, the Duma - the Russian parliament - summoned the McComplex workers before a special committee. The McDonald's management refused to attend. If they had been present, they would have heard Druzhinin tell the committee that: "A security officer hinted that I might be preparing an act of terrorism. He told me: 'You create too many problems. I'll have you put in prison.'" Druzhinin also claimed that the security officer is a former member of the KGB. Shortly after this threat, again according to Druzhinin, he was summoned to a local police station and told to keep his mouth shut if he wanted fewer problems with the McDonald's management.
Innokenty Dukhovlinov, who worked in the food freezing department, told the parliamentarians: "Look, we have to work an hour in our freezer shop, where the temperature is minus 26 degrees [centigrade] and we have only five-minute breaks to warm up. One of our colleagues got frostbite on his penis. We regularly get ear infections." Dukhovlinov said that when he complained to a McDonald's personnel officer: "She told me flatly that I am alone and that she has the whole organisation behind her."
Kirill Buketov, a representative of the Geneva-based International Union of Food and Allied Workers in Russia, says it is indicative of McDonald's' priorities that the company appeared fearful of union power. "It spends $2bn a year building up its image", he says. "But it sees unions, which might raise the pay of its low paid workers, as a real threat to its profits. "Natalya Gracheva says that her dealings with McDonald's remind her of the way the Soviet Union used to work. "It operates like a totalitarian state with its own laws and its own measures", she says. She told the parliamentary committee that some of the managers working for the Russian McDonald's - its parent company is McDonald's of Canada - have said to her that they have been told to get rid of the union, or face the sack themselves.
In theory, McDonald's should be in a strong position. The union is tiny. Gracheva says that there are just 17 paid-up members out of a workforce of 450, though she claims that "most of the workforce are sympathetic to us but are concerned that it will become known that they are active in the union". The union members are all in the food-processing plant, while those in the restaurants, though paid very little, are too young and change jobs too often to become organised. Russians also have little experience of unions which carry out collective bargaining with the management. In the Soviet Union every worker was a member of a union, but these largely confined themselves to organising holidays and childrens' camps.
Gracheva says people are simply scared: "They don't know if tomorrow our leaders may not say that unions are terrorist organisations. Anything can happen in our country." She says that even now she feels this undercurrent of fear in herself: "I remember when I was seven years old I saw Brezhnev at the rostrum on TV. A few days before I had seen picture of the Tsar giving a speech. I asked my mother if there was any difference between the two since they both seemed to live pretty well. My mother was terrified. She told me: 'Never, ever repeat what you have just said to anybody at school or anywhere else.'"
McDonald's in Moscow did not reply to repeated telephone calls over several days from The Independent asking the company to state its position on its struggle with Gracheva's union. However, late yesterday afternoon, McDonald's Russia said that the overwhelming majority of McComplex staff supports the current employment practices. McDonald's says working conditions far exceed those required by Russian employment law, and that they will now begin negotiations with the union. But their initial reluctance to comment was in sharp contrast with the company's early days in Moscow, when it was happy to pump out facts and figures about its efforts to provide fast food to Russians at low prices.
Not all of this was just self-promotion. George Cohon, president of McDonald's of Canada, spent 14 years trying to enter the Soviet Union before he opened his first restaurant in Moscow in 1990. As early as 1976 he was providing a free McDonald's bus to a Soviet delegation attending the Montreal Olympics in the hope of pressing his case with officials. Once established in Russia, McDonald's made strenuous efforts to Russify its operation. It bought its meat, potatoes and lettuce in Russia. It was in a joint venture with Moscow city government, which still owns 20 per cent of the company.
Many other foreign companies operated in hard currency, but McDonald's operated in roubles and at prices ordinary Russians could afford. It hired and trained a largely Russian management team, in contrast with other foreign companies which rely on expatriate staff. However, one of the causes of the explosion of anger among workers at the McComplex in 1998 was that their wages collapsed with the rouble, while the salaries of senior managers were calculated in dollars and held their value.
Kirill Buketov believes that McDonald's has miscalculated the growth in public hostility towards the company in Russia, where it is no longer seen as a symbol of free enterprise. He thinks it will have to negotiate with Gracheva. There are signs he is right. At the weekend the Russian Duma threatened McDonald's with an audit of all its enterprises and requested the prosecutor to investigate how its managers decide how much workers are paid. Gracheva says this is the third time that the company has promised to negotiate.
END
By Junya Yimpraser, Thai Labour Campaign ~ Nov. 14
Former Nike Employees call on Woods to pressure Nike to Improve Wages, Working Conditions Fifty workers, labour rights activists and students staged an appeal to Tiger Woods to push Nike to improve factory conditions on Tuesday at the Shangri La hotel in Bangkok. The group called on the golf champion, who has a US $100 million contract with Nike, to press Nike to improve working conditions in Thai factories. Woods was at the Shangri La to receive an honorary doctorate of philosophy in sports science. Workers from Thai Iryo Garment Workers Union, Par Garment Workers Union and representatives from the Labour Coordinating Center, Thai Labour Campaign, Center for Labour Information Service and Training, All State Enterprise Worker Federation, State Railway Workers Union and members of Thai Student Federation joined together in the appeal.
The group carried signs asking Tiger Woods to 'Be on par with worker's rights," and a large banner saying, "Tiger Woods: Stop puttering around. Take a swing for worker's rights." One member of Thai Federation of Students dressed as a 'Nike Devil,' used a large red 'swoosh' symbol to pretend to attack workers. Woods refused to meet with the workers, and a Nike marketing representative pressured the group to leave the hotel, claiming that they were a threat to Thailand's economic success. The police were summoned, but the protestors eventually left peacefully of their own accord. “We are calling on Tiger Woods to address the plight of Thai workers because he is a Nike spokesperson; this has nothing to do with the fact that he is part Thai,” said Junya Yimprasert, coordinator of the Thai Labour Campaign. “Nike must take responsibility for the welfare of workers producing their products no matter whether it is a factory or subcontractor and no matter the nationality of the employee, ”said Savit Kaewvarn, vice secretary general of the All State Enterprise Worker Federation.
It is estimated that there are over 70,000 workers producing shoes and sportswear for Nike inThailand. Most of these workers receive only minimum wages with no welfare benefits. They work10-12 hour days in often hazardous conditions. One Nike employee who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of being fired, described often working until 2am to meet production quotas. Instead of receiving legal overtime pay, workers at her factory, in Lop Buri, were paid by piecework. “I have to leave my daughter at my parents house because children are not allowed in the dormitories. I only see her every two weeks because I cannot afford to take time off to travel,” she said.
In addition, thousands of Thais are producing Nike products under abysmal conditions in Taiwan. Workers often have to work for years just to pay off their travelling and installment costs. In contrast, through his five year Nike contract, Tiger woods earns US$55,000 a day. A Thai worker producing Nike clothing would have to work for 14,000 days or 38 years to receive this same amount. On the contrary, Nike spends the equivalent of 14,000 workers’ daily salaries to pay Tiger Woods for just one day. A worker would have to work for 26.5 million days or 72,000 years to receive what Tiger Woods gets during his five year contract with Nike.
Recently, factories producing for Nike in Thailand have been shifting production to subcontractors and non-union facilities and to the provinces where wages and benefits are even lower. For example, unionized workers formerly producing for Nike at the Thai Iryo Garment factory in Rangsit were laid off while Nike production shifted to the Garment Tech factory in Bangkok and VT Garment in Sathupradit. Many workers have been laid off from the unionized Thai Iryo Garment and Par Garment factories just to wind up producing the same products for subcontractors and receiving lower wages without legal protection.
The workers presented an appeal to Tiger woods to ask Nike that all employees receive the equivalent of a living wage in the country in which they are producing. This living wage should enable a worker and two dependents to be able to live in decent conditions. The appeal called for Nike to respect worker’ rights to unionize and collectively bargain and to provide protection to labour leaders. In addition Nike must take responsibility for working conditions and ensure rights and decent wages in subcontracting facilities and piecework operations which are not protected by Thai law. Nike must ensure that its own safety standards are actually implemented in the factories. “University students love to wear Nike. But we want them to understand that expensive Nike products are being produced by workers with no quality of life. Nike derives huge profits and spends millions on advertising but pays its workers next to nothing,” said Sarayuth Jailak, secretary general of the Student Federation of Thailand.
Thai Labour Campaign, Coordinator: Junya Yimprasert Phone: + 66 1 617 5491, +66 2 692 7963 Fax: +66 2 692 7963 Web Address: TBA
END
Nike Immorally Starving Its Workers
Nov. 14
Thai workers receive only enough to survive each day, they cannot save and Thailand has no unemployment compensation scheme. At the same time, Nike spends nearly a billion dollars each year on advertising and sponsorship deals, such as the $440 million deal with Manchester United football club in England, announced last week. This money comes from the sweat of 500,000 workers producing shoes and apparel for Nike, mostly in Asia. Workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively are trampled, in order to give Nike more money for advertising and big endorsement contracts.
Many leaders of Par Garment Workers Union -- as well as active members -- have been dismissed since the forming of the union (1990). At present, the union still has several court cases with the company, such as claims for unpaid bonus and the dismissal of 24 active union members. The company also refuses to negotiate on a new labour contract with the union. Thai Iryo and Iryo Garment that have produced Nike products for many years. Over 1,000 workers were laid off since September 15. Much of the production has been shifted to non-unionized suppliers affiliated with the Iryo group.
Contractors that produce for Nike are also very profitable, even though Nike puts the contractors in competition with one another for the lowest price. These contractors increase their profits by raising production quotas, thereby forcing workers to make more shoes and apparel while earning the same wages. Many contractors in Thailand actually reduced workers’ benefits since the economic crisis in 1997, claiming that companies were not profitable. This is not the case, as demonstrated by recent corporate reports by Bangkok Rubber and other big Nike contractors.
We are demanding Nike to take responsibility for the basic living requirements of these workers.
· Nike has to set the same standard for their workers' living and provide labour protection to every worker throughout the world.
· Nike has to pay living wage that enables a worker and 2 dependents to be able to live like a human being. Nike has to respect workers union rights and provide protection to labour leaders and respect the collective bargaining rights.
· Nike has to stop using sub-contracting and sweatshops that are not protected by law.
· Nike has to comply with OH&S safety working environment.
It is estimated that there are over 70,000 workers that produce sport shoes and apparel for Nike in Thailand. Most of the workers receive only minimum wage with no other welfare benefits. These workers must work 10-12 hours every day, sometimes until midnight. Many workers have their rights suppressed and violated. There is a strong and violent strategy being used to stop workers from organizing. In some cases, workers were laid off from the factory and the work was subcontracted to factories where workers receive lower wages and have no legal protection. From the interview with Thai workers that worked for Pou Chen in Taiwan (that produce Nike shoes) they said that " We can tolerate the hardship, but we cannot stand the behavior of supervisors that are very cruel and like to yell and scold at us unreasonably".
Many women workers also facing with urination pain “I was so much in pain and suffered from kidney infection because I always suppress my urination. I requested the supervisor to send me to the hospital, but I have to wait for nearly one hour until there were two more sick workers to fill the car before it can take off to the hospital. I have to stay in the hospital for six days without any visit from the company management. During my sick leave, the company paid only 50% of my wages. As soon as I returned to work the company forced me to work over-time until 11 PM or midnight every night, although I tried explaining to the supervisor that I need to rest but, however, the supervisor forced me to work and I had to work.”
In September, Tiger Woods signed a sponsorship agreement with Nike for 5 years worth $100 million. With all winnings and endorsement earning this year, Tiger Woods will get $55,000 a day. A Thai worker would have to work for 14,000 days or 38 years to receive the same amount.
Thai Iryo Garment Workers Union, Par Garment Workers Union, the Textile Garment and Leather Federation of Thailand, the Paper and Printing Federation of Thailand, All State Enterprises Workers Federation, State Railway Workers Union, Labour Coordinating Center, Thai Labour Campaign, Center for Labour Information Service and Training, and Student Federation of Thailand.
END
November 14
14 November
Tiger Woods, Shangri La Hotel Bangkok
Dear Tiger Woods,
We are grateful for the chance to present you with information about the situation of Nike workers in Thailand. First, we would like to be clear that we have the utmost respect for your skill and perseverance as an athlete. Second, we wish to express that Thai workers need the jobs that Nike provides and are willing to work hard. However, no one should have to experience the deplorable working conditions and wages that Nike employees face.
It is estimated that there are 70,000 workers producing Nike products in Thailand. Additionally, thousands of Thais are employed as migrant laborers at factories producing for Nike in Taiwan. It is on behalf of these tens of thousands of workers that we appeal to you to use your influence as a respected athlete and as a benefactor of Nike’s success to push for better working conditions. Mr. Woods, your current contract with Nike nets you $100 million US over a five year period. In contrast an average Nike worker in Bangkok earns the Thai minimum wage of 162 baht per day -$4 US and workers in the provinces earn 130 baht per day - $3 US.
This means that a Thai Nike worker must work for 26.5 million days or 72,000 years to receive what you will earn during this contract. A Thai garment worker must work for 14,000 years or 38 years to earn your daily salary of US$55,000. To look at this in reverse, Nike spends the equivalent of 14,000 workers’ salaries to pay you for one day. Even though Nike workers are earning the daily minimum wage, most of them end up working far more than an eight hour day. Many of them routinely work until 10 pm and sometimes until 2 am to earn overtime pay which they need to make ends meet. Many workers are not paid hourly, but by piece, causing them to stay long hours to finish quotas.
Aside from not earning enough, Nike workers in Thailand face abysmal working conditions. Workers often are not issued proper safety equipment and suffer job injuries. Thai migrant workers at Nike factories in Taiwan are only permitted to use the bathroom only two times a day, leading workers to suffer kidney infections and other health problems. When workers organize and try to improve these conditions they are harassed or fired. Or worse, the factory closes and shifts to non-union production where wages and benefits are even worse. For instance, in September the Thai Iryo Garment factory, which produced for Nike, shut down. Nike shifted production to VT Garment in Sathupradit and Garment Tech factory in Bangkok, neither, of which has union.
Mr. Woods, we ask that you use your influence with Nike to push for the following extremely reasonable requests:
· Nike has to set the same standard for their workers' living and provide labour protection to every worker throughout the world.
· Nike has to pay living wage that enables a worker and 2 dependents to be able to live like a human being. Nike has to respect workers union rights and provide protection to labour leaders and respect the collective bargaining rights.
· Nike has to stop using sub-contracting and sweatshops that are not protected by law.
· Nike has to comply with Occupational Health and Safety working environment.
Truly yours,
Endorsed by:
Thai Iryo Garment Workers Union, Par Garment Workers Union, the Textile Garment and Leather Federation of Thailand, the Paper and Printing Federation of Thailand, All State Enterprises Workers Federation, State Railway Workers Union, Labour Coordinating Center, Thai Labour Campaign, Center for Labour Information Service and Training, and Student Federation of Thailand
November 2000
Tiger Woods,
Shangri La Hotel Bangkok
Re: The suffering of Thai Iryo Garment workers that produce for Nike
Dear Tiger Woods,
Thai Iryo Garment Company is located at 31/9 Moo 2, Phaholyothin Road, Klonglaung Prathumthanisince 1984. The company produces clothing for many leading transnational corporations, especially Nike. On 15th September 2000, the company announced of the closure of the factory and laid off 1,236 persons with a promise of compensation. However, the workers have been waiting for compensation for over two months and there are still 1,016 workers waiting for a total of 41 million baht compensation.
We, the Thai Iryo Garment workers are now staying at the basement of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to wait for compensation. Many of us are facing very heavy pressure of family responsibilities. There is still no sign of hope that the company will pay compensation to all of us.
We are writing to you as a Nike spokesperson and an international beloved athlete. On this occasion in which you are visiting Thailand, we the Thai Iryo Garment workers that produced Nike for many years would like to request your help for the following.
1. To help pressure the Thai Government and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to first pay the remaining compensation to all the workers and claim the money from the company later.
2. To write a letter to Iryo Garment company asking them to pay compensation to us.
3. To tell Nike to take responsibility for the situation of Thai Iryo Garment workers.
Thank you very much for your kind consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Waraphan Chomsri, Chairwoman of Thai Iryo Garment Workers Union , Thai Labour Campaign, Coordinator: Junya Yimprasert, Phone: + 66 1 617 5491, +66 2 692 7963 Fax: +66 2 692 7963 Web Address: TBA
END
Are Slave Labor Products Being Sold In Stores In Your Area?
Free Burma Coalition ~ November 14
A number of grassroots organizations, including the Free Burma Coalition, United Students Against Sweatshops, Global Exchange, and the Campaign for Labor Rights, among others, have become concerned by the alarming increase of apparel imports from Burma to the U.S.
As you may be aware, the military junta in Rangoon has become an international pariah for its suppression of democracy and flagrant and widespread violations of human rights. Burma is also facing tough action from the International Labor Organization (ILO) for endemic forced labor in the country, and for the complete lack of labor rights there. Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate and leader of Burma's struggle for democracy, has called for the U.S. government to halt multinational corporations from propping up the military regime.
To honor this request, in 1997 President Clinton signed into law a limited ban on new investments in Burma. A massive influx of Burmese-made apparel is presently undermining this ban. Apparel imports from Burma continue to skyrocket, having increased by 272% since 1995. This is a significant source of revenue for the junta in Rangoon, constituting over 80% of all Burmese imports entering the U.S. But Activists around the country are taking action! Recently, students at UC Berkeley and American University discovered apparel items in their campus bookstores with the "Made in Myanmar" label. After drawing campus media attention to the issue, the universities decided to pull the Burmese-made goods, and the Jansport company has requested a return of all its Burmese-made apparel from its stores. Greedily, however, a number of other retail clothing companies in the U.S. continue to sell items with the "Made in Myanmar" label, including Adidas, Kohl's, Warner Bros., Bugle Boy, Jordache, and Nautica.
While campaigns targeting these individual companies may be effective, we should pressure the U.S. to ban apparel imports from Burma altogether! The AFL-CIO has recently sent a letter to Clinton asking for a ban on Burmese garment imports, but it is important that the Administration hear about this issue from as many people as possible. We need you send a letter to Clinton immediately! A sample letter follows.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SUPPORT LABOR RIGHTS AND A FREE BURMA:
- Copy the sample letter to Clinton; add a personal paragraph about your concern for freedom in Burma and/or labor rights.
- Email, mail, or fax the letter to Clinton right away!
- Forward this message to as many people in the U.S. as you can, and urge them to do the same!
- Investigate stores and name brands where you shop! Look for the "Made in Myanmar" label. If you find this label, write down the name brand, the store location, and the RN number. Notify the Free Burma Coalition with this information; notify media in your area, and finally, question the company that is vending the item whether it is their policy to source from Burma. You can even buy the item, save the receipt, and then return it, claiming that you are very dissatisfied with the product as it was made in Burma, a country where forced labor is endemic!
The following companies continue to vend items made in Burma:
Name brand apparel companies: Adidas, Kohl's, Warner Bros., Bugle Boy, Jordache, and Nautica.
Retail companies: Perry Ellis, Karl Kani, Kasper ASL, Macy's, Sports Authority, Williams-Sonoma, Montgomery Ward, Dress Barn, Filene's Conway, Burlington Coat Factory and others. Wal-Mart's Canadian division also imports from Burma.
Any information on companies vending "Made in Myanmar" products can be sent to: Free Burma Coalition 1101 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 204 Washington, DC 20002 (202) 547-5985 (202) 544-6118 (fax) jeremy@freeburmacoalition.org
SAMPLE LETTER TO CLINTON:
The Honorable William J. Clinton
President, Office of the White House, Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Clinton,
I am writing to urge you to ban imports of garments from Burma. [personal explanation of your interest in this issue as a labor rights and/or Free Burma supporter] In 1997, you signed into a law a bill enacting federal sanctions against Burma with the intent of pressuring for political change in the country, especially to pressure for democracy and respect for human rights in the country. Since that time, as you are no doubt aware, the political and human rights situation in Burma has deteriorated. The democracy party, the National League for Democracy, faces total political annihilation at the hands of the junta in Rangoon. Clearly this is a time when the international community needs to act decisively. The United States could act decisively by banning garment imports from Burma. This is an action that would have significant impact, as garment imports now constitute over 80% of the total imports to the U.S. from Burma.
Thank for taking this strong, decisive action to promote democracy.
Sincerely,
For more information, please visit www.freeburmacoalition.org.
END
Burmese Junta's New Orders Prohibiting Forced Labour Is To Remain Secret, says ICFTU
(ICFTU OnLine) ~ Nov. 13
Burma's ruling State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) will not provide the country's national media with the text of new directives allegedly outlawing forced labour, "since many Burmese people are illiterate and are too poor to own radios", a military junta spokesman said today. "Instead", he said, "the directive has been sent to police stations all over the country".
The directive, known as "Supplementary Order to Order 1/1999" , was presented last week by Rangoon as a major concession to the International Labour Office (ILO), which has demanded that Burma amend its laws allowing for the exaction of forced labour, eradicate the practice and punish those guilty of imposing it.
The startling announcement came in a fax sent this morning by SPDC spokesman Lt. Col. Hla Min to a foreign radio correspondent in Bangkok, according to the underground Federation of Trade Unions - Burma (FTUB), which maintains an office there. Lt. Col Hla Mins's fax was in response to FTUB atempts to ascertain that the "Supplementary Order" had been made available to the population via the country's mass media. On Sunday 12th November, a Voice of America (Burmese section) reporter spoke to major Burmese newspapers and to the domestic service of the national radio station. None had heard of either Order 1/1999, a similar directive issued last year under ILO pressure, or the recent "Supplementary Order" dated 1st November 2000.
An official of the Myanmar News Agency - Radio section who was on duty on November 1, denied having heard anything about government instructions against forced labour. The FTUB-VOA inquiry with the Kyemone [Mirror] newspaper and the "New Light of Myanmar", the junta's official mouthpiece newspaper, drew a similar blank. According to the Geneva-based Burma Peace Foundation, "serious doubts now exist as to the whether the junta has produced a Burmese version of the "Orders" at all". In his letter to ILO Director General Juan Somavia of ovember 1, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt listed Myanmar's Official Gazette as one of the 18 authorities and institutions which had received the "Supplementary Order".
Meanwhile, in Brussels today the ICFTU said "fresh evidence of forced labour is pouring in from Burma's border areas". It said the latest testimony it had received was that of a textile worker from Rangoon, who escaped on Friday November 10 2000 from forced labour as a porter for the 203rd Light Infantry Battalion, based in Karen State, on the Burma-Thai border.
For further details please contact ICFTU ++.32.477.28.63.04 (GSM) or FTUB, Information Secretary ++.66.1.668.38.58
END
Protesters Clog Traffic in Downtown Stamford
By James O'Keefe, The (Stamford) Advocate ~ Nov. 9
Yesterday's evening rush hour in Stamford turned into a gridlock nightmare for commuters when 100 protesters blocked access to Interstate 95 to attract attention to the plight of striking janitors. Traffic was at a stop for about a half-hour at the intersections of North State Street with Atlantic Street and Washington Boulevard before 37 protesters were arrested by police. Janitors and supporters used yellow crime tape and their bodies to block access at 5 p.m. About two dozen demonstrators chained themselves together and sat in the street, prompting police to call in the fire department to cut the chains.
The protest was launched a day after Service Employees International Union Local 531 walked out of negotiations with local cleaning contractors that employ the striking janitors. The union is seeking better wages and benefits for janitors. Contractors failed to agree to about a dozen key issues, ranging from sick leave to vacation days, said Jane McAlevey, a union organizer. Representatives for the contractors said the two sides were not far apart and that the contractors want the strike to end. No janitors were arrested yesterday.
The 37 people taken into custody on misdemeanor charges of obstructing free passage were union workers, officials from other unions and college students from Yale and Wesleyan universities. Some commuters didn't approve of the act of civil disobedience. Some motorists honked their horns, while others leaned out of their cars and screamed at the activists. "I got a sick child at home. I don't have time for this," yelled one man, who declined to give his name.
Union officials said last night's demonstration was designed to send a message to contractors and the public that janitors and their supporters will do whatever it takes to get higher pay and health-care benefits "The inconvenience commuters might feel cannot compare to the inconvenience the janitors face trying to make a living on $6 an hour," union spokeswoman Cynthia Kain said. Protesters carried hand-made stop signs and chanted, "No justice, no peace," as they forced cars to stop.
McAlevey, who was arrested during the demonstration, said protesters sat on the bumper of one car to prevent it from passing through the human road block at North State and Atlantic streets.McAlevey and 15 other protesters were arrested at the intersection within 10 minutes. Twenty-one protesters at Washington Boulevard were taken into custody within 35 minutes."North State Street was clogged and backed up all the way down to Interstate 95," police Lt. Thomas Wuennemann said. One motorist who was caught in the traffic jam took it in stride but questioned the timing of the demonstration. "I know they are trying to get a proper wage, but I'm not sure this is the way you should go about it," said the Stamford resident, who declined to give his name. "There are people here who have appointments and places to be, and they are holding them up. . . . I guess that's their point. (The traffic) is bad enough at this time of night without this."
Janitors throughout Fairfield County began striking Oct. 2. More than 400 have walked off the job at major office buildings - including UST Inc., Norelco, GE Capital and Merritt 7 - in Stamford, Norwalk and Greenwich. Jerry Brown, president of the New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199, was among those arrested, each of whom were held on $40 bond, said police Lt. Brian McElligott. They will be arraigned later this month in state Superior Court in Stamford. Several of the protesters remained behind bars late last night.
Deputy Police Chief Richard Priolo said police had learned the union was planning last night's demonstration and were prepared to deal with it. About two dozen officers were on scene within seconds after the protesters blocked the street. Police Chief Dean Esserman, who supervised the operation, said officers did an outstanding job bringing the demonstration to an end without violence or injury. McAlevey said the protest stemmed from a breakdown in contract negotiations with the contractors "on issues we really consider fundamental to both healthy families and basic workers' rights."
An attorney speaking on behalf of the contractors painted a different picture of the negotiations. "I think the only issue of relevance is that last evening presented a clause that would allow the union to strike at any time during the life of the agreement to strike on labor disputes not related to Fairfield County," said Richard Wilsker, who represents White Plains, N.Y.-based Colin Service Systems Inc. "The contractors found it unreasonable and the union walked out."
The only other sticking points were "tangential economic issues and (contract) language," none of which were major, Wilsker said. "The contractors advised the union this morning that they were ready, willing and able to resume negotiations," he said. "The union at this point has not asked to resume negotiations." Contractors said they want the strike to end. "We're hoping the strike would be over (Tuesday night)," said Aramis Cordal of Melillo Maintenance Inc. in Stamford. "Unfortunately, the union walked out. We wanted to have an end to this as soon as possible. The strike is not good for the workers, the customers and it is not good for us, either."
Other contractors involved in the negotiations are Service Management Group, Temco Building Maintenance, One Source Inc. Shamrock Building Services, Unicco Service Co. and five others.The union said yesterday it would step up its efforts and launch similar demonstrations if an agreement isn't reached. Three additional protesters were arrested Tuesday night for protesting in front of Stamford Plaza at 301 Tresser Blvd. They were charged with obstructing free passage.
-Peter Davenport contributed to this story.
END
SAS Lock Themselves to Doors of Univ. of Arizona Admin Bldg to Protest Sweatshop
By Tim Bartley ~ Nov. 9
At approximately 6:35 a.m. today, members of Students Against Sweatshops (SAS) locked themselves to the doors of the U of A Administration building, in protest of the U of A's continued support of sweatshops. The students are blocking access to the Administration building because of President Peter Likins' refusal to honor his written promise to withdraw from the controversial Fair Labor Association (FLA).
Students are blockading the building by locking themselves to the entrances. Some students have U-shaped bicycle locks around their necks that lock them to the door handles. Other students are making a human-chain to block several doors. "We're putting our bodies on the line for the sake of exploited workers everywhere," said SAS member Lydia Lester.SAS wants President Likins to follow through on his commitment to leave the FLA. SAS member Tim Bartley said: "We demand that Likins get out of the FLA immediately. Unless he does so, we cannot allow the administrative business of the University to continue." SAS member Greg Knehans added: "Staying in the FLA is chaining the U of A to sweatshop labor and violations of human rights. Once President Likins releases the University from the FLA, we will release ourselves from the Administration Building."
The FLA is an organization that intends to monitor apparel production. It has been heavily criticized for being controlled by apparel corporations themselves. Soon after its founding, several participating labor unions and non-governmental organizations dropped out in protest of the charter document's weakness and structural flaws.
Students and human rights advocates have repeatedly argued that the FLA will do more harm than good. The FLA's critics have often pointed out that it does not insure true independence in monitoring, does not publicly disclose factory locations and monitoring results, and does not respect the importance of a living wage. "The FLA allows corporations to police themselves," said SAS member M.J. Braun. "It is a corporate fig-leaf, a smokescreen."
"The FLA is not only flawed--it is contrary to the campaign against sweatshops," said Bartley. "It keeps information secret, allows apparel companies to choose their own monitors, and bolsters corporate power. It does nothing to empower sweatshop workers."
In March of 1999, the U of A joined the FLA. In April of that year, Likins agreed that the FLA was in need of serious reform and promised to withdraw if specific reforms were not in place by August 1, 2000. On August 2, 2000, the UA Faculty Senate Task Force for Monitoring Labor and Human Rights Issues released a report evaluating the FLA. The Task Force found that the FLA had not met the U of A's standards for full disclosure, independent monitoring, women's rights, and a living wage. The Task Force report found the FLA to be especially lacking in relation to Likins' commitment to independent monitoring: "The most flagrant violation of this commitment . . . is that the FLA Charter Document states that the independent external monitor is selected by the company for which it is being hired to monitor. This indisputably breaches the mandate set forth in the Commitments." As a result of this and other problems, the Task Force recommended that the U of A withdraw from the FLA.
Defying this recommendation and his previous pledge, Likins announced on October 11 that he intended to remain a member of the FLA. SAS member Rachel Wilson said: "By going back on his word, Likins has blatantly betrayed the university community--and more importantly, sweatshop workers. We can't in good conscience allow the U of A administration to keep supporting apparel corporations that use sweatshops."
"The FLA is not part of the anti-sweatshop movement," said Braun. "It is a top-down bureaucracy that tries to protect corporations from public pressure and grassroots organizing. We've asked President Likins to support sweatshop workers without supporting sweatshop owners, but he hasn't been willing to do this."
Contact: M.J. Braun (on-site phone: 241-2603) Tim Bartley (on-site phone: 241-2603; messages: 882-5212)
END
A World of Sweatshops: Progress is Slow in the Drive for Better Conditions
Businessweek Online ~ November 6
Walk through Tong Yang Indonesia (TYI) shoe factory, an 8,500-worker complex of hot, dingy buildings outside Jakarta, and company president Jung Moo Young will show you all the improvements he has made in the past two years. He did so at the behest of his biggest customer, Reebok International Ltd., to allay protests by Western activists who accuse the U.S. shoemaker of using sweatshops.
Last year, Jung bought new machinery to apply a water-based solvent to glue on shoe soles instead of toulene, which may be hazardous to workers who breathe it in all day. He installed a new ventilation system after Reebok auditors found the old one inadequate. TYI bought new chairs with backs so that its young seamstresses have some support while seated at their machines--and back braces for 500 workers who do heavy lifting. In all, TYI, which has $100 million in annual sales, spent $2 million of its own money to satisfy Reebok. But to Jung's surprise, it was a sound investment. ''We should make it all back after three years,'' he says. ''The workers are more productive, and the new machinery is more efficient.''
WINDOW DRESSING
TYI's efforts show how much progress Western consumer goods companies can make in cleaning up sweatshop conditions. In the early 1990s, many companies adopted codes of conduct requiring contractors to fix harsh or abusive conditions. Based on recent visits to factories in Asia, several companies--such as Reebok (RBK), Nike (NKE), Liz Claiborne (LIZ), and Mattel (MAT)--have finally begun enforcing their codes in the past year or two.
In fact, more than a dozen companies have joined efforts to create an industrywide system for verifying that consumer goods sold in the U.S. are made under humane conditions. The most ambitious effort involves the Fair Labor Assn., which grew out of a Presidential task force of companies and human-rights groups. It plans to send outside monitors to factories worldwide to ensure that they meet minimum standards on everything from health and safety to workers' rights to join unions.
The problem is that such companies are the exceptions. Although many multinationals operate facilities in Asia and Latin America that are as well run as any in the West, far too many still buy from factories where practices are appalling--especially in such labor-intensive sectors as garments, shoes, and toys. And many companies that claim to adhere to labor codes are still in the window dressing stage.
Then there are the tougher issues that even companies such as Reebok haven't yet grappled with. How can companies respect workers' rights to collectively bargain in China, say, which bans free unions and often doesn't enforce its own labor laws, impressive as they are on paper? Nor have most Western companies improved wages, which are often below what even governments like Indonesia define as enough to support a family.
Investigators for U.S. labor and human-rights groups estimate that Asia and Latin America have thousands of sweatshops, which do everything from force employees to work 16-hour days to cheat them out of already meager wages, that make products for U.S. and European companies. ''It would be extremely generous to say that even 10% of [Western companies charged with abuses] have done anything meaningful about labor conditions,'' says S. Prakash Sethi, a Baruch College business professor who helped set up a monitoring system for Mattel at its dozen factories in China, Indonesia, Mexico, and elsewhere. Abuses may actually be proliferating. Price hikes in U.S. retail garments have lagged inflation since 1982, and Asian factory owners complain they are under intense pressure to find new ways to squeeze out costs. ''American retailers are driving down prices, which ends up squeezing labor,'' says Robert Antoshak, vice-president at garment industry consultant Werner International in Reston, Va.
When accused by activists of buying from sweatshops, brand-name marketers have tended to dismiss the claims. But there's reason to believe the activists are often right. A recent BUSINESS WEEK probe found that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) bought Kathie Lee Gifford handbags in a Chinese factory where guards beat workers and owners deducted up to 70% of their pay for food and lodging (BW--Oct. 2). The National Labor Committee, a New York watchdog group, first made that charge in a May report on 16 Chinese factories used by Western companies. Each broke Chinese labor laws or the buyers' own codes, it says.
Some of the U.S. companies cited in the report, including Timberland Co. (TBL) and New Balance, say they reexamined the Chinese factories and found most of the charges to be accurate. But others, including Huffy Corp. (HUF) and Stride Rite Corp. (SRR), refused to discuss the subject or let BUSINESS WEEK visit their factories. Meanwhile, a yearlong study by labor experts from Harvard and four other universities found that 13 factories making collegiate logo clothing for U.S. companies in seven developing countries were guilty of nonpayment of wages, lax safety, and excessive overtime.
TIP OF THE ICEBERG. Liz Claiborne Inc.'s attempt to improve conditions at a factory in Guatemala shows how hard it is for companies to clean up sweatshops. In 1998, the U.S. apparel giant began working with the Commission for the Verification of Corporate Codes of Conduct (Coverco), a group of Guatemalan and U.S. church and humanitarian activists, to monitor one of its suppliers, identified by local sources as Choi Shin, a Korean-owned factory near Guatemala City. Liz Claiborne released Coverco's report last year but declined to give out the factory's name or let BUSINESS WEEK inside it.
Coverco found a litany of problems. Choi Shin couldn't refute workers' claims that they didn't receive proper overtime payments or promised production bonuses. Workers lacked adequate protection when handling hazardous chemicals. Toilets and canteens were unsanitary. Some managers screamed at workers or pressured those who complained to resign. And many women, who comprise 88% of the plant's workers, said they were denied time off for doctors' appointments. One pregnant worker who had a note from her doctor about a high-risk pregnancy was not allowed to leave until five hours after she complained of pain. She lost the baby.
Coverco says the plant is slowly improving due to Liz Claiborne's pressure. But Choi Shin is the tip of an iceberg. ''The majority of [garment-exporting] plants have similar problems,'' says Coverco general coordinator Homero Fuentes.
The inability to form free unions means that workers often lack the leverage to make much beyond subsistence wages. The Modas Uno Korea plant in the Guatemala City suburb of Villanueva stopped paying workers on time in August and fired 22 who complained to the Labor Ministry. On Sept. 2, workers stormed the plant demanding back pay--and the company relented. Workers who stayed on said they were offered sewing machines instead of severance pay when the factory shut down in early October. ''They make you work more hours than they pay you for,'' says Albina de Perez, a fired worker who earned $25 a week at the plant. No one answered Modas' phone lines to respond to questions.
OUSTED MANAGERS.
At least corporate responsibility programs seem to be showing faster progress in some countries, such as Indonesia, where suppression of labor activism has abated since the 1998 downfall of strongman President Suharto.
Golden Adishoes, a run-down shoe factory near Jakarta, agreed to a host of improvements Reebok demanded as a condition for starting productioin there last summer. And the monitoring team assembled by Baruch's Sethi brought numerous changes to Mattel's two Barbie factories near Jakarta, clean and air-conditioned facilities that employ nearly 12,000 workers. Last year, Mattel removed hazardous solvents from the production process, says Tracey Rogers, manager of one Barbie factory.
Mattel also began promoting workers who pass annual skills tests to higher-paying jobs. Rogers meets with 400 randomly selected workers every other week to hear their concerns. ''I'll be honest,'' says Rogers. ''This process has been good for us.''
Even Nike, the bete noir of labor activists, is finally making changes. Take Nikomas Gemilang, a sprawling, 50-building minicity near Jakarta that employs 22,500 workers making shoes for Nike and Adidas (ADDDY). It is owned by Taiwan's Pou Chen Corp., the world's largest shoe manufacturer. At Nike's urging, Nikomas set a higher wage scale for senior workers and ousted managers who had yelled abuses at workers. The factory also improved safety and food in company dorms, which house 13,000 workers.
Pou Chen Chief Operating Officer Eric Chi says Nikomas is building a shopping mall, hospital, cinema, and a day-care center, which is needed because 85% of workers are female. ''We've heard about all this coming, and we hope conditions here will be better next year,'' says Yune, a woman in her early 20s who has worked and lived at Nikomas for five years.
Such improvements, however, are unlikely to quell Western protesters who insist multinationals exploit workers. Only a few U.S. companies submit to independent audits. And workers' pay, even if it's better than average for that country, is still pitiful considering the nearly 40% gross profit margins Nike and Reebok earn. TYI pays about 22 cents an hour, just over Indonesia's minimum wage. It gets around $13 for every pair of shoes it makes for Reebok, paying only $1 for labor. Still, TYI says that after paying for materials and overhead, its margins are just 10%. It can't just hike its price to Reebok. ''They look for suppliers who sell for the lowest price,'' says a TYI manager. ''If we aren't cheap enough, they'll go to Vietnam or somewhere else.'' The big profits go to shoe companies and retailers: The shoes typically sell for $60 to $70 a pair.
Given the huge oversupply of cheap labor in many developing nations, more widespread gains in the workplace are unlikely until workers can organize unions to demand changes--or unless there is a system to punish violators of international codes.
Even under the programs set up by Nike and Mattel, they are free to sell their goods in the U.S. if it turns out they were made under abusive conditions. But their experiments do suggest that not every factory has to be a sweatshop to make the global economy work.
By Aaron Bernstein, with Michael Shari, in Jakarta, and with Elisabeth Malkin in Guatemala City
END
Thai Durables Must Respect Government Order Says International Union
Thai Labour Campaign ~ November 5
The Thai authorities have been urged to force Thai Durables to respect a recent back-to-work order issued by the Ministry of Labour to end the five-month-old strike at the company. The call comes in a letter to Phromnok Pracha, Minister for Labor and Social Security from the Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation. Says ITGLWF General Secretary Neil Kearney: "The Thai Durables conflict was sparked by the company's refusal to negotiate a wage increase. The workers, who for several years had made considerable sacrifices in order to help save the company during the country s economic crisis, had attempted to negotiate an increase once it became clear that the company s fortunes were improving. During the strike, the protesting workers were attacked on several occasions by thugs believed to have been hired by the company".
On Thursday October 26, an order issued by the Ministry of Labor instructed the workers to return to work the following day, and ordered the company to reinstate them at existing wage levels. The Labor Relations Committee is to arbitrate the dispute as soon as possible. "Most of the workers were unhappy with the Ministry s decision, and would have preferred a negotiated solution", says Kearney. "Nonetheless, they abided by the Ministry s decision. "Relations got off to a bad start on Thursday evening when Mr So Denduangrudee, the Managing Director, denied access to the workers, who had travelled back that afternoon in preparation for starting work at 8am the following day. The workers were forced to spend the night in the compound of the Ministry of Labour, some 35 kilometres away.
"The next morning, the workers returned to the factory, but the company refused to take back 405 of the workers sacked during the strike. The 800 workers who were allowed in have still not been give work assignments, and are sitting in the factory with nothing to do. The company also has increased the number of workers in each dormitory room from six to eight, which has made the rooms very crowded". Concludes Kearney: "Refusing to reinstate 405 workers is a clear violation of the Ministry s order. Refusing to give work assignments to the workers who were reinstated, while at the same time making living conditions more uncomfortable, demonstrates the company s arrogance and ill-will towards the workers".
Kearney has asked the Minster of Labor to take measures to force Thai Durables to abide in good faith by the terms of the Ministry s order. He has also urged So Denduangrudee to respect the decision, to respect the rights of the workers, and to work to establish good industrial relations at his factory in order to ensure a future for both the company and the workers.
The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation is an International Trade Secretaria bringing together 220 affiliated organisations in 110 countries with a combined membership of 10 million workers.
For more information, contact: Neil Kearney, General Secretary (office: 32/2/512.2606 or GSN 32/75 93 24 87) Thai Labour Campaign, Coordinator: Junya Yimprasert Phone: + 66 1 617 5491, +66 2 692 7963 Fax: +66 2 692 7963
END
Federal Board Backs College Unions
By Anjetta McQueen, AP Education Writer ~ November 2
WASHINGTON (AP) - For four years, New York University graduate student LaDawn Haglund's life has been a whirlwind of preparing lessons for the sociology class she teaches twice a week and working on her dissertation about sweatshops in Latin America.
At the same time, she has tried to convince NYU administrators that they're running something of a sweatshop of their own: the low pay, high costs for housing and inadequate health benefits that graduate student-teachers like her face.
"They always say, `Our doors are open,''' Haglund said. "We come, and we talk. Then they just don't do anything.''
A National Labor Relations board decision might change that for Haglund and thousands of other graduate students in private universities who do double duty as teachers or researchers.
The board recognized their status as workers and their right to organize and bargain as a union. Wednesday's landmark decision makes NYU the first private American university subject to collective bargaining with graduate assistants.
"We will not deprive workers ... of their fundamental statutory rights to organize and bargain with their employer, simply because they are also students,'' the board said in its unanimous ruling.
"It's huge,'' said Carl Aramayo, a 25-year-old Yale University history graduate student who teaches 80 to 100 undergraduates a year. "We are employees. We are providing a service to the university.''
The federal ruling does not apply to public universities, which have about two dozen bargaining units nationwide, because the primary labor law enforced by the board applies only to the private sector. Public university workers fall under state laws, but 21 states have "right-to-work'' laws that allow workers to hold jobs without joining unions or paying dues.
John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO labor confederation, said the NLRB decision "underscores what the graduate workers have known all along: their long hours spent grading papers, teaching classes and holding office hours is real work, done by real employees of the university.''
He said in a statement that 30,000 graduate teachers already have joined unions.
The ruling upholds a regional decision in favor of the 1,500 New York University graduate assistants who voted this year on whether to unionize. The votes have yet to be counted because of a dispute between the students and university officials.
Whether NYU approves a union, the reversal of a two-decade-old precedent gives another class of students the right to organize. Last year, the board extended similar rights to medical interns.
College officials' rebuke of the decision was sharp.
"They have shown a serious lack of understanding of graduate education,'' said John Beckman, NYU's spokesman. "These graduate assistants are first and foremost students. They are admitted as students, not recruited as employees.''
Yale University, where graduate students have also sought to be recognized as a bargaining unit, urged NYU to "carry the case to federal courts if it has the opportunity.''
But Carlos Aramayo, a doctoral candidate at Yale who teaches undergraduate Latin American history, said the ruling adds momentum to a national movement to unionize. "We consider the work we do for the university essential to the university's functioning, and because of that we think we're employees like anybody else,'' Aramayo said.
The NLRB's decisions cannot be appealed. NYU's Beckman said the university had not decided whether it would "avail ourselves of the court system.''
Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel of the American Council on Education, which filed documents supporting the university, said many institutions fear that the decision could lay the groundwork for a reversal of a 1981 Supreme Court ruling that precluded faculty in general from collective bargaining at private institutions.
"It erodes a relationship between faculty and students,'' he said of the NLRB decision. "From grading to who should graduate to the curriculum that might be taught, they could all become subjects of collective bargaining.''
NYU and others contend the board excludes graduate students paid by outside grants, unnecessarily dividing scholars. The board says its decision covers students compensated by the university for services they provide.
"They have created artificial distinctions between different 'types' of graduate assistants,'' Beckman said.
The waning influence of the labor movement has turned unions' eyes to college campuses. In the mid-1990s, unions began offering summer internships.
Patrick McCreery, 33, an NYU graduate student in American Studies, predicted: "We are going to be seeing a lot of union activism at other private universities because of this decision.''
END
Eliud Almaguer's House Burned as Duro Workers Tragedies Continue
The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras ~ November 1, 2000
As a result of the political pressure generated by the International Forum for Freedom of Association organized in the month of August by CJM and the UNT in Reynosa, Tamaulipas supporting the Duro workers struggle, the government finally agreed to the union registration for the workers. After this, the workers immediately started to affiliate their fellow workers in their own union in order to be able to legally demand the collective contract from the paper industry union of the CTM who actually hold the contract with Duro now.
Duro is a maquiladora located in the city of Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas bordering Pharr, Texas, and about 15 minutes from Reynosa (aacross the US border from McAllen, TX). Duro assembles gift bags for different corporations, such as, Expressions from Hallmark, Neiman-Marcus Group, Inc., Caribbean Packaging, CLEO, Crystal Creative Products, Cindus Corporation and Stephen Lawrence. Duro is a private company owned by the Shor family with Charles Shor as its CEO, and the company's headquarters are based in Ludlow, Kentucky.
The Duro workers have been doing research over the past month to find out where the CTM and Duro have registered the collective contract if it was with the Conciliation and Arbitration Board in Ciudad Victoria (state jurisdiction) or in Mexico City (federal jurisdiction). The Duro workers traveled to the state capital to get certified documents to continue with the process and had to go through all the bureaucratic red tape required by the official government. With the advice of Antonio Villalba of Authentic Front of Workers (FAT), the workers went to Mexico City on the 28th of September and finally were able to demand the collective contract that the CTM holds at the federal level with Duro. It has been a month since the demand was presented, and until today the Conciliation and Arbitration Board has not notified the workers of any resolution; they are keeping the process stuck.
Meanwhile, the workers are still in the permanent planton or demonstration with their banners and signs, demanding justice for Duro workers and mobilizing their companer@s. Last week they were giving out flyers to all of their fellow workers in front of the company with messages like The Struggle Was Not in Vain, We Got Our Union! It Is Not a Crime to Demand Better Working Conditions It Is Our Right!! Soon We Will Have Elections Because We Already Demanded the Collective Contracts from the CTM All of the workers were so enthusiastic and happy getting these flyers in front of the manager, Conrado Garza, who was surprised and trying to learn what the flyers said.
When the managers at Duro didn t hear about any activity, they thought that the workers had given up the struggle. But just when they were realizing that the workers had lit the flame again, last night at 1:00 in the morning someone told Eliud that his house was on fire. When he arrived, he found that his house was already completely demolished by the fire. The neighbors had called the police and told them that Eliud s house was burning up, and the police said, If it is Eliud s, then let it burn. Forty-five minutes later, the firefighters arrived when there was nothing left to extinguish.
Eliud s wife, Evelia, and his little daughter saw the house that they had built with the sacrifices of all of their lives being engulfed in flames and they felt powerless in the face of this tragedy. Eliud went to the police department to denounce the fire. However, they refused to take a statement from him, saying to him they were too busy . Later he went to the media, arguing that this fire was set intentionally because it s true that his house was built of pallets and plywood, but he didn t have electricity or butane gas that would set the fire; they were cooking with wood because they were poor. Therefore, there was no risk that could provoke this fire. The neighbors said to Eliud that this accident could be retaliation because he was in the middle of the problems at Duro. In fact, they saw a guy with a blue T-shirt inside his house lighting a fire, and after that they heard three explosions and then the guy ran away. Eliud is asking the authorities for an investigation and also for an inspection to clarify what happened.
With tears in her eyes, Eliud s wife was watching in sadness the loss of the chairs, the stove, the pans--all were just charcoal and ashes--and at the same time he was telling her, This is the price I had to pay for the struggle for our rights.
As if this were not enough, at the same time three Duro workers who were involved in the strike, and therefore were without jobs even though they were the head of their household, lost their grandmother. She was sick with a gall bladder infection and they took her to a private hospital for surgery where the cost was 30,000 pesos. They didn t have the money to pay the hospital so they moved her to the public hospital where she died of complications of her lungs and heart. Margarita Zenaida and Socorro Cerda Martinez, who are without jobs because they were fired from Duro and now have a debt of 30,000 pesos for the hospital, are asking for support to pay for their grandmother s funeral.
CJM is calling on all our members to respond to the call of Eliud Almaguer and the Cerda Martinez sisters. It is necessary and urgent that you send your contributions for this emergency.
The Duro workers have been at the planton at City Hall for four and half months, waiting for the Conciliation and Arbitration Board in Mexico City to set the date to hold the elections where they will choose the union that will represent them (either the CTM or their own union) in the negotiation of their collective contract. It is urgent that you send your donations of support to Eliud and the Cerda sisters and letters to Hallmark, Governor Yarrington, and Duro Bag Manufacturing, demanding that there be an investigation of this fire and a search for who is responsible for it.
You can send donations marked FOR ELIUD AND THE CERDA MARTINEZ FAMILY To:
The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras
530 Bandera Rd., San Antonio, TX 78228
Thank you for your support!
****************
Sample letters:
To Governor Tomas Yarrington
November 1, 2000
Governor Thomas Yarrington Rubalcaba,
Governor of the State of Tamaulipas
Web: http://www.tamaulipas.gob.mx/gobernador/contacto.htm
Email: tamps@infosel.net.mx
TeL 01152 (1) 318-8700 Fax: 01152 (1) 318 8701
Dear Governor Yarrington,
We want to bring to your attention events that have taken place in your state yesterday. On October 31 the house of Eliud Almaguer, the leader of workers at Duro Bag Manufacturing Company in Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, was burned to the ground and all of his family s belongings were destroyed. There are witnesses and evidence that suggest this fire was set intentionally.
You may not know about this incident because when Mr. Almaguer went to the municipal police to report it, he was told they were too busy to take his report. Earlier, when neighbors called the police after seeing a man in a blue T shirt inside Eliud s house and hearing three explosions after he ran out, the police said If this is Eliud s house, let it burn.
To those of us in the international community watching these events it is clear that an investigation needs to be undertaken by the authorities to find out who perpetrated this violent act, why it seems the public authorities are colluding in it, and what reparations can be made to the Almaguer family who are now homeless.
These events happen at a time when the Duro workers are at a crucial point in the process of waiting for the Conciliation and Arbitration Board in Mexico City to set a date for the election of the union the workers will choose to represent them in procuring their collective contract.
We are outraged at this brutal and blatant violation of workers rights in the state of Tamaulipas and expect that you will pursue an investigation and make proper reparations immediately.
Sincerely,
***********
To Hallmark
November 1, 2000
We want to bring to your attention events that appear to be brutal acts of repression against the leader of the workers at Duro Bag Manufacturing a supplier of gift bags to your company. On October 31 the house of Eliud Almaguer, the leader of the workers at Duro Bag Manufacturing Company in Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, was burned to the ground and all of his family s belongings were destroyed. There are witnesses and evidence that suggest this fire was set intentionally.
When Mr. Almaguer went to the municipal police to report it, he was told they were too busy to take his report. Earlier, when neighbors called the police after seeing a man in a blue T shirt inside Eliud s house and hearing three explosions after he ran out, the police said, If this is Eliud s house, let it burn.
To those of us in the international community watching these events it is clear that an investigation needs to be undertaken by the authorities to find out who perpetrated this violent act, why it seems the public authorities are colluding in it, and what reparations can be made to the Almaguer family who are now homeless. We are asking that you inquire what seems a blatant and violent act of retaliation against workers exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to organize.
These events happen at a time when the Duro workers are at a crucial point in the process, waiting for the Conciliation and Arbitration Board in Mexico City to set a date for the election of the union the workers will choose to represent them in procuring their collective contract.
We are outraged at what appears to be a brutal and blatant violation of worker and civil rights in relation to a supplier for a major US corporation that prides itself on fostering a culture of care. We expect you will pursue an investigation and press Duro Bag Manufacturing to make proper reparations immediately.
Sincerely,
************
To Duro
November 1, 2000
Charles Shor, CEO
Duro Bag Co.
Ludlow Kentucky
Tel: 1-800-879-3876 or 606-581-8200 Fax: 606-581-8327
Dear Mr. Shor
We want to bring to your attention events that seem to be a brutal act of repression against the leader of the workers at one of the factories of your company, Duro Bag Manufacturing. On October 31 the house of Eliud Almaguer, the leader of the effort to form an independent union of workers at Duro Bag Manufacturing in Tamaulipas, Mexico, was burned to the ground and all of his family s belongings were destroyed. There are witnesses and evidence that suggest this fire was set intentionally.
When Mr. Almaguer went to the municipal police to report it, he was told they were too busy to take his report. Earlier, when neighbors called the police after seeing a man in a blue T shirt inside Eliud s house and hearing three explosions after he ran out, the police said If this is Eliud s house, let it burn.
To those of us in the international community watching these events it is clear that an investigation needs to be undertaken by the authorities to find out who perpetrated this violent act, why it seems the public authorities seem to be colluding in it, and what reparations can be made to the Almaguer family who are now homeless. And we are asking that you inquire what seems to be a blatant and violent act of retaliation against workers exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to organize.
These events happen at a time when the Duro workers are at a crucial point in the process, waiting for the Conciliation and Arbitration Board in Mexico City to set a date for the election of the union the workers will choose to represent them in procuring their collective contract.
We are outraged at what appears to be a brutal and blatant violation of worker and civil rights linked to a company that supplies many US consumers with gift bags. We expect you will pursue an investigation and make proper reparations immediately.
The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras
530 Bandera Road, San Antonio, Texas 78228
Phone: 210.732.8957 Fax: 210.732.8324 E-Mail: cjm@igc.org
END
"Can Labor Change the World?" Labor Conference
Labor Notes ~ November 4, 2000
Save the Date! April 20-22, 2001 Labor Notes Conference, Detroit MI
:Can Labor Change the World?" will bring together hundreds of grassroots labor and social justice activists to learn how we are building and using our power from the workplace to the World Trade Organization.
After years of retreat, we are learning that working people do have power on the job and in the streets.
Speakers will include: Tom Leedham (Candidate for Teamsters President), Carl Biers (Association for Union Democracy), Marta Ojeda (Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras), Monica Santana (Latino Workers Center, NY), Kim Moody (Labor Notes), Steve Early (CWA Verizon strike staff), Daniel Ximenez (Argentine general strike of 2000) Also speakers from: USAS, Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty for Undocumented Workers, Teamsters for a Democratic Union, North Carolina Black-Latino Alliance.
Over 40 workshops including: Labor and new alliances, the fight for global justice, buidling workplace power, union democracy, winning strikes, living wage campaigns, jobs with justice, fighting racism on the job
Place: Cobo Conference Center, downtown Detroit
Registration: $80 includes Saturday Banquet. Early registration by Jan. 31, take $10 off. Some scholarships available.
Lodging: Chosse from three nearby hotels. Mention Labor Notes for these rates:
Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center $99/all sizes (313) 352-0831
Crown Plasa Ponchartrain Hotel $129/all sizes (313) 9645-0200
Best Western-Detroit $89/single, double; $99/triple,quad (313) 887-7000
Childcare ages over 1 year: Available for a fee if registered by March 15.
For more info contact Labor Notes (313) 842-6262 or visit www.labornotes.org
END
Myanmar Villagers Say Forced Labor Persists, Despite ILO Threat
AP ~ November 2
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Villagers who recently escaped Myanmar said the army used them as unpaid laborers and porters to carry ammunition, despite an ILO ultimatum to the military regime to end the practice or face sanctions.
The dissident Federation of Trade Unions Burma released a report in Bangkok late Wednesday which it said shows civilians are still being forced to build roads, barracks and work on army-owned farms.
In June, the International Labor Organization gave the regime four months to show its willingness to stop forced labor. Later this month the ILO's members will review the situation and decide whether to implement unprecedented sanctions against Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Myanmar argues that labor is given voluntarily by people to help national and community development. It says it made legislative and administrative changes in May 1999 to bring it into line with ILO conventions.
Three villagers who fled across the mountainous Thai-Myanmar border last week told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand how the army had dragooned them into arduous manual tasks, giving them little food and no compensation.
"I was walking on the road in my village when soldiers suddenly came and took eight of us away,'' said a 56-year old ethnic Mon farmer, describing his experience in September. "They came with their guns pointing at us, we were afraid and we had to obey.''
The villager, who did not want his name used for fear of retribution, said he spent 18 days with an army patrol in southern Myanmar, carrying baskets of rice, bullets and heavy weapon shells.
"I saw other people beaten by the soldiers. I wasn't beaten because I could walk fast,'' he said. The villager later abandoned his farm in Ye township and fled by foot with his wife to Thailand.
Maung Maung, FTUB general secretary, urged the ILO to take a tough stance against Myanmar.
"Anyone who is not in a military uniform is used for forced labor,'' he said. "Forced labor is still going on and unless there's a change in the governing system of Burma, it will not go away.''
The FTUB report alleged abuses across Myanmar: in the Shan, Mon, Karen, Chin and Arakan States, and in the Bago, Mandalay, Irrawaddy and Tenasserim Divisions.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. In 1990 it ignored the result of general elections swept by the pro-democracy party of Aung San Suu Kyi and has since been repeatedly censured by the United Nations for human rights abuses.
Most Asian nations opposed the ILO's decision in June asking ILO members - governments, workers and employers - to review their links with Myanmar.
David Taw of the National Democratic Front, an alliance of ethnic minority opponents of the regime, said that if sanctions were imposed on Myanmar it would add to pressure on the regime to negotiate with its political opponents.
END
Report Says Global Accounting Firm Overlooks Factory Abuses
By Steven Greenhouse ~ Sept. 28
In a rare inside look at the auditing firms that inspect overseas factories to see whether they are sweatshops, an M.I.T. professor contends that the world's largest factory-monitoring firm does a shoddy job and overlooks many safety and wage violations.
The professor, Dara O'Rourke, said in a report to be issued today that inspectors from the firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, had a pro-management bias, did not uncover the use of carcinogenic chemicals and failed to recognize that some employees were forced to work 80-hour weeks. He also said the firm overlooked other basic problems, including timecards that were falsified and machines that were missing safety guards to protect workers' fingers. "PwC's monitoring efforts are significantly flawed," said Dr. O'Rourke, a professor of environmental and labor policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "PwC's audit reports glossed over problems of freedom of association and collective bargaining, overlooked serious violations of health and safety standards, and failed to report common problems in wages and hours."
Pricewaterhouse officials defended their monitoring, saying their inspectors often uncover violations of minimum wage, overtime and safety laws. But these officials acknowledged that the firm's inspectors occasionally missed things that an expert on industrial hygiene, like Professor O'Rourke, would uncover. "I think we do very good work in this field, and we're contributing to improving conditions on behalf of our clients," said Randy Rankin, the partner in charge of Pricewaterhouse's global contractor compliance practice.
Many apparel companies and universities have hired factory-monitoring firms in recent years to reassure consumers who want to know that the clothes they buy were not made in sweatshops. Pricewaterhouse, which performs more than 6,000 factory inspections a year, is the world's leader in doing inspections for companies, like Nike, that want monitors to check on conditions in the factories they use.
Professor O'Rourke accompanied Pricewaterhouse inspectors and officials with Business for Social Responsibility, a nonprofit group in San Francisco, to factories in China and Korea after Harvard, Notre Dame and three other universities asked them and several other groups to review conditions at more than a dozen plants that make apparel with the universities' logos. That broader monitoring report was presented to the universities last week but is not scheduled to be released until early October.
Professor O'Rourke's report comes during a fierce debate in which many student groups, labor unions and human rights groups are criticizing corporations and universities that rely on auditing firms to inspect their factories. These groups assert that the auditing firms often have a pro-corporate tilt, do not do thorough inspections and should work with nongovernmental organizations, like human rights groups, to gain a fuller picture of factory conditions overseas.
Professor O'Rourke, who has inspected more than 100 Asian factories for the World Bank and various United Nations organizations, called on universities and companies to demand more rigorous monitoring efforts. He criticized Pricewaterhouse inspectors for failing to identify that workers in a garment factory in Seoul, South Korea, used a spot remover containing benzene, a carcinogen. When he visited a factory outside Jakarta, Indonesia, he found that the firm's inspectors had overlooked the same problem during an earlier inspection.
He also faulted the firm's monitors for not noting that the labor union at a Shanghai garment factory was, like most Chinese unions, controlled by management. And he criticized the inspectors for failing to note that little information was given on chemicals used in the factory and that some workers did not wear proper gloves, masks or shoes while doing dangerous tasks or handling dangerous materials.
In addition, his report said Pricewaterhouse monitors received most of their information from managers, not workers, and did perfunctory interviews with workers inside the factory instead of in-depth interviews outside, where workers would probably talk more openly.
His report questioned why Pricewaterhouse monitors found that the Shanghai employees worked 50 to 60 hours a week, while his inspection of time cards found that one employee worked 316.5 hours in a month, or 75 hours a week, and 20 consecutive days. Pharis Harvey, executive director of the International Labor Rights Fund, a nonprofit group based in Washington, said, "The lesson to be drawn is that Pricewaterhouse has to learn how to monitor before it can claim it's doing a serious job."
Defending Pricewaterhouse, Mr. Rankin said his firm received information not just from managers, but by observing factories, examining their records and interviewing their workers. He accused Professor O'Rourke of bias and of failing to appreciate that his firm found many overtime and safety violations. "The allegation that we rely on management at the expense of all other things, that's absolutely wrong," Mr. Rankin said.
He said the firm's inspectors might not have found some of the timecard problems that Professor O'Rourke found because they looked at only a sampling of timecards. And he acknowledged that his firm's inspectors might not have recognized that the spot remover was a benzene derivative because they were not trained industrial hygienists.
Allan Ryan, university attorney at Harvard, said he was not in a position to judge whether Professor O'Rourke's criticisms were valid. "We know monitoring has shortcomings," he said. "What Dara O'Rourke is saying is that it might have more shortcomings than we thought."
END
Re: "Two Cheers for Sweatshops" Letter to NYT Magazine Editor
By Tatyana Margolin & Todd Tucker ~ Sept. 27
The celebratory nature of "Two Cheers for Sweatshops" (Sept. 24) is as appalling as it is misleading. As members of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), part of the so-called "protest" movement, we have not called for boycotts or U.S.-level wages. Rather, we advocate for workers' right to organize, a fundamental human right as defined by the United Nations and a cornerstone of economic development.
Described by the New York Times as the largest student movement since the anti-apartheid divestment campaign, USAS are committed to improving the conditions in which makers of college apparel work. We have fought for these beliefs by demanding that our universities adopt ethically and legally strong codes of conduct, full public disclosure of company information and truly independent verification systems to ensure that sweatshop abuses are alleviated. The fight for union rights was not a "sweetness" that "came" overnight - it was a hard-fought battle that contributed to the development of the US, Britain and Korea. Student and labor coalitions can contribute much to the pressure campaign against labor abuses at home and abroad.
Tatyana Margolin and Todd Tucker
Members of United Students Against Sweatshops at The George Washington University
Day phone: (202) 337-4546 Address: 2401 "H" Street N.W. Apt. 307 Washington, DC 20037
END
Inside a Chinese Sweatshop: "A Life of Fines and Beating"
By Dexter Roberts in Zhongshan and Aaron Bernstein in Washington, Business Week ~ Sept 26
Wal-Mart's self-policing in the Chun Si factory was a disaster. What kind of monitoring system works?
Liu Zhang (not his real name) was apprehensive about taking a job at the Chun Si Enterprise Handbag Factory in Zhongshan, a booming city in Guangdong Province in southern China, where thousands of factories churn out goods for Western companies. Chun Si, which made Kathie Lee Gifford handbags sold by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) as well as handbags sold by Kansas-based Payless ShoeSource Inc. (PSS), advertised decent working conditions and a fair salary. But word among migrant workers in the area was that managers there demanded long hours of their workers and sometimes hit them. Still, Liu, a 32-year-old former farmer and construction worker from far-off Henan province, was desperate for work. A factory job would give him living quarters and the temporary-residence permit internal migrants need to avoid being locked up by police in special detention centers. So in late August, 1999, he signed up.
Liu quickly realized that the factory was even worse than its reputation. Chun Si, owned by Chun Kwan, a Macau businessman, charged workers $15 a month for food and lodging in a crowded dorm--a crushing sum given the $22 Liu cleared his first month. What's more, the factory gave Liu an expired temporary-resident permit; and in return, Liu had to hand over his personal identification card. This left him a virtual captive. Only the local police near the factory knew that Chun Si issued expired cards, Liu says, so workers risked arrest if they ventured out of the immediate neighborhood.
HALF A CENT. Liu also found that Chun Si's 900 workers were locked in the walled factory compound for all but a total of 60 minutes a day for meals. Guards regularly punched and hit workers for talking back to managers or even for walking too fast, he says. And they fined them up to $1 for infractions such as taking too long in the bathroom. Liu left the factory for good in December, after he and about 60 other workers descended on the local labor office to protest Chun Si's latest offenses: requiring cash payments for dinner and a phony factory it set up to dupe Wal-Mart's auditors. In his pocket was a total of $6 for three months of 90-hour weeks--an average of about one-half cent an hour. ''Workers there face a life of fines and beating,'' says Liu. Chun Kwan couldn't be reached, but his daughter, Selina Chun, one of the factory managers, says ''this is not true, none of this.'' She concedes that Chun Si did not pay overtime but says few other factories do, either. In a face-to-face interview in August, she also admitted that workers have tried to sue Chun Si.
Liu's Dickensian tale stands in stark contrast to the reassurances that Wal-Mart, Payless, and other U.S. companies give American consumers that their goods aren't produced under sweatshop conditions. Since 1992, Wal-Mart has required its suppliers to sign a code of basic labor standards. After exposes in the mid-1990s of abuses in factories making Kathie Lee products, which the chain carries, Wal-Mart and Kathie Lee both began hiring outside auditing firms to inspect supplier factories to ensure their compliance with the code. Many other companies that produce or sell goods made in low-wage countries do similar self-policing, from Toys 'R' Us to Nike and Gap. While no company suggests that its auditing systems are perfect, most say they catch major abuses and either force suppliers to fix them or yank production.
What happened at Chun Si suggests that these auditing systems can miss serious problems--and that self-policing allows companies to avoid painful public revelations about them. Allegations about Chun Si first surfaced this May in a report by the National Labor Committee (NLC), a small anti-sweatshop group in New York that in 1997 exposed Kathie Lee's connection to labor violations in Central America. For several months, Wal-Mart repeatedly denied any connection to Chun Si. Wal-Mart and Kathie Lee even went so far as to pass out a press release when the report came out dismissing it as ''lies'' and insisting that they never had ''any relationship with a company or factory by this name anywhere in the world.''
But in mid-September, after a three-month BUSINESS WEEK investigation that involved a visit to the factory, tracking down ex-Chun Si workers, and obtaining copies of records they had smuggled out of the factory, Wal-Mart conceded that it had produced the Kathie Lee bags there until December, 1999. Wal-Mart Vice-President of Corporate Affairs Jay Allen now says that Wal-Mart denied using Chun Si because it was ''defensive'' about the sweatshop issue.
Wal-Mart Director of Corporate Compliance Denise Fenton says its auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PWC) and Cal Safety Compliance Corp., had inspected Chun Si five times in 1999 and found that the factory didn't pay the legal overtime rate and had required excessive work hours. Because the factory didn't fix the problems, she says, Wal-Mart stopped making Kathie Lee bags there. Kathie Lee, who licenses her name to Wal-Mart, which handles production, concurred with the chain's action at Chun Si, says her lawyer Richard Hofstetter. Payless also stopped production there after an investigation, a spokesman says.
Still, the auditors failed to uncover many of the egregious conditions in the factory despite interviews with dozens of workers, concedes Fenton. Charges NLC Executive Director Charles Kernaghan: ''The real issue here is why anyone should believe their audits.''
A SECOND LOOK. And it's not just Wal-Mart. The NLC's report, entitled Made in China, detailed labor abuses in a dozen factories producing for household-name U.S. companies (www.nlcnet.org). After it came out, bootmaker Timberland Co. asked its auditors to revisit its plant, also in Zhongshan. They found that the factory hadn't fixed most of the violations cited the first time, despite repeated assurances to Timberland that it had (table).
Similarly, in mid-September, Social Accountability International (SAI), a New York group that started a factory monitoring system last year, revoked its certification of a Chinese factory that makes shoes for New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. after auditors reinspected the plant following the NLC report. ''The auditors found that indeed there were many violations they had not picked up the first time,'' says SAI President Alice Tepper Marlin.
Because such efforts to reassure consumers have proven so unsatisfactory, a handful of companies, including Nike Inc. and Reebok International Ltd.--so far, the companies most tarnished by anti-sweatshop activists--have concluded that self-policing isn't enough. They--along with Kathie Lee--helped form the Fair Labor Assn., created in 1998 after a White House-sponsored initiative. The FLA now has a dozen members and is setting up an independent monitoring system that includes human rights groups.
Wal-Mart and many other companies, though, reject such efforts, saying they don't want to tell critics or rivals where their products are made. Yet without independent inspections, such companies leave themselves open to critics' accusations that self-policing doesn't work. ''The big retailers, such as Wal-Mart, drive the market today, yet...they're not committed to changing the way they do business,'' says Michael Posner, head of New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and an FLA board member. Wal-Mart's Allen says that after three years of talks, the company may soon set up independent monitoring with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a religious group in New York City.
Certainly, what happened at Chun Si illustrates the inadequacy of many labor-auditing systems in place today. Wal-Mart uses nine auditing firms, including PWC. Like other big accounting firms, PWC has a booming labor-auditing business inspecting many of the thousands of factories making toys and clothes made by Wal-Mart and other companies. After Kathie Lee's drubbing by sweatshop critics, she hired Cal Safety, a Los Angeles-based labor-auditing firm, to do separate audits of the factories that produce the clothing and accessories bearing her name. According to Wal-Mart's Fenton, Cal Safety inspected the factory four times from March to December of last year, and PWC inspected it once, in September. The auditors found that Chun Si had numerous problems, including overtime violations and excessively long hours, says Fenton.
But otherwise, concedes Fenton, the audits missed most of the more serious abuses listed in the NLC report and confirmed by BUSINESS WEEK, including beatings and confiscated identity papers. (Wal-Mart declined to allow BUSINESS WEEK to talk in detail to Cal Safety or PWC, citing confidentiality agreements. Randal H. Rankin, head of PWC's labor practices unit, insists his audit did catch many of the abuses found by the NLC, though he wouldn't provide specifics, also citing Wal-Mart's confidentiality agreement. Cal Safety President Carol Pender says her firm caught some, though not all, of the abuses.)
All the while, evidence was piling up at the local labor office in Zhongshan. There, officials received a constant stream of worker complaints--several a month since the factory opened 10 years ago, says Mr. Chen, the head of the local labor office, who declined to give his full name. ''Since they opened their factory, the complaints never stopped,'' he says. Officials would call or go to the factory once a month or so to mediate disputes, but new complaints kept arising, he says. Neither Wal-Mart's nor Kathie Lee's auditors discovered this history.
Chun Si also tried to hoodwink the auditors, according to the workers BUSINESS WEEK interviewed. After Cal Safety's initial inspection in March, 1999, Wal-Mart (through its U.S. supplier, which placed the order with the factory) insisted that Chun Si remedy the violations or it would pull the contract. Cal Safety found little improvement when it returned in June, as did PWC in September.
DOUBLE STANDARD. Chun Si then took drastic steps, apparently in an effort to pass the final audit upon which its contract depended. In early November, management gave a facelift to the two attached five-story factory buildings, painting walls, cleaning workshops, even putting high-quality toilet paper in the dank bathrooms, according to Liu and Pang Yinguang (also not his real name), another worker employed there at the time whom BUSINESS WEEK interviewed in mid-September. Management then split the factory into two groups. The first, with about 200 workers, was assigned to work on the fixed-up second floor, while the remaining 700 or so worked on the fourth floor, leaving the other floors largely vacant. Managers announced that those on the fourth floor were no longer working for Chun Si but for a new factory they called Yecheng. Workers signed new labor contracts with Yecheng, whose name went up outside the fourth floor.
The reality soon became clear. Workers on the fourth floor, including Liu and Pang, were still laboring under the old egregious conditions--illegally low pay, 14-hour days, exorbitant fees for meals--and still making the same Kathie Lee handbags. ''It felt like being in prison,'' says Pang, 22. But those on the second floor now received the local minimum wage of $55 a month and no longer had to do mandatory overtime. A new sign went up in the cafeteria used by workers on all floors explaining that the factory was a Wal-Mart supplier and should live up to certain labor standards. Liu says there was even a phone number workers could call with problems: 1-800-WM-ETHIC. ''When we saw the Wal-Mart statement, we felt very excited and happy because we thought that now there was a possibility to improve our conditions,'' says Liu.
LAST STRAW. Instead, they got worse. On Nov. 28, a second notice went up stating that starting on Dec. 10, all workers would be required to pay cash for dinner rather than just have money subtracted from their paychecks as before, say Liu and Pang. With up to 80% of workers already skipping breakfast to save money, the upper-floor employees were aghast, says Liu. ''If we had left the factory then, we wouldn't have had even enough money for a bus ticket home,'' he says. ''But if we stayed, we knew we wouldn't have enough money to eat.''
A group of workers, including Liu and Pang, met around a small pond on the factory grounds on one of the following evenings. They knew that workers had fruitlessly complained before to the local labor office. So they decided on a plan to smuggle out documents to prove Chun Si's illegal fees and subminimum wages. On Dec. 1, 58 workers overcame their fears of retaliation and marched out the factory gates, down to the labor office.
Faced with the throng of workers, local labor officials visited Chun Si and forced the factory to immediately pay the workers and return the illegally collected fees. But the officials also told these workers they would have to give up their jobs at Chun Si. Days later, some 40 labor officials returned, ordered Chun Si to properly register or shut down the so-called Yecheng factory, and fined the company about $8,500. Shortly after the blow-up, Wal-Mart ended production at Chun Si.
Kernaghan and other labor activists concede that Chun Si is an extreme example of working conditions in China today. Yet many experts think most factories in China producing for Western companies routinely break China's labor laws. Some Western companies' monitoring efforts do catch and fix some of these problems. But unless companies and governments alike take more serious steps, labor watchdogs will give little credence to company claims that they're doing the best they can.
What Are the Auditors Missing?
Wal-Mart and other U.S. companies use outside auditing firms to inspect factories abroad. Critics claim company-sponsored audits often miss labor abuses. Here are three factories in China where problems were found following a report by the National Labor Committee:
CHUN SI HANDBAG FACTORY, ZHONGSHAN
Kathie Lee handbags for Wal-Mart
-- Guards beat workers, according to employees' complaints.
-- Workers had to pay illegal up-front deposits to cover first month's food, and lodging in factory dorm.
-- Many workers still owed the factory money after several months, due to penalties and charges.
LIZHAN FOOTWEAR FACTORY, DONGGUAN
New Balance shoes
-- Payroll violations, such as fining workers late for work, says Social Accountability International.
-- Half-dozen safety violations, such as not employing a plant safety official, as required by Chinese law.
-- Several wage violations, such as not paying double-time for Saturday work, as required by Chinese law.
POU YUEN FACTORY V, ZHONGSHAN
Timberland shoes
-- After more than a year, the factory had not stopped many serious violations auditors had found in 1998, says Timberland. These include not paying overtime for 14- to 16-hour days and forcing workers to use toxic glues and solvents without gloves. Timberland is now working with the factory to address the problems.
DATA: BUSINESS WEEK
END
Thai Durable Workers in Fourth Month of Strike
Junya Yimprasert, Thai Labour Campaign ~ Sept. 26
Dear friends,
It is four months now that the Thai Durable workers are on strike. Many of they are in great suffered from health and financial problem. However, the company still refused to negotiate on any of the demands from the union. Despite, the company sent a letter [see the letter below] to the Director of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare, in an arrogant manner.
The company refuses to allow the 15 union committee members and 111 active union members to return to work. The company offered to pay compensation to those 79 workers --that voluntary to resign-- with severance compensation equivalence to three months salary. This is much lower that the severance payment stating by the Labour Protection Act of 2541. The company offering was with the condition that the worker and the union withdraw all the lawsuits against the company.
On 25 Sept, around 5 PM, the Prime Ministry of Thailand, Chuan Leekpai, sited as a chair on the negotiation table between the union representatives [represented with 20 union committee members] and the company representatives [leading by Mr. Mangkorn Thanasukarn-the factory manager, a lawyer and two others managing staff].
Although the Prime Minister was sitting as the chair, the company lawyers still insisted on the proposal proposing by Mr. So Denduangrudee. The negotiation failed and has to close at 6:30 PM. The new negotiation was set for 27 September 2000.
At the moment, the Gen. Yuthasak Sasiprapa, the chairman of the board, and Mr. So Denduangrudee, the Managing director have resigned. However, the union claimed that Mr. So may be announcing his resignation just to reduce all the pressure, but he is still actively managing the Thai Durable Textile Company.
Thai Labour Campaign has finished an eight minutes video presentation about the violence suppression to the Thai Durable workers leading by Mr. Mangkorn Thanasukarn, the factory manager, on 22 June. For those who want this video for conducting any campaign to help these ‘middle age’ Thai Durable workers please give us your addresses and we will send the video to you.
On 29 September, from 10-12 AM, the Women Foundation and its alliance will host a Press conference at the Press Association of Thailand. We will present the video to all the press as well.
Yours in solidarity,
Lek&ldots;.
(translation)
THAI DURABLE TEXTILE PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
12 September 2000
To: Director of the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare
Re: To notify about the Thai Durable Textile Public Company Dispute.
Mr. So Denduangrudee, the Managing Director of Thai Durable Textile (Public Company), would like to inform you about the problem that the company dismissed 390 employees.
1) The company will pay 3 months salary to compensate 79 employees who do not want to return to the factory and 111 dismissed employees that the company refuses to take them back to the factory. The company agrees to negotiate wit the rest of the [strike] employees and allow another 200 dismissed employees to return to work with the following conditions:
1.1 The employees who filed the lawsuits against the company have to withdraw all the lawsuits.
1.2 The 15 employee committee members have to resign from the company.
1.3 The company will not provide dormitory welfare to those 200 dismissed employees. The company will not provide dormitory welfare to all the [strike] workers that used to stay in the dormitory and are returning to work.
2) Regarding the demands of the union on the increasing of the yearly wages and bonus, this will only be under the company consideration.
3) The union representatives have to make decision agreeing with the first and second items offered by the company within 25 September 2000, otherwise, all of these offers in this letter are cancelled.
4) The payment of compensation and the date for the workers to return to the factory will be announced after the union agrees with all the proposal.
5) Both parties will drop the entire lawsuits regarding the demands, disputes, and dismissal cases from 10 February 2000 onward in either labour court or criminal court, which have involved employers, employees, management, advisors, and lawyer.
6) If the union agreed with this proposal, both parties will settle the case at the labour court.
To show that the company is sincere, the company has postponed the court hearing on the dismissal of 15 union committee members on 20 September 2000 (case registered number 5442/43-5456/43). The company has also postponed the hearing on the lawsuit [against the union] claiming for compensation for damaging of the company on 27 September 2000 (case registered number 4272/43)
Yours sincerely,
So Denduangrudee
Managing Director
______________________________________
Thai Labour Campaign, Coordinator: Junya Yimprasert
Phone: +66 2 692 7963, Fax: +66 2 692 7963
Web Address: TBA
END
Re: Two Cheers for Sweashops: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudun
Michael Scimone, Vassar College Students Against Sweatshops ~ Sept. 26
Letter to the Editor: New York Times
While admitting the potentials of anti-sweatshop activism (Two Cheers for Sweashops: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudun, Sept. 17), you fail to question the context which leads to its negative effects. Activists and human rights groups seek to improve on a world level the deplorable labor standards of globalization, not to simply close abusive factories.
The fact that companies do so rather than improve wages and labor standards reflects the corrupt mentality of corporate cost-cutting; such a humanitarian move would cost Nike infinitely less than it spends every year on its advertising and sponsorship of sports teams.
Sweatshops are not, as your article suggests, the alternative to poverty, but part and parcel of the system of globalization which creates it.
Vassar College Students Against Sweatshops
END
Re: Two Cheers for Sweashops: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudun
Peter Micek ~ Sept. 26
To the editor:
Re: "Two Cheers for Sweatshops" NYT Magazine, Sept. 24: In the article, a Chinese laborer expresses pride at his 15-year-old daughter's position as a sweatshop seamstress, despite the low pay and needle-scarred hands she earns from the work. The writers mirror this man's gritty optimism by invoking a proverb which justifies momentary sacrifice in the name of future rewards.
What the writers failed to produce, however, was a response from the anonymous, "beautiful daughter." Might she resent the flow of money from her bloodied hands into the pockets of the clothing firm's American owners? Is it possible that she spends her nine-hour shifts dreaming of an education?
These questions go unanswered by journalists whose haste to verify the righteousness of America's corporate exploits overlooks the daily sacrifice which upholds our Dow--or, in this case, the human face which hides behind the label.
The mistake made by these writers was present in the tenet of neoliberal economic development alluded to in the proverb. Ironically, it was the same error made by countless soldiers of Marxism in the past century.
They saw humans as a means, not an end.
END
Re: Two Cheers for Sweashops: Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudun
Robert J.S. Ross, PhD, Professor of Sociology ~ Sept. 26
To the Editor of the NYT Magazine,
Kristoff and Duwunn argue for the beneficent influence of dangerous $2/day jobs in garment sweatshops in Asia. (Two Cheers for Sweatshops, Sept. 24) Granted that they merely repeat the orthodoxy of the domesticated portions of the economics profession, still the logical -- and moral --errors are egregious, whatever the originality of finding a woman who took a bad job so she could buy mosquito netting in a malarial swamp. In the course of these errors they totally mistake the histories of successful development.
First, the logic: to say that a really exploitative and dangerous situation is better than dying from malaria or "a fate worse than death" is to say absolutely nothing about the possibility or the justice of changing the conditions of that exploitative or dangerous job. Slavery is better than death: do Kristoff and Duwunn advocate it? If I held a pistol to Nick Kristoff's head would he try to learn to sew and risk his fingers? Of course. And if, by doing that his employers were enriched and his nation's GNP grew would that then be just?
Second the moral dimension. Because those with power can exploit those who are weak, and then profit from it, does not justify it. Average GDP growth does not tell us whether people are better off. Amidst our current growth, the top 10% (and less) of our income distribution is making away with the lion's share of the benefits. Hourly workers' incomes are still in the 1970s or so.
Finally, Kristoff and Duwunn, as do others, note that as incomes rise even workers' lot may improve. How might that happen? Do they really believe in an invisible hand? Study the West; study Korea: the story is the same. Workers gain a share of growth through hard struggles, forming unions and working for legal protections. Those struggles always include an ability to ally with others. In 1909 New York garment workers were helped by middle class women who helped them win their strike and start the unionization of the garment industry. Their middle class allies - embodied by Frances Perkins, later FDR's Sec. of Labor -helped reform factory safety and ultimately helped win the Fair Labor Standards Act. So today, apparel workers in the Global North, and middle class allies, see their interests as positively influenced by the struggle of workers in the Global South. The point is, the gains Kristoff and Duwunn imagine mysteriously come from economic growth in sweatshops really come from successfully wresting them from more than occasionally recalcitrant employers, retailers, and contractors. Exactly the course they condemn in their article.
There is a not so pretty theme in the New York Times discourse about labor rights. The Times editorially called the labor rights opponents of PNTR for China "narrow"; now it gives license to praise the process of extreme exploitation. It is a provincial view bereft of historical knowledge, parading as cosmopolitan wisdom.
Robert J.S. Ross, PhD
Professor of Sociology
Director of International Studies
Clark University
950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610
phone: 508 793 7376 fax: 508 793 8816 web: www.clarku.edu/~rross e-mail: Rross@clarku.edu
END
Battle Goes Forward in Managua With Real Signs Of Progress
National Labor Committee ~ Sept. 25
One headline in the Nicaraguan press shouted: "Chinese Wall Comes Down," referring to the total impunity enjoyed up to this point by the Taiwanese companies in the free trade zones. That impunity is now being rocked.
The religious, human rights and legal delegation to Nicaragua, the 3rd since July, whose members included Al Prendergast (Marianist religious order), Sister Cathey DeSantis (Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance), attorney Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights), Barbara Briggs (NLC) and Paul Baizerman (TecNica) did a great job, had a major impact. Charles Kernaghan was blocked from entering Nicaragua, taken off the plane by security guards in San Salvador. But this badly backfired on the Nicaraguan government, as the delegation became the week¡¯s top news story in Nicaragua, covered every night on all national TV stations, radio programs and in the countries major print media.
MIL COLORES:
The conflict at Mil Colores is very close to settlement, with a negotiated solution 80-90% complete. The union has asked that the campaign against Mil Colores be brought to a halt. The agreement calls for reinstatement of the fired workers and union leaders, recognition of the union and the signing of a "Protocol" that will be a model for labor relations in the zone. Craig Miller says he will turn the factory into a model plant.
CHENTEX / NIEN HSING CONSORTIUM
Chentex management has responded a little differently. Lucas Huang, manager of the Nien Hsing consortium, said something like he would commit suicide before he would reinstate the fired union leaders. The union requests that the campaign in the U.S. move full-steam ahead, with redoubled efforts, since this will be critical to winning a settlement.
But there is reason for hope that things will eventually go forward. Gilberto Wong, head of the Nicaraguan Free Zone Administration acknowledges that there is a problem, and that it needs to be fixed immediately. The Nicaraguan Minister of Labor is now saying more or less the same.
The delegation met at the U.S. Embassy with deputy chief of mission Deborah McCarthy and four senior staff, including labor attache Mario Fernandez. The delegation came away impressed that Ms. McCarthy was very open to the facts and certainly not unsympathetic to the workers. The Embassy also wants this Chentex conflict settled.
To end on some positive notes...
The tide has definitely turned in Nicaragua. The press coverage has been so extensive that the issue of the violations in the maquila has now become a matter of public discourse. People on the street, workers, airline personnel--approached the delegation again and again to express their support. People side with the workers in their struggle to regain respect for their rights.
The Nicaraguan unions have done a great job of building a very solid coalition of labor, religious and human rights organizations and political leaders who now working together on a number of levels to defend the human and labor rights of workers in the free trade zone.
Thanks to the efforts of many in the U.S., visas for Zenayda Torres and Angelica Perez were won on Friday, almost literally at the last minute. Without significant pressure, this would never have happened. So the tour begins in Minneapolis Monday, September 25, then moves on to Milwaukee, and so on, until Kohl's and its contractor Chentex / Nien Hsing do the right thing.
What is going on in Managua is the concrete struggle over the global sweatshop economy--to regain control over corporate giants that have lost their moral compass and to hold them accountable to respect human and worker rights and pay a living wage. No one can afford to lose this battle, and we won't.
Chentex/Nien Hsing and the Nicaraguan government do not want to see the campaign increasing in strength as we go into the crucial Holiday Season of Conscience.
We will try to keep people updated as the tour progresses. Zenaida and Angelica are excited and ready to go. They're on a mission and they know it.
The recent press from Nicaragua will soon be up on the NLC website with key paragraphs translated.
**************************
275 7th Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212/242-3002 Fax: 212/242-3821 Email: nlc@nlcnet.org
END
By Nicholas D. Kristof And Sheryl Wudunn, New York Times Magazine ~ September 24
It was breakfast time, and the food stand in the village in northeastern Thailand was crowded. Maesubin Sisoipha, the middle-aged woman cooking the food, was friendly, her portions large and the price right. For the equivalent of about 5 cents, she offered a huge green mango leaf filled with rice, fish paste and fried beetles. It was a hearty breakfast, if one didn't mind the odd antenna left sticking in one's teeth. One of the half-dozen men and women sitting on a bench eating was a sinewy, bare-chested laborer in his late 30's named Mongkol Latlakorn. It was a hot, lazy day, and so we started chatting idly about the food and, eventually, our families. Mongkol mentioned that his daughter, Darin, was 15, and his voice softened as he spoke of her. She was beautiful and smart, and her father's hopes rested on her. "Is she in school?" we asked.
"Oh, no," Mongkol said, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "She's working in a factory in Bangkok. She's making clothing for export to America." He explained that she was paid $2 a day for a nine-hour shift, six days a week. "It's dangerous work," Mongkol added. "Twice the needles went right through her hands. But the managers bandaged up her hands, and both times she got better again and went back to work."
"How terrible," we murmured sympathetically. Mongkol looked up, puzzled.
"It's good pay," he said. "I hope she can keep that job. There's all this talk about factories closing now, and she said there are rumors that her factory might close. I hope that doesn't happen. I don't know what she would do then."
He was not, of course, indifferent to his daughter's suffering; he simply had a different perspective from ours -- not only when it came to food but also when it came to what constituted desirable work.
Nothing captures the difference in mind-set between East and West more than attitudes toward sweatshops. Nike and other American companies have been hammered in the Western press over the last decade for producing shoes, toys and other products in grim little factories with dismal conditions. Protests against sweatshops and the dark forces of globalization that they seem to represent have become common at meetings of the World Bank and the World Trade Organization and, this month, at a World Economic Forum in Australia, livening up the scene for Olympic athletes arriving for the competition. Yet sweatshops that seem brutal from the vantage point of an American sitting in his living room can appear tantalizing to a Thai laborer getting by on beetles.
Fourteen years ago, we moved to Asia and began reporting there. Like most Westerners, we arrived in the region outraged at sweatshops. In time, though, we came to accept the view supported by most Asians: that the campaign against sweatshops risks harming the very people it is intended to help. For beneath their grime, sweatshops are a clear sign of the industrial revolution that is beginning to reshape Asia.
This is not to praise sweatshops. Some managers are brutal in the way they house workers in firetraps, expose children to dangerous chemicals, deny bathroom breaks, demand sexual favors, force people to work double shifts or dismiss anyone who tries to organize a union. Agitation for improved safety conditions can be helpful, just as it was in 19th-century Europe. But Asian workers would be aghast at the idea of American consumers boycotting certain toys or clothing in protest. The simplest way to help the poorest Asians would be to buy more from sweatshops, not less.
In our first extended trip to China, in 1987, we traveled to the Pearl River delta in the south of the country. There we visited several factories, including one in the boomtown of Dongguan, where about 100 female workers sat at workbenches stitching together bits of leather to make purses for a Hong Kong company. We chatted with several women as their fingers flew over their work and asked about their hours."I start at about 6:30, after breakfast, and go until about 7 p.m.," explained one shy teenage girl. "We break for lunch, and I take half an hour off then."
"You do this six days a week?"
"Oh, no. Every day."
"Seven days a week?"
"Yes." She laughed at our surprise. "But then I take a week or two off at Chinese New Year to go back to my village."
The others we talked to all seemed to regard it as a plus that the factory allowed them to work long hours. Indeed, some had sought out this factory precisely because it offered them the chance to earn more."It's actually pretty annoying how hard they want to work," said the factory manager, a Hong Kong man. "It means we have to worry about security and have a supervisor around almost constantly."
It sounded pretty dreadful, and it was. We and other journalists wrote about the problems of child labor and oppressive conditions in both China and South Korea. But, looking back, our worries were excessive. Those sweatshops tended to generate the wealth to solve the problems they created. If Americans had reacted to the horror stories in the 1980's by curbing imports of those sweatshop products, then neither southern China nor South Korea would have registered as much progress as they have today.
The truth is, those grim factories in Dongguan and the rest of southern China contributed to a remarkable explosion of wealth. In the years since our first conversations there, we've returned many times to Dongguan and the surrounding towns and seen the transformation. Wages have risen from about $50 a month to $250 a month or more today. Factory conditions have improved as businesses have scrambled to attract and keep the best laborers. A private housing market has emerged, and video arcades and computer schools have opened to cater to workers with rising incomes. A hint of a middle class has appeared -- as has China's closest thing to a Western-style independent newspaper, Southern Weekend.
Partly because of these tens of thousands of sweatshops, China's economy has become one of the hottest in the world. Indeed, if China's 30 provinces were counted as individual countries, then the 20 fastest-growing countries in the world between 1978 and 1995 would all have been Chinese. When Britain launched the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, it took 58 years for per capita output to double. In China, per capita output has been doubling every 10 years.
In fact, the most vibrant parts of Asia are nearly all in what might be called the Sweatshop Belt, from China and South Korea to Malaysia, Indonesia and even Bangladesh and India. Today these sweatshop countries control about one-quarter of the global economy. As the industrial revolution spreads through China and India, there are good reasons to think that Asia will continue to pick up speed. Some World Bank forecasts show Asia's share of global gross domestic product rising to 55 to 60 percent by about 2025 -- roughly the West's share at its peak half a century ago. The sweatshops have helped lay the groundwork for a historic economic realignment that is putting Asia back on its feet. Countries are rebounding from the economic crisis of 1997-98 and the sweatshops -- seen by Westerners as evidence of moribund economies -- actually reflect an industrial revolution that is raising living standards in the East.
Of course, it may sound silly to say that sweatshops offer a route to prosperity, when wages in the poorest countries are sometimes less than $1 a day. Still, for an impoverished Indonesian or Bangladeshi woman with a handful of kids who would otherwise drop out of school and risk dying of mundane diseases like diarrhea, $1 or $2 a day can be a life-transforming wage.
This was made abundantly clear in Cambodia, when we met a 40-year-old woman named Nhem Yen, who told us why she moved to an area with particularly lethal malaria. "We needed to eat," she said. "And here there is wood, so we thought we could cut it and sell it."
But then Nhem Yen's daughter and son-in-law both died of malaria, leaving her with two grandchildren and five children of her own. With just one mosquito net, she had to choose which children would sleep protected and which would sleep exposed.
In Cambodia, a large mosquito net costs $5. If there had been a sweatshop in the area, however harsh or dangerous, Nhem Yen would have leapt at the chance to work in it, to earn enough to buy a net big enough to cover all her children.
For all the misery they can engender, sweatshops at least offer a precarious escape from the poverty that is the developing world's greatest problem. Over the past 50 years, countries like India resisted foreign exploitation, while countries that started at a similar economic level -- like Taiwan and South Korea -- accepted sweatshops as the price of development. Today there can be no doubt about which approach worked better. Taiwan and South Korea are modern countries with low rates of infant mortality and high levels of education; in contrast, every year 3.1 million Indian children die before the age of 5, mostly from diseases of poverty like diarrhea.
The effect of American pressure on sweatshops is complicated. While it clearly improves conditions at factories that produce branded merchandise for companies like Nike, it also raises labor costs across the board. That encourages less well established companies to mechanize and to reduce the number of employees needed. The upshot is to help people who currently have jobs in Nike plants but to risk jobs for others. The only thing a country like Cambodia has to offer is terribly cheap wages; if companies are scolded for paying those wages, they will shift their manufacturing to marginally richer areas like Malaysia or Mexico.
Sweatshop monitors do have a useful role. They can compel factories to improve safety. They can also call attention to the impact of sweatshops on the environment. The greatest downside of industrialization is not exploitation of workers but toxic air and water.
In Asia each year, three million people die from the effects of pollution. The factories springing up throughout the region are far more likely to kill people through the chemicals they expel than through terrible working conditions. By focusing on these issues, by working closely with organizations and news media in foreign countries, sweatshops can be improved. But refusing to buy sweatshop products risks making Americans feel good while harming those we are trying to help. As a Chinese proverb goes, "First comes the bitterness, then there is sweetness and wealth and honor for 10,000 years."
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Activists Angry at Cal Student Store
Ian Umeda, Dalily Cal Staff ~ Sept. 29
The Sale of sweatshirts labeled 'Made in Myanmar' on sale at the Cal Student Store calls attention to human rights violations in Burma. Prompting outcries from anti-sweatshop and human rights organizations, the Cal Student Store sells clothing manufactured in Burma, a country notorious for human rights violations and a nondemocratic government. The sweatshirts, manufactured by JanSport, feature labels reading "Made in Myanmar," also known as Burma, and have prompted both student and university concern.
"If the UC Berkeley store is selling things from Burma, that really needs attention," said Kevin Danaher, a spokesperson for Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights organization. "The student body should be all over that because there is no need to buy items from such a heinous regime as Burma."
Maria Rubinshteyn, UC Berkeley's director of marketing and management of trademarks, said the university is investigating the matter but could not comment further. "What we would do is verify that there are some human rights or labor rights violations, then we'd require them to pull out (of Burma)," Rubinshteyn said. "It would be against the UC code of conduct for trademark licensing if there were violations."
Burma is currently run by a military dictatorship well known for its human rights abuses. "It's a regime with a military dictatorship and most U.S. corporations doing business there have been forced to pull out because of public pressure," Danaher said. Campus student organizations, including United Students Against Sweatshops, are pressuring the university to stop selling clothes made in sweatshops or undemocratic countries. "I'm disgusted that a university that puts itself out to be a progressive university has not taken the lead on this issue," said Ingrid Evjen-Elias, a sophomore majoring in peace and conflict studies. "(But) I'm not necessarily surprised."
As a member of the campus groups Students Organizing for Justice in the Americas and United Students Against Sweatshops, Evjen-Elias and other students last spring pressured the university to join a watchdog organization called the Worker's Rights Consortium.
The consortium, she said, is still in its development stages, so it is not actively enforcing a policy of not buying sweatshop-made goods. In Burma, the consortium would contact local nonprofit organizations concerned about workers' rights and encourage employees to enforce labor standards themselves.
The university is only participating in the consortium for one year as a trial period, so Evjen-Elias said there is a real need for students to advocate that the campus become a permanent member. "We can't let the university forget what's happening," she said. "The university doesn't do anything without pressure." Native Burmese encourage people not to buy goods manufactured in the country because it supports the military regime, according to the Free Burma Coalition, an organization dedicated to democracy in Burma."There is a really clear cry from inside Burma to ask people outside to not buy things made in Burma until there are steps made toward establishing a democracy," said Jeremy Woodrum, a coalition spokesperson.
The Clinton administration has a policy prohibiting new investment in Burma, although it does not order the withdrawal of American companies already doing business there. "If the university wanted to do the right thing, they should stop purchasing items made in Burma and they could start with the banning the selling of clothing made in Burma," Woodrum said.
The city of Berkeley does not do business with the country due to the undemocratic government, said Councilmember Betty Olds. However, she said the city has no control over the actions of the university. "They probably don't realize that there is this law," Olds said. "I would think that they would want to set a good example for the students."
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NLC Delegation Arrives in Nicaragua But Kernaghan Kept Out
National Labor Committee ~ Sept 21
Yesterday afternoon participants in an NLC delegation left the U.S, heading for Nicaragua to meet with labor, religious and human rights leaders there regarding the situation at the Chentex and Mil Colores factories which produce blue jeans for Kohl's and other U.S. retailer.
But during a brief layover in El Salvador, NLC Director Charles Kernaghan was asked to exit the plane and was not allowed to continue with the rest of the delegation on to Managua, Nicaragua. Kernaghan was declared "persona non grata" by the government of Nicaragua following a recent NLC religious delegation led by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton.
The actions of the Nicaraguan government fly in the face of the support of U.S. Congression members -- 28 of whom signed a letter yesterday supporting Kernaghan's visit Nicaragua -- and also support from UNITE, USWA and countless individuals.
Nonetheless, the remaining delegation participants continued on to Nicaragua and were met by members of the Chentex and Mil Colores unions, the textile federation, CST, CENIDH, National Assembly Human Rights Commission head Nelson Artola, and all the national press. They held an impromptu press conference emphasizing that while the Nicaraguan government and the factory but not the workers' effort to win their rights, and nor the movement in the U.S. to support the workers in Nicaragua. Negotiations finally began this morning between the workers and the Consortium. The workers feel positive and have been told that the company is serious and wants to reach a deal. We will keep you updated as soon as we hear more information.Clearly the campaign here in the U.S. has had an effect. Kohl's, in particular, is feeling the pressure and is pressuring Chentex and Mil Colores to resolve this case.
While victory may be in sight depending on the outcome of the workers' negotiations, it is essential that we keep the pressure on,and even turn up the heat. The Kohl's Sweatshop Tour is set to begin Monday in Minneapolis, travel through the Midwest and culminate in a demonstration and car caravan on Long Island on October 7. Our contacts in Nicaragua are cautiously optimistic about getting the workers their visas to tour the U.S. More information on the tour is below. We've got to keep up the pressure. The time to act is now.
Kohls Sweatshop Tour -- confirmed dates and contacts:
* Monday, September 25: Minneapolis, MN 5:30 p.m. demonstration at Kohl's 7:30 public meeting Contact: Larry Weiss (Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition) -- 612-276-0788 x19
* Tuesday, September 26: Milwaukee, WI Various demonstrations, public meetings, press events, etc. throughout the day Contact: Steve Watrous (Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition) -- 414-933-3033
* Thursday, September 28: Lexington, KY P.M. demonstration at Kohl's Contact: Amanda Lewis (University of Kentucky) -- 859-389-9944
* Monday, October 2: Michigan 3:30 p.m. public meeting at Michigan State in East Lansing Contact: Adam Szlachetka (Michigan State) -- 517-655-2041 6:30 p.m. demonstration at Kohl's store in Ann Arbor Contact: David Lempert (University of Michigan) -- 734-764-8651
* Tuesday, October 3: Toledo, OH P.M. demonstration at Kohl's Contact: Steve Steel (Green Party) -- 419-243-3456
* Wednesday, October 4: Columbus, OH 6:00 p.m. demonstration at Kohl's Contact: Tim Waters (USWA) -- 412-562-2295
* Thursday, October 5: Pittsburgh, PA P.M. demonstration at Kohl's Contact: Tim Waters (USWA) -- 412-562-2295
* Saturday, October 7: Long Island, NY Car Caravan and demonstration at multiple Kohl's stores on Long Island; Details TBA Contact: Thomas Wheatley (NLC) -- 212-242-3002
National Labor Committee 275 7th Avenue, 15th Floor New York, NY 10001 Tel: 212/242-3002 Fax: 212/242-3821 Email: nlc@nlcnet.org
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Garment Makers' Compliance With Labor Laws Slips in L.A.
By Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times ~ September 21
Self-monitoring by garment manufacturers--once touted by the Department of Labor as a low-cost way of cleaning up the industry--has done little to reduce wage and hour violations, especially in Los Angeles, according to recent state and federal investigations. Only one-third of the clothing makers inspected in Los Angeles this year were in compliance with federal and state labor laws, aslightly poorer showing than the 39% of two years ago.
Compliance rates in the region nearly doubled--from 22% to 39%--in 1996, after a series of labor scandals led to greater government intervention. But the rates have stagnated since then. "We've been very disappointed that we haven't seen a continuing improvement, especially considering the tremendous investment we've made," said John Fraser, deputy administrator for the DOL's Wage and Hour Division. "But we're not giving up."
State and federal labor officials have relied primarily on voluntary self-policing by the industry. A cornerstone of that policy is the hiring of private monitors by manufacturers. About 70% of Southern California garment makers contacted in a recent federal survey paid for such a monitoring service. Manufacturers rarely hire their own employees to cut and sew clothing. Instead, most pay contractors to do the job. Critics charge that manufacturers often hire monitoring companies to shield themselves from responsibility, yet continue to set their rates so low that contractors must cheat workers or go out of business.
The system's weaknesses became apparent in the case of three Los Angeles workers who were fired after they reported chronic violations to a monitor hired by John Paul Richard Inc., which designs women's clothing for department stores. The workers said they were paid about $3 an hour, about half the state minimum wage, and often worked seven-day weeks with no overtime. "We thought the inspector was from the government," said Samuel Guerra, one of the fired workers, who ironed hundreds of jackets, skirts and blouses a day. "We thought that talking to him would help us. Instead, all it did was get us fired."
Through the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the workers sued Calabasas-based John Paul Richard and two other manufacturers--Francine Browner Inc. and BCBG/Max Azria Inc.--claiming they ignored warnings from their own monitors. One report from the Cal Safety Compliance Corp. to JPR stated, "Employees reported receiving less than minimum wage" and "Back wages and fines could occur if a labor department investigation would occur."
Attorneys announced Wednesday that the case was settled out of court for $134,000. "This case shows that private monitoring is fundamentally ineffective," said attorney Julia Figueira-McDonough of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, which assisted in the case. Jeffrey Kapor, an attorney for John Paul Richard, said the settlement was a "business decision" and the company "does not think it did anything wrong." He said it would have been more costly to fight the case in court than to settle. "They were never cited by the federal government or the state government."
The federal survey, which is conducted every two years, showed a higher rate of compliance in companies that used monitors (44%) than in those that did not (11%). But attorneys, industry spokesmen and government officials said even the higher rate was alarmingly low.
"Monitoring by itself doesn't solve the problem," said Fraser of the Labor Department. "We're looking at new things. We're continuously trying to evolve our enforcement strategy."
For example, he said, the Labor Department next year will begin escalating penalties for garment makers who violate the law, including the use of criminal sanctions. "The bottom line in all of these approaches is that we're trying to raise the stakes," he said.
Ilse Metchek, director of the California Fashion Assn., directed much of the blame at the Labor Department. "There is no communication. There is no education.
"Monitoring works," Metchek said. "It's just that the implementation still needs to be worked on."
END
A "Fair Labor Practice" University Code of Conduct
Scholars, Artists and Writers for Social Justice, SAWSJ
Colleges and universities are threatened today by the growing sway of corporate values over university life. We see evidence of this influence in curricular decisions, research priorities, the declining role of faculty, and most visibly in the sphere of employment relations. University employees are often denied elementary democratic rights of free speech, economic security, and equal opportunity. No educational institution can fulfill its mission unless these rights are protected. To that end, every educational institution should become a "fair labor practice employer" by ensuring that it and all contractors doing business with it secure and uphold the following rights:
1. Employees at educational institutions have the right to participate fully in determining the conditions of their work. Every employee has the right to free association, to organize unions without fear of retaliation, and to good-faith bargaining. Whenever a majority of employees have expressed the desire to be represented by a union - whether by signing a petition or union card, or by voting in a union election - colleges and universities should recognize their union. Educational institutions should not engage in protracted legal struggles to thwart these democratic decisions. University and college administrators should conscientiously adhere to fair labor principles in contract negotiations and in their relations with employee unions, and refrain from practices aimed at undermining them.
2. All members of the university community have the right to learn, teach, work and conduct research in an environment that values and protects academic freedom.
3. Employees have the right to a living wage, including health, pension, and other benefits.
4. Employees have the right to a workplace free from discrimination and harassment and a workplace that practices affirmative action. International students, postdoctoral fellows, and workers have the right to workplaces free of intimidation, coercion and misinformation regarding immigration, visa, and citizenship status.
5. Employees have the right to humane and dignified working conditions in an environment that protects the health and safety of the workforce and the surrounding community.
6. All members of the university community have the right to learn, teach, and work in an institution that does not depend upon prison labor.
These rights should be guaranteed to all employees, including service and maintenance workers; clerical and technical workers; security personnel; faculty and professional staff; full-time, part-time, and subcontracted employees; and adjunct instructors and graduate-student employees.
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"Fair Labor Practice" University Code of Conduct Hearing
Thursday, November 16 at 6-8 pm.
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South
New York, NY
MAKE UNIVERSITIES FAIR LABOR PRACTICE EMPLOYERS
Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice (SAWSJ) is pleased to announce a national campaign to promote a code of fair labor practices for campus employers. To launch the campaign, we will be holding a hearing on November 16 on the denial of basic rights to college and university campus workers. The event is being organized in coalition with student organizations and unions representing all sections of university and college employees including the AFL-CIO, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), the UAW, AFT, AAUP, SEIU, HERE, Jobs with Justice and the Laborers International Union.
Chaired by Columbia University Professor Eric Foner, the event will feature an introductory address by a national AFL-CIO leader and a panel of distinguished political, academic, cultural and religious leaders who will hear testimony from workers and students involved in a variety of campus labor struggles.
Campaigns featured include:
· Adjunct faculty organizing in Boston American Association of University Professors, Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor and the University Organizing Project
· New York University GSOC (Graduate Student Organizing Committee)
· New York University Clerical & Technical Workers (AFT Local 3882)
· SUNY Albany HERE foodservice workers (a successful struggle by students and unions against the use of non-union contractors)
· SUNY Stonybrook Labourers (non-union contractor issue)
· Wesleyan University United Student-Labor Action Coalition and SEIU janitors (successful labor code of conduct campaign)
· Yale University - GESO (Graduate Employee and Student Organization) and Healthcare Workers
At this hearing, and in the campaign, we will highlight the Fair Labor Practice Employer University Code of Conduct (see attached) and call on all universities to adopt and implement it. We hope this code will be circulated nationally by students and activists on campuses for endorsement by university administrations.
We believe it is important to examine the ways in which the increasing corporatization of university life affects faculty, undergraduates, graduate students, adjuncts, professional staff, clerical staff, and service and maintenance employees. We are committed to bringing together all segments of the campus community to resist corporate domination of the university and hold administrators accountable to fair labor practice standards that guarantee academic freedom and decent working conditions for all campus workers.
For more information contact:
Josh Freeman (718) 997-5384 or Corey Robin (718) 951-5308
END
U.S. Labor News: Farmworkers And More
Labor Alerts, Campaign for Labor Rights ~ September 19, 2000
In this alert:
Oregon Farmworkers: Gearing Up For Victory
Student Action with Farmworkers Conference
Support Screen/TV/Radio Advertiser Strike
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OREGON FARMWORKERS: GEARING UP FOR VICTORY
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste - Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United (PCUN) 503/982-0243
We are reminding local groups to include action for farmworker rights on your fall agenda. This spring, the Oregon farmworker union PCUN made an important breakthrough by cracking the NORPAC growers' sourcing code. With this information, PCUN and its supporters can vigorously pursue a winning boycott strategy.
ACTION REQUEST: Are you on a campus or connected with a faith-based institution or some other setting which has a food service? With only a small effort, you could make a very large contribution to justice for farmworkers. To receive information on how to get your food service to honor the Oregon farmworker boycott of NORPAC products, contact Campaign for Labor Rights at 541/344-5410. We will send you the material you need for a successful boycott action on your campus or faith-based institution or workplace food service.
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A Walk for Farmworker Justice - to take place in Oregon's agricultural heartland - is being organized for June 18-24, 2001. Put this important mobilization on your calendar!
Farmworkers employed by growers who are members of NORPAC, the largest grower group west of the Mississippi, have been struggling for improved living and working conditions for more than ten years. Oregon's farmworker union PCUN has been seeking to negotiate a just resolution with the Oregon growers. Some of the smaller growers have signed contracts. But the big growers, who belong to NORPAC, refuse to talk. In spite of repeated attempts by PCUN and by religious and community organizations, NORPAC growers have refused to engage in dialogue. Instead, workers have been threatened, fired and evicted from housing when they have stood up for their rights and their dignity.
PCUN must be recognized by the farming industry as a legitimate representative of Oregon farmworkers. The message of the Walk for Farmworker Justice is simple: We call NORPAC to the table, to talk with farmworkers and their union, PCUN.
The Walk for Farmworker Justice will take place June 18-24, 2001 in Oregon's agricultural counties: Marion and Yamhill. Participants will walk by NORPAC fields and labor camps, and in the evenings they will gather with farmworkers for cultural and educational intercambios (interchanges). Organizers are planning for a large rally toward the end of the week - at the state capitol in Salem and an even bigger rally in Stayton, at NORPAC corporate headquarters. An interfaith prayer service will conclude the week's activities. A core group will walk all week, with additional people (visibly representing diverse constituencies) joining each day and with mass participation at the rallies.
If you are considering taking part in this historic event or if your organization would like to endorse it, contact the Oregon Farmworker Ministry. Organizers encourage participation and endorsement from around the country.
Endorsers so far include: the Farmworker Task Force of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, PCUN, Oregon AFL-CIO, CAUSA (the statewide immigrant rights network), Community Alliance of Lane County, Network for Immigrant Justice, Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network, Mid-Valley Jobs with Justice, Portland Jobs with Justice, Oregon Farmworker Ministry, Oregon Fellowship of Reconciliation, the United Church of Christ, the Oregon Public Employees Union and the Lane County Central Labor Council.
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The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) has been organizing a boycott of North Carolina-based Mt. Olive Pickles. For information on how to support this important struggle for farmworker justice, contact.
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Student Action With Farmworkers Conference
November 3-5 at St. Edward's University; Austin, Texas
Student Action with Farmworkers invites you to join farmworkers, campus-based activists and farmworker support groups from throughout the U.S. and Canada at the fifth annual Sowing Seeds for Change Symposium.
Participants will share information about current farmworker issues, discuss strategies for campus and community organizing and help to build a national coalition of farmworker advocates. Student Action with Farmworkers is a Durham, North Carolina-based nonprofit building a campus network focusing on farmworker issues.
Register by October 15. For information, contact Student Action with Farmworkers at 919/660-3660.
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The National Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty for Undocumented Immigrants has initiated a petition calling on the U.S. Congress to pass a general unconditional amnesty which would give undocumented workers already present in the United States the ability to apply for lawful permanent resident status. For more information and a copy of the petition.
In a momentous change of policy, the executive council of the AFL-CIO voted in February to call for: the repeal of employer sanctions (for hiring undocumented immigrants), a new amnesty for the undocumented and a broad new program to educate immigrant workers about their rights. Harassment and deportation of undocumented workers does not protect the rights of U.S. workers; quite the contrary: Immigration law in the United States serves almost exclusively as a union-busting mechanism aimed at a sector of the workforce which represents one of the best opportunities for organized labor to increase its membership and revitalize its mission.
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Support Screen/TV/Radio Advertiser Strike
Take a minute to show your support for the more than 135,000 members of the Screen Actors and the Television and Radio Artists who are in the 20th week of a national strike against corporate advertisers and advertising agencies. They are in a showdown with Fortune 500 companies, dot-com start-ups and everything in between. The industry group negotiating for the advertisers and the agencies is insisting upon pay cuts for the actors.
Despite the notion that all actors earn millions, 80 percent of SAG members earn less than $5,000 a year.
Since the SAG/AFTRA strike began, many advertisers have barely slowed down their production schedules and continue to make commercials with nonunion actors. Three of the worst offenders are Procter & Gamble Co., AT&T Corp. and General Motors Corp. To send a message to these companies, go to <http://union.workingfamilies.com/go/t/support/?wf3.1-369606> and select "Enter action center."
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Real Reformers, Real Results Our Seventh Annual Roundup of Student Protest
by Keith Meatto, Mother Jones ~ September/October 2000
Like VW Beetles, quiz shows, and Shaft, student activism is back. A record 46 percent of college freshmen joined public protests last year, the largest percentage since UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute began tracking the trend in 1966.
This year's cause célèbre was the campaign to end the use of sweatshop labor by the $2.5-billion collegiate apparel industry. Undergraduates nationwide demanded their colleges quit the Fair Labor Association (FLA) -- an industry-backed watchdog that opponents liken to a fox guarding the hen house -- and join the Worker Rights Consortium. Founded by students, academics, and labor unions last October, the WRC promises strict workplace oversight, free from industry influence.
With rallies, sit-ins, hunger strikes, and even marches in the nude, student activists pressured more than 50 schools to embrace the fledgling WRC.
But sweatshops weren't the only issue galvanizing campus protest: Affirmative action, body politics, and living wage concerns also got their due. Herewith, some memorable moments from an action-packed year of protest.
1. University of Oregon While Eugene was gaining notoriety as the anarchist capital of America, U of O students were busy flexing their organizing muscle. Months of protests -- including mock sweatshop demonstrations in which students hunched over sewing machines for 14-hour shifts -- led Oregon to join the WRC last spring. The move provoked the ire of Phil Knight, Oregon alum and CEO of Nike, which is a founding member of the FLA. He withdrew a $30-million pledge to the school's athletic program and vowed he'd never give again.
2. University of Michigan Student protests, capped by a three-day occupation of the dean's office, pushed Michigan to join the WRC. Swooshing mad, Nike nixed a six-year licensing contract that would have paid the university $22 million.
Minority students also crusaded against racial insensitivity, protesting Michigamua, a century-old secret society whose traditions include adopting phony American Indian names and quaffing beer from sacred tribal artifacts. For 37 days, protesters occupied the society's private, wigwam-themed headquarters on the top floor of the student union. When the smoke cleared, Michigamua members had returned the artifacts and opened their penthouse to the public.
3. Florida A&M University Three thousand students from the historically black A&M campus stormed the Tallahassee Capitol in protest of Governor Jeb Bush's "One Florida" policy. The initiative sounds inclusive but effectively wipes out affirmative action in state university admissions. Student leaders met with Bush and won a concession to exempt graduate and professional students from the policy.
4. University of Washington The native soil of Starbucks and Microsoft also yielded a bumper crop of activists criticizing the global economy. Some 1,500 UW students took to the streets in February to protest the World Trade Organization's ministerial meetings, comprising roughly 5 percent of the crowd at the Battle of Seattle.
5. National Autonomous University of Mexico In the spring of 1999, the largest university in the Americas announced a tuition hike -- from the equivalent of 4 cents to $110 -- that would place higher education out of reach for thousands of low-income Mexicans. In protest, more than 2,000 student radicals shut down the Mexico City campus, leading the university to reclassify the fees as "voluntary." But strikers held out -- for an additional eight months -- calling for an end to new library and lab fees, and for a greater voice in university affairs. Police stormed the campus in February, arresting 800. The university's 270,000 students soon resumed classes -- monitored by some 2,500 federales.
6. Ohio State University To illustrate the skewed logic of spending $187 million to renovate the football arena while denying janitors and cafeteria workers a living wage, Buckeye students and union members picketed and successfully halted construction at Ohio Stadium for a day. The protesters eventually won a $2 hourly raise for 1,900 university employees.
7. Wesleyan University Demanding living wages, health benefits, and job security for the university's janitorial staff, 35 students seized the Wesleyan admissions office for 33 hours in April. President Douglas Bennet responded quickly after the protest: Janitors saw their hourly wages increase 20 percent and also won gains in their health care and pension packages.
8. University of California, Berkeley Berkeley and its nine sister UC campuses joined the WRC this spring, giving it the backing of an additional 175,000 students. Cal Bears also challenged the propriety of a $25-million grant from drug giant Novartis, which gives the company broad rights to discoveries made within the College of Natural Resources. Protests and teach-ins helped win a state hearing on the issue and focus national attention on the eroding wall between the ivory tower and Wall Street.
9. Columbia University After three years of teach-ins, rallies, and marches by student activists, Columbia adopted the nation's most progressive sexual misconduct policy. Thanks to the newly amended disciplinary code, defendants in sexual misconduct cases at Columbia can now be barred from the hearing room when accusers detail their complaints; a new full-time arbitrator will field sexual grievances; and staff and students alike will receive stepped-up education about sexual assault.
10. State University of New York, Albany Student agitation forced SUNY Albany to cancel its dining hall contracts with Sodexho Marriott. Sodexho's parent company is the largest shareholder in Corrections Corporation of America, a leading purveyor of for-profit prisons. In addition to the prison connection, students denounced the company's health and labor records. Events at SUNY Albany have energized similar campaigns against Sodexho contracts at nearly 30 colleges nationwide.
-- Additional reporting by Katarzyna Lyson, Monique Murad, and Trevor Stordahl
END
Nicaragua's Trade Zone: Battleground for Unions
David Gonzalez, The New York Times ~ September 16
ANAGUA, Nicaragua — The five years that Inez Pérez spent sewing jeans at a Taiwanese-owned clothing factory here helped her raise five children on her own. But after going to a party also attended by the leaders of her union, she was abruptly dismissed.
"I was told they were canceling my contract because they didn't want me there," Mrs. Pérez said of the Chentex factory. "I worked all week. I used to work all day on Saturday, Sunday. I was a good worker. But it did not matter, because I belonged to a union."
Mrs. Pérez was among the first to join the Union of Chentex Workers, which has since withered under what its leaders described as the company's efforts to force people to choose between union and job. More than 150 union members among the factory's 1,800 workers were fired after brief strikes over higher wages. Some of the workers were at the party, and it was that fact that apparently prompted Mrs. Pérez's dismissal.
Her fate represents something more than than another attempt by management to break up a union. In a world that is eliminating barriers to trade and foreign investment, Mrs. Pérez's call for higher pay and a union is viewed here as a threat to the country's economic prosperity.
Taiwan companies like her former employer are the biggest investors in the free-trade zone here. Taiwan's government also built the offices of President Arnoldo Alemán and is financing the Foreign Ministry building. As it has with other Central American nations that support its readmission to the United Nations, Taiwan has given hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Nicaragua.
Local and international union rights groups see the labor-management conflict here as a vital test for labor rights in the foreign-owned factories that operate in free-trade zones in the developing world.
Their fears that desperately poor countries will tolerate low wages, unsafe workplaces and union busting in the name of free trade and foreign investment sparked angry confrontations last year at the Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organization and are quite likely to resurface this month at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Prague.
"This is the human face to globalization," said Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee, a group that led a group of religious leaders to meet the Chentex workers in August. "If this union goes under, it's curtains for a lot of other places."
But Carlos Yin, an administrator at Chentex, which is owned by a consortium called the Nien Hsing Textile Company, denied that the company had broken any laws or underpaid its workers. He said that it had granted a 25 percent wage increase this year and that anyone who had left the union had done so voluntarily, while many others who had left the company had done so to earn severance pay.
Chentex workers and labor advocates scoffed at that, saying Nicaraguans want to work, considering the poverty and unemployment visible on every street corner, scenes where men who sell candy compete with children who wash windshields.
Mr. Kernaghan's group is known for calling attention to the sweatshop conditions in a Honduran factory that made clothing for the Kathie Lee Gifford label. He said the Chentex workers, who are paid according to a table that sets the cost of each step in sewing a pair of jeans, make $65 to $124 a month.
Using documents that workers took out of the factory, as well as shipping information, Mr. Kernaghan determined that 50 cents' worth of labor went into sewing a pair of jeans that sells for $22 in the United States. The increase sought by the workers, he said, would add 8 cents to the cost of each pair.
"Everybody assumes the labor is cheap," he said. "When you put 8 cents to it, people start to go nuts. I think most American people are decent. I never met anybody who would put up with conditions like this."
Those conditions are reflected in the rickety house where Cristina Downs lives with her husband, Christián Cinco, and their 2-year-old, Christy. It is windowless, a sort of toolshed of plywood, zinc panels and plastic sheets, with a dirt floor and no room to move around. Ms. Downs said she was discharged from Chentex for not producing enough.
Her husband works, often seven days a week, at another factory owned by the same company, a situation that allows the couple to splurge on Sundays and share a pound of chicken for dinner, she said.
"The only thing is work," Ms. Downs said. "But all we make goes to pay for food. All you get is mistreatment."
Former and current workers said the Taiwanese managers routinely shouted at workers, sometimes hitting them on the head or throwing flawed garments in their faces. Many workers said the only way to eke out survival wages was to work overtime, which in any case was often forced on them, sometimes in 24-hour shifts.
"Nicaragua is being colonized again," Roberto Manzanares, a fired union leader, said. "Here we have 60 percent unemployment, and the companies take advantage of that to do whatever they want. They can fill the vacuum of workers, because so many more are waiting outside."
When the union formed two years ago, it affiliated with the Sandinista Workers Confederation. Although workplace conditions improved, union leaders said, the company refused to negotiate a raise or attend arbitration sessions at the Labor Ministry. Instead, the company negotiated with another union, one affiliated with the Confederation of Nicaraguan Workers, a group widely believed to be under company control.
Mr. Yin, the administrator, described the Sandinista union leadership as politically motivated.
"They have all the Sandinistas in here," Mr. Yin said. "You know Sandinistas? It's like Communism. If they work or not, they want the same salary. We come from a free country. People work hard, they earn more. People work less, they earn less."
Although Mr. Yin suggested to a reporter that he visit the factory, the invitation was later withdrawn.
In April, the union held a one-hour work stoppage and later a two-day strike. Soon, workers said, the company dismissed the union leaders and began pressing others to leave the group. The leaders appealed the dismissals. But company and labor officials said they were fair, because the leaders had called the strike without consulting the employees and had engaged in sabotage against the factory.
The inspector general of the Labor Ministry, Emilio Noguera, said conditions at Chentex and the other factory, in Las Mercedes, were generally not as bad as critics contended. Mr. Noguera defended the union leaders' dismissals, saying outside groups were paying them. Labor groups, he added, were motivated by wanting to protect American manufacturers who cannot compete with Nicaragua's cheaper labor costs.
"The companies here have a fear of unions, not because they represent the rights of workers, but because they are forming organizations that are more about doing business than defending the rights of workers," Mr. Noguera said. "It is logical that if I am being paid to complain, it's better to do that than to find a solution to the conflict."
Mr. Kernaghan said his goal was fair wages and good working conditions, not forcing consumers to buy American clothes or chasing the factories out of Nicaragua. He acknowledged that the latest attack on the union could affect Nicaragua's eligibility for the Clinton administration's Caribbean Basin Initiative.
Mr. Kernaghan has pledged to continue pressuring the Nicaraguan government, although he may have to do so from a distance. After his trip in August, he and other members of the delegation, including a Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop, the Most Rev. Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, were told that they would not be allowed return because they had incited violence. The allegations were made by officials in the local press, even though no violence was reported during the visit.
Despite Taiwan's close ties, members of the human rights committee of the National Assembly who wanted to investigate conditions at Las Mercedes were denied entry.
"We heard many complaints about abuses in the free zone and about how human rights are violated, physical mistreatment, psychological mistreatment and violations of the workers' fundamental labor rights," the head of the committee, Nelson Artola, said. "The business people in the free zone apply their own laws, violating our laws and the Constitution. They do and undo what they want with the support of the Nicaraguan government."
END
Over 2000 Workers Stage a Protest in Din Daeng
Junya Yimprasert, Thai Labour Campaign ~ September 16
On Sunday morning Suntorn Boonyod and Saneh Hongtong, leaders in the Thai labour movement, surrender themselves to Din Daeng Police officers. Suntorn and Saneh assisted the dismissed Master Toy workers in their recent demonstrations, where they eventually received full compensation from the company. The former Master Toy workers announced that if Suntorn and Saneh are arrested they also would have to be arrested.
Suntorn Boonyod and Saneh Hongtong are being asked by police to answer questions of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare's claim that they and the Master Toy protesters illegally entered the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare compound on June 2nd, 2000. Even though the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare had given workers permission to stay and promised that no one would be charged for actions during the demonstrations.
Over 2,000 workers will demonstrate with them marching from the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare to the police station in Din Daeng.
The workers plan to assemble at the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare at 9am, Sunday, September 17.
All members of the press, friends of the labour movement and public are invited to attend.
BACKGROUND
The main struggle of the Master Toy workers was over when the company agreed to pay full compensation to sacked workers. Workers came to this achievement because of the unity among the workers and assistance of their advisors, especially Suntorn Boonyod and Saneh Hongtong who stayed were workers during their two month demonstration at Government House and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare.
The Master Toy workers case opened the door to local and international demonstrations, letter writing campaigns and local investigations of the new Master Toy factory. Workers approached the Parliamentary Labour Committee and the Supreme Administrative Parliamentary Committee for assistance and to investigate the behavior of the Chachoengsao Labour Attaches. One of the few times that worker has gone as far as to call for an investigation into corruption of Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare officers. (It is believed that the Parliamentary Labour Committee has been under increasing pressure to drop their investigation of the Master Toy case.)
The workers demonstrations created much dissatisfaction to the Ministry of Labour officers, especially when workers moved their demonstration inside the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare compound from June 2-9. The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare published two open letters, the first stating that "the Master Toy workers illegally entered the authority compound, disturbing the officers and visitors of the Ministry". The second letter stated that "the workers turned on their public address system and did not organized with their belongings." This letter requested the workers to move out of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare area.
The Master Toy workers replied with two statements. The workers claimed that they had been given permission to stay by the Deputy Director of the Department of Labour Protection and Social Welfare. The Deputy Director only requested the workers to be organized and use their PA system only after office hours and until 10 PM. The Master Toy workers strictly followed these instructions. Additionally, Prayuth Siripanich, the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, promised workers that there would be no legal action against everyone involved in the Master Toy demonstrations.
On 6 September 2000, Saneh Hongtong received a letter from Police Lieutenant Colonel Wanchai Tongphan at Din Daeng police station. They discovered that the charge against them was reported by Mr. Pongsak sawasdichaipong under the permission of the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare (at that time Mr. Wiboon Rattanawes), claiming that Suntorn Boonyod and friends illegally entered the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare on June 2nd, 2000.
The Thai Labour Movement is disgusted with the action of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. Besides not being able to help solve the problem of many workers, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare officers acting themselves openly against the labour movement. If workers can not approach the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare with there problems where else should they seek help?
Please contact Lek at 01 617 5491 for more information
Thai Labour Campaign, Coordinator: Junya Yimprasert
Phone: +66 2 692 7963, Fax: +66 2 692 7963
END
CRISA Loses US Contract, Sues Its Workers
Labor Alerts, Campaign for Labor Rights ~ September 16, 2000
[Information for this alert provided by the Mexico Solidarity Network: 773/583-7728 and the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras: 210/732-8957. For labor news and related information from Mexico, see the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) web site]
Thank you for your continuing solidarity with the fired workers of the CRISA factory, in Irapuato in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. July 15 marked the first anniversary of the strike. (The U.S. employer still refuses to honor his company's agreement to reinstate the workers.) To mark the anniversary, some of the workers and their supporters held a commemorative demonstration outside the plant. A commission of fired workers sought to present a document to management reiterating their demands for reinstatement and union recognition. No representative of management would come out to receive the document. Two local newspapers published coverage of the action.
Your help is needed in response to a fresh attack by the owner (Arthur Price of Greenville, South Carolina) on those leading the campaign to affiliate his workforce with the independent labor federation FAT (Frente Autentico de Trabajo).
CRISA's stubborn refusal to resolve the labor dispute is beginning to hurt the company. In early May, CRISA received a letter from JSO Associates of Great Neck, New York, canceling a commitment to purchase 650,000 pounds of sliced strawberries for U.S. $247,000.
In the letter, JSO Associates stated that it was canceling the contract due to the risk of having its source of supply interrupted by a "disgruntled union." In a visit to the CRISA plant on May 2, a JSO partner had observed the FAT union encampment across the street from the plant and had seen strikers at the encampment talking to workers leaving the plant. The partner writes, "...we cannot take that risk [of supply disruption] and will reconsider our future purchases from Del Rio [CRISA] next season if the union problems with the FAT are resolved."
On June 7, CRISA filed a commercial suit against the FAT, Irapuato FAT organizer Antonio Velazquez and the regional union under whose auspices the strike has been taking place. This is the third round of litigation undertaken by CRISA since the organizing drive at its plant. The new complaint demands compensation for 564,678 pesos, or about U.S. $60,000, in alleged lost profits from the JSO deal.
The FAT's attorneys say that this type of complaint is uncommon in Mexico and seems like a long-shot for CRISA management. And, indeed, the judge to whom the case was assigned in an Irapuato civil court has recently ruled that the CRISA representative who brought this complaint, as well as previous civil suits against the FAT and CRISA strike leaders, is not legally qualified to do so. If CRISA does not produce appropriate documentation for its representative, the case will be dismissed. Nevertheless, CRISA may appeal, and the FAT has had to mount a legal defense. The case points up Price's continuing determination to attack and harass his former workers simply for attempting to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association.
In the recent Mexican presidential election, voters ended the PRI party's more than 70-year stranglehold on the government. The PRI's departure from power in Mexico provides an opening to press for justice. This alert includes a letter to Dr. Carlos Flores Alcocer, member of president-elect Vicente Fox's transition team in the area of social policy. Dr. Flores was Fox's social development and anti-poverty director in the state of Guanajuato, and he may very well already be aware of the situation at CRISA. The letter asks him to bring the CRISA case to President-elect Fox's attention and to work toward a favorable resolution.
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NAFTA CASE STRENGTHENS WORKERS' HAND
The National Administrative Office (NAO) of the U.S. Department of Labor announced on September 8 that it has accepted for further action a complaint that the Mexican government engaged in a persistent pattern of failure to enforce its own labor laws regarding worker health and safety conditions.
The complaint was filed on June 30 under provisions of the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC, the NAFTA labor "side accord"). Complainants include workers and former workers of Breed Technologies factories in Mexico, the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, 25 labor and religious organizations and two U.S. law school clinics.
This complaint could conceivably lead to fines being imposed. The NAALC provides for possible sanctions against a NAFTA government for persistent failure to enforce certain of its own labor laws. Monetary sanctions up to 0.007 percent of the annual total trade in goods between the NAFTA countries are possible for failure to enforce health and safety, child labor or minimum wage laws.
The NAO will now consult with the parties to set a time and location for a public hearing on the complaint. The hearing is expected to be held in Texas toward the end of this year. According to NAO guidelines, after the NAO has completed gathering information, it will issue a public report of its findings and recommendations. If the matter is not resolved, the NAALC provides for ministerial consultations and other dispute resolution mechanisms and may order monetary sanctions.
According to the San Antonio, TX-based Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, workers at Breed's Auto Trim and Custom Trim export factories in Valle Hermoso and Matamoros suffer from a wide variety of injuries and illnesses related to indiscriminate and unsafe exposure to chemicals and from repetitive motion injuries. The factories produce leather-covered steering wheels and shift knobs for automotive makers including General Motors, Daimer-Chrysler, BMW and Mazda.
Workers required to use toxic chemicals lack adequate protective gear, and the factories lack adequate ventilation systems. As a result, workers suffer chronic skin and eye irritations, dermatitis, rashes, headaches, nausea, respiratory difficulties, chronic sore throats and coughs, dizziness, fainting, memory loss and high rates of miscarriages and birth defects in their children, including spina bifida and anencephaly. Chronic hand, wrist, arm and back pain, permanently diminished mobility, carpal tunnel syndrome and cuts and gashes also are endemic.
The recent decision by the NAO reinforces pressure on the Mexican government to address labor rights violations - not only at Breed, but also in other labor conflicts, such as that at CRISA.
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ACTION REQUEST
Please copy, sign and send the following letter to Dr. Carlos Flores Alcocer of Mexican President Fox's transition team and please send the few lines of confirmation below (not this entire alert!) to Campaign for Labor Rights by email <CLR@igc.org> or fax (541) 431-0523:
I have responded to the September 16 CRISA alert.
NAME:
CITY & STATE (or COUNTRY if not U.S.):
ORGANIZATION (if applicable):
NOTE: Although the following email address and fax number have been tested prior to the posting of this alert, there is no guarantee that they will be functional when you try to send a message.
Dr. Carlos Flores Alcocer
Member, transition team for President Vicente Fox
Email: <itahua@prodigy.net.mx> Fax: 011-52-5395-8603
Dear Dr. Flores Alcocer:
I am writing to request that you to bring to the attention of Mexico's newly-elected President, Vicente Fox, an international labor dispute which is of growing importance to politicians, religious organizations, human rights networks and labor unions in the United States.
In Irapuato, Guanajuato, workers at the fruit processing plant Congeladora del Rio S.A. (CRISA) have been struggling for more than a year to be represented by the union of their choice. The CRISA plant processes strawberries and other fruit for international sale, particularly in the United States. It is owned by Arthur Price, CEO of Global Trading, Inc., based in Greenville, South Carolina.
Following the workers' campaign last year to affiliate with the FAT (Frente Autentico de Trabajo), Mr. Price fired approximately 200 workers, most of them women and some of them quite young. Despite an agreement brokered by the state government of Guanajuato that CRISA reinstate the fired workers, to date the company has failed to honor its commitment.
A strike encampment remains outside CRISA's plant gates. Human rights organizations report that the dispute has cost CRISA one of its contracts with U.S. customers. Moreover, the situation has begun to attract attention as an example of unacceptable U.S. corporate behavior. Mr. Price's Irapuato operation has violated Mexican labor law: in particular, through the employment of children.
The September 8 finding by the National Administrative Office of the U.S. Department of Labor (regarding Breed Technologies factories in Mexico) underscores a growing concern in the U.S. public that trade agreements such as the NAFTA accord may result in widespread and serious violations of fundamental worker rights.
I urge you to intervene with any means at your disposal to seek a speedy resolution of this dispute which respects the workers' right of free association and which will ensure that they are reinstated. I will remain actively interested in this case until it is resolved.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
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BACKGROUND
About a four-hour drive from Mexico City, the Congeladora del Rio (CRISA) fruit processing factory is owned by Global Trading, headed by Arthur Price of Greenville, South Carolina. Production work is done in Mexico, but the processed fruit is marketed in the U.S. Most workers are paid on a piece rate basis, earning low wages. Over time the company has hired many young women, including some in their teens. During the peak season they are required to work excessively long hours.
In June 1999, the workers filed a petition with the Mexican labor board to organize a union local affiliated with the Authentic Labor Front (FAT). Founded in 1960, the FAT is one of few independent labor federations in Mexico and is composed of union, cooperative, rural worker and community urban sectors. The sectors are also linked by a women's network.
The company reacted by firing some 200 employees and subsequently produced a contract with another union. This type of "protection contract" is common in Mexico, where employers typically negotiate with government-connected or gangster unions to write contracts containing terms and conditions favorable to the company - to protect themselves from having to negotiate with unions chosen by the workers and which actually represent their interests.
In July 1999, workers went on strike, and the company bused in teenage girls from another town to cross the picket line. In late September, the Governor of Guanajuato brokered an agreement recognizing a commission of workers and FAT advisors and calling for reinstatement of the fired workers. But then Global Trading refused to sign the agreement and brought in new strikebreakers. The state of Guanajuato intervened once more and brokered a new written agreement, plus a verbal agreement. To date, the company has yet to comply with any of these agreements, and the workers remain on strike.
END
Hopeful Sign In Nicaragua Campaign
Labor Alert, Campaign for Labor Rights ~ September 15
[Information for this alert provided by the Nicaragua Network: 202/544-9355; Witness for Peace: 202/588-1471 and the National Labor Committee: 212/242-3002
CHENTEX AGREES TO NEGOTIATE
The management of the Chentex factory has agreed to begin negotiations on Tuesday morning, September 19 on the reintegration of workers, including trade union leaders, fired or forced to resign as a result of industrial action earlier this year. In advance of September 19, the Textile Federation will produce a list of all those fired or forced to resign arising from industrial action earlier this year, and these names will form the basis of the reintegration negotiations.
All issues will be on the table:
* The company's application for the dissolution of the CST union representing workers at Chentex;
* All outstanding legal actions, including the criminal charges action launched against the union leaders of the CST union at Chentex;
* Future relations between Chentex and the union, including: recognition, the framework for consultation and negotiations, grievance procedures, productivity, quality, joint industrial relations training initiatives and any other matter jointly agreed by the two parties.
In advance of September 19, Chentex management and the Textile Federation will meet to agree an agenda for negotiations.
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KEEP THE HEAT ON!
This is a remarkable development. Chentex has been the more resistant of the two conflicted factories which have received international attention. Only days earlier, Chentex management had been spreading a rumor that the factory would close rather than deal with the union.
Nothing has been resolved yet. Negotiations have not begun. This is a hopeful sign, but it is too early to declare a victory. We have gotten this far because the factories - and their U.S. customers, Kohl's and Target - are feeling the heat. It is all the more important now that we turn up the heat on Kohl's and Target.
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ACTION REQUEST
Kohl's and Target leafleting October 5-15
Campaign for Labor Rights is mobilizing its Rapid Action Network and is calling upon all local anti-sweatshop activists to organize leafleting at Kohl's and Target outlets sometime during October 5-15. We already are hearing from many of you about your plans for participating in this next - and possibly decisive - round of leafleting.
CONTACT CAMPAIGN FOR LABOR RIGHTS at 541/344-5410 to let us know if you are planning a leafleting event. We will have new leaflet masters available soon.
Where there is a Kohl's outlet, we are asking that you prioritize leafleting there. In communities with a Target outlet but no Kohl's, please leaflet at Target. In communities where both are present, activists may decide that a roving action would be energizing; however, we ask that you try to maximize the size of your demonstrations and not dilute the impact on Kohl's (and the potential for attracting press coverage) by dividing your demonstrators simultaneously between two sites.
We want leafleting actions in communities anywhere that there are Kohl's or Target outlets. In communities where a grand opening is planned, this presents a great opportunity for press coverage - especially if the demonstration is large.
The demand is for Kohl's and Target not to cut-and-run, but to use their influence with Chentex and Mil Colores so that those factories rehire the fired union members, drop charges against unionists (Mil Colores has now done this) and recognize and bargain a fair contract with the unions.
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CLARIFICATION ON CBI ACTION
Our September 9 alert mentioned activity relating to Nicaragua's new Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) trade benefits and also made reference to actions which have been used in the past with regard to General System of Preference (GSP) trade benefits elsewhere in Central America.
The AFL-CIO has filed a GSP petition on El Salvador (as well as Guatemala).
No formal petition has been filed under CBI on any country, including Nicaragua. However, the AFL-CIO did file a "public comments" piece on most of the countries in the region in connection with the new CBI benefits that Congress passed for the maquila (assembly for export) sector. The U.S. Trade Representative's office (USTR) asked for public comments as part of the start-up process for the new CBI benefits. The new benefits are slated to begin later this fall. Free trade zone issues were one of the main concerns cited in the AFL-CIO comments on Nicaragua.
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STUDY SHOWS WOMEN MISTREATED in Nicaragua's free trade zones
A recent study conducted by the Maria Elena Cuadra Women's Movement provides clear evidence of the mistreatment of women workers in Nicaragua's free trade zones (FTZs). The study included 2,562 women who were interviewed, representing roughly 10% the total FTZ workforce. Eighty percent of all FTZ workers are women, of whom 85% are below the age of 26 and 70% are single mothers. These mothers have a family average of 4 children.
The figures:
* 63% said that when they went to the doctor, their pay was docked or they lost incentive bonuses;
* 57% said they were not provided with masks to protect them from the airborne fluff which frequently caused respiratory and lung complaints, distorted vision, allergies and even kidney problems;
* 35% said they had to obtain permission to use the bathroom, that their visits were timed, that they were hauled out if supervisors considered they delayed too long and that the maximum number of bathroom visits was set at between 2 and 4 per day;
* In the Las Mercedes free trade zone, which employs 20,000 workers, there is one day care center, with space for just 80 children;
* In many cases, children had to be left on their own, since their mothers could not afford childcare;
* Workdays were frequently of 12 hours duration, including extra hours which, while theoretically voluntary, workers were pressured to undertake. They were sometimes much longer, even up to 24 hours or more. For most women, therefore, the greatest problem was finding someone to care for their children;
* Supervisors sought to fire anyone who became pregnant, thus making motherhood a matter of despair and dread, interfering with women's right to bear children;
* 50 of those interviewed said they had been verbally or physically abused by supervisors, while 31 had been sexually accosted or abused; many said these figures were very low, because victims were frightened into silence.
All complained of the common practice of being forced to strip on supervisors' suspicion that they might be smuggling company property out of the plant.
Free trade zones employ 16% of all industrial workers in Nicaragua; in 1998, exports were worth US$182 million (they were just US$3 million in 1992). Eighty per cent of the women workers earn US$55 - 80 per month, including overtime, the lowest pay in Central America's FTZs. Although Nicaraguan workers have been more successful than most in organizing themselves into unions, they are currently suffering a major union-busting drive.
Campaign for Labor Rights, 1247 "E" Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 Phone: 541/344-5410; fax: 541/431-0523
END
Rumblings of New Development in the Global Economy
Daniel Zwerdling, NPR ~ August 18
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO STORY ON NICARAGUA
Transcript of August 18 program (forwarded by Campaign for Labor Rights)
It's NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Noah Adams. There are rumblings of a new development in the global economy and they're making multinational companies nervous. The women and men in developing nations who make clothing for the US and other countries are beginning to organize unions.
They work in what are called export factories. Most Americans would consider them to be sweatshops. They're demanding better working conditions and higher pay, but the factory owners are fighting back. Correspondent Daniel Zwerdling visited one country that's on the front lines of the union struggle in the global economy. He filed this report for NPR News and American Radio Works.
SOUNDBITE OF LARGE GROUP OF PEOPLE TALKING
DANIEL ZWERDLING reporting: It's 7:00 on a recent evening in the capital of Nicaragua. Some of the factories are shutting down on the outskirts of Managua and thousands of women and men are pouring through the factory gates. These are some of the workers who make the blue jeans that you wear.
Most of them are cramming into bright yellow buses to go home, but another group is gathering around a man with a bullhorn. Some look angry. Others seem almost dazed.
Unidentified Man #1 (Foreign language spoken)
ZWERDLING: Until a few ours ago, these Nicaraguans were part of the global economy. They were hunched over sewing machines inside a factory that's owned by a consortium from Taiwan [Nien Hsing] and they were making brand-name jeans for department stores in the United States. My interpreter translates.
Unidentified Man #1 (Through Translator): We just want to let you know that we're backing your struggle, we're backing the struggle for freedom of organizing. They cannot play with our dignity as workers.
ZWERDLING: Dozens of these workers have just been fired and the rest are worried they'll be next. Three years ago, they formed a union in the biggest factory in the [Nien Hsing] Taiwanese consortium. It's called Chentex. They began demanding better working conditions, more money. But now Chentex has retaliated. One of the union leaders called this impromptu rally.
Unidentified Man #1 (Foreign language spoken): And it's important that you the workers resist. Don't be provoked, because I know right now you're under a lot of harassment, a lot of psychological pressure. They're putting gangs to pressure you.
ZWERDLING: The women at this rally say that Chentex has fired hundreds of union members in just the past few months. And now they say managers are purging every union supporter who's left.
SOUNDBITE OF WOMEN TALKING: Unidentified Woman #1 (Interpreter): The one in the pink dress is saying that the company owners are making them sign papers to say that they're voluntarily resigning from the union, and that this is a lie. They're making them sign these papers.
ZWERDLING: There's a woman who's been standing at the fringes of this crowd, and it turns out she's a supervisor on the factory floor. She says she's come to the rally so these fired employees know she sympathizes with the union. She says the working conditions at Chentex are terrible.
Unidentified Woman #2 (Chentex Supervisor) (Through Translator): And the operators, they cannot go away from their post more than three minutes. If they have to go to the bathroom, they have to rush back. And if they don't come back within that time, then the Chinese supervisor sends me to get them. Well, it makes me feel bad because, for example, if someone is not feeling well and they need to be going to the bathroom, it's really horrible for me to go and get them out of the bathroom.
ZWERDLING: The workers at this particular rally are struggling to save one union in one factory in Nicaragua's export zone. But they say they're really fighting to save a whole labor movement. Since late last year, at least four different companies have suddenly fired union leaders and members. The union in the Chentex plant is especially important, because it's been the strongest until now. One of the women at this rally says `Look at the label on your blue jeans. Do you have Bugle Boy or Cherokee or Gloria Vanderbilt? Did you buy them at Target or Kmart or Kohl's?' She and her friends might have made them.
Unidentified Woman #3 (Through Translator): What we want to say to the businesses and consumers in the United States is that we have formed unions because we're not going to take this repression any more. And we want to tell them that if they are going to buy a pair of pants, then that they know where it's coming from. That's it's coming from the exploitation of us.
ZWERDLING: We couldn't go inside the Chentex plant or get the factory owners' side of the story. Executives of the [Nien Hsing] Taiwanese consortium that owns Chentex would not talk to NPR. They didn't respond to more than a dozen phone calls.
Unidentified Man #2 (Foreign language spoken) APPLAUSE
ZWERDLING: Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America. More than half the adults don't have any job at all or they can find only part-time work. So back in the early 1990s, the leaders of Nicaragua came up with a plan. They decided, `Let's become the blue-jeans production capital for America.' SOUNDBITE OF SEWING MACHINE They're using the same tactics that other poor countries have tried when they're desperate to create jobs. If you own a foreign company and you're willing to make your clothing in Nicaragua, the government will give you space in this huge industrial park, that is protected by barbed wire and guards. Your company won't pay a single penny in taxes for at least the first 10 years. And you can pay your employees the lowest wages in the region. They're less than half what you pay in Mexico. They call this the free [trade] zone.
Mr. GILBERTO WONG (Presidential Spokesman, Nicaragua): And the Free Zone of Nicaragua is not only an economic help for the nation, but it's also a social benefit for the people.
ZWERDLING: That's Gilberto Wong. He's the spokesman for Nicaragua's president Arnoldo Aleman. Companies from all over the world have set up shop here, and Wong says they're giving jobs to roughly 25,000 workers; most of them are young women.
Mr. WONG: The free [trade] zone generates mass employment for the Nicaraguan people. Especially, it gives the opportunity for women to join the industrial force. We're not going to say these are the best jobs in the world, but can you imagine all these women being at home, having children, not working?
ZWERDLING: But the way some employees tell the story, Nicaragua's made a kind of pact with the devil and they say they need unions to protect them.
SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN SINGING It's impossible to really talk with employees on the factory grounds. They're scared they'll get fired for talking with a reporter. But some of the workers who still have jobs in Chentex and some of the other companies agree to meet on one of their rare days off. They gather at this community day-care center.
SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN SINGING
This center is actually a tiny house on a dirt road. It's one of the more solid houses in the neighborhood. It has cinder-block walls and cement floors and a toilet. Many of the workers live in shacks made from scraps of plywood and rusty sheets of metal. The floors of their homes are bare dirt.
They say they got jobs in the foreign blue-jean factory because they wanted a better life than this, but they say they feel like they can't take it any more.
Unidentified Woman #4 (Through Translator): You know, these people came to invest in Nicaragua, and we - the people of Nicaragua - were happy that they were coming because that meant work for us. And, yes, we need the jobs. But they came with this way of being so arrogant. Just a week ago I saw how the supervisor Mang Far [phonetic spelling] came to this one woman worker. The woman was doing this pocket. And out of the hundred pockets that she had just done, the supervisor picked two and she said that they were done wrong. And she went to the worker and slapped this one woman on the face.
ZWERDLING: But most of all, these women talk about the crushing hours and the pay. They say Chentex and other factories force them to work huge amounts of overtime and they make about 70 cents an hour in return. It's impossible to confirm everything these employees say, but virtually all the two dozen Chentex workers we interviewed tell pretty much the same story.
Unidentified Woman #5 (Foreign language spoken)
ZWERDLING: This woman's schedule is typical. She says she gets up at 4:30 in the morning. She washes her family's clothes and dresses her children. Then it takes her about an hour to take a bus to the factory zone. She starts her sewing machine by 7 AM sharp. And she says the managers often make her work until 7 at night. She says she does want some overtime, she needs the money. But she says the managers sometimes force them to work seven days a week and they occasionally have to stay until midnight.
Another woman in the group bursts into tears.
Unidentified Woman #6 (Through Translator): The pressure is so much. I feel so tense and so nervous, I feel like I'm going to have a nervous breakdown.
ZWERDLING: The women at this meeting are the quintessential employees in the blue-jeans plants. Most are 20-something. Some are single mothers. One woman says her partner beats her. They don't all belong to a union. The ones who don't say they're afraid that would get them fired. But everybody says they support what the unions are trying to do. "Look," one employee says, "some people might say, 'What are you all complaining about? Wouldn't you rather work in a factory even if the conditions are bad and you don't get paid much, than have no job at all?"'
Unidentified Woman #7 (Through Translator): No. At least for me, as a woman, I work. I support my family and I like working. But that doesn't mean that gives other people the right to come and we always have to say yes, yes, yes for everything and we'll have to be beaten and hit, just like a dog when it gets hit and it just moves its tail and it comes back. No, we're not going to do that. That's like slaves. That's past time. We came to the point where we said, "It's enough." And that's why we formed the union.
ZWERDLING: In most poor countries, the people who make your pants and shoes have never seen a real union. Nicaragua is different. In the late 1970s, a group of rebels called the Sandinistas overthrew the long-time dictator. And they called on peasants and factory workers to organize. Their socialist visions eventually crumbled, partly because they fought a long war against US-back guerrillas. And then they held democratic elections and they lost. But many poor Nicaraguans have held onto that notion that they have the right to form a union. APPLAUSE
Ms. GLADYS MANZANARES (Foreign language spoken)
ZWERDLING: A lot of women in the factories will tell you that this is the voice that really got the union at Chentex going. Her name is Gladys Manzanares. She's twice as old as most employees. She's 52. After a rally one evening, Manzanares relaxes at her house. She lives in one room with her six children and two grandchildren. She says she's embarrassed to talk inside because she didn't have time to clean up, so we chat under a huge almond tree.
Ms. MANZANARES (Foreign language spoken)
ZWERDLING: Manzanares says that right after they organized the union at Chentex, she and the other employees began pressuring the Taiwanese managers to make changes - changes that used to be unthinkable. For instance, they got a place to sit down during lunch. They used to have to eat standing up. They got the company to install air filters to take the cotton dust out of the air. The Taiwanese managers agree that whenever an employee has a baby, they'll give her about one week's extra wages to help out. And if somebody in your immediate family dies, you get six days off with pay.
Ms. MANZANARES (Through Translator): This is very different from other companies where there are no unions. I mean, if a woman has a child, so what? Nothing happens. And we're also able to get hot water in the building so that we could make coffee, and then we could make coffee any time we wanted. This seems little, but these are really big changes for us.
ZWERDLING: But the more the union gained, the more Chentex resisted. The way Manzanares tells the story, company managers tried to kill the union softly at first. Early last year, one of the top managers asked Manzanares to meet her at a popular hotel.
Ms. MANZANARES (Through Translator): So this woman, Doris Escalon [phonetic spelling] was there and she greeted me very, very caring - in a very caring way. And she was, oh, giving me hugs, and she started saying, "Oh, Dona Gladys, would you like something to drink?" And I said, "No, thank you." And "Would you like something to eat? You must be hungry." And I was thinking to myself, "Hm."
ZWERDLING: She says the Chentex manager finally got to the point. The woman told Manzanares that the company would pay her roughly $25,000 if she'd quit the union. It'd take the typical factory worker 25 years to make that much money at current wages.
Ms. MANZANARES (Through Translator): And I actually looked at her and sort of laughed. I thought to myself, "Poor woman." I mean, she doesn't know how to value human life. When I said to her I didn't want the money, she just smiled. And she said, "Ah, Dona Gladys, why are you such a simple person?"
ZWERDLING: Since the Taiwanese managers wouldn't give an interview, it's not possible to confirm this story, but documents from sources close to the company and the government generally reinforce what Manzanares says. In any case, Manzanares didn't quit the union and the union members didn't back down. In fact, they began pushing for higher wages. Chentex refused to negotiate. And that's when the real trouble began.
SOUNDBITE OF PEOPLE YELLING AND SIRENS A few months ago, the union called a three-day strike to try to pressure the Taiwanese owners to bargain. The company called in riot police armed with automatic weapons. Nobody got hurt, but since then, Chentex has fired between three and five hundred workers, according to the union's leaders. Gladys Manzanares is one of them. You know, she says, she has more skills and experience than most factory employees. She probably could have found a more lucrative job.
Ms. MANZANARES (Through Translator): I have one son who's very resentful of me. He feels because of my work with the union I've sacrificed their lives. And it hurts me. It hurts me a lot when my children say to me. And that hurts. But I feel like my son is jealous. I think he wished he could have me all for himself. But I keep telling him that I wasn't born just for him, that I was born for many other people.
ZWERDLING: An independent human-rights group in Nicaragua has taken the Chentex case to court. The group's lawyers charge that the Taiwanese consortium [Nien Hsing] and other export companies are breaking the law by systematically crushing the unions. At this point, the union at Chentex is essentially dead. And the human-rights groups says that the Nicaraguan government is colluding. In one case after another, union leaders have asked government officials to block the firings, and in virtually every case, the government has backed the company owners. Activists say you can see some of the possible reasons why at construction sites in downtown Managua.
SOUNDBITE OF CONSTRUCTION The Nicaraguan government's building a fancy new headquarters for its Foreign Ministry right on this corner. And the government of Taiwan is paying for it. There's a big sign with a Taiwanese flag. Go a few more blocks and there's Nicaragua's most important building. It's the brand-new presidential palace. This palace was also a gift from the government of Taiwan. And now Taiwanese investors are talking about building a new industrial complex in Nicaragua worth a hundred million dollars. But the president's spokesman, Gilberto Wong, says none of this has anything to do with Nicaragua's policies on unions and Taiwanese blue jeans.
Mr. WONG: No, that's not true. I mean, what happened in the free [trade] zone had nothing to do with the support that the government of Taiwan had given to Nicaraguan people through the government. The investor in the free [trade] zone are private investor, which had nothing to do with the Taiwanese government.
ZWERDLING: And Wong says nobody's trying to break any unions.
Mr. WONG: It is a lie. I deny that the owners of the factories here are violating human rights. The factories are complying with labor laws, with good treatment, with human rights and with worker conditions. So I don't see why someone say that here we are having a human-rights problem.
SOUNDBITE OF FACTORY MACHINE
Mr. CRAIG MILLER (American, blue-jean factory owner, Nicaragua): Basically, everything flows in from this end of the factory. The rolls of fabric, thread, buttons, zippers all...
ZWERDLING: The Taiwanese company wouldn't talk to NPR, but another blue-jeans maker opened the door to his factory. This is Craig Miller. He's American. And human rights activists say he's one of the owners who's trying to crush the labor movement. Last January, a few dozen workers in the plant got together and formed a brand-new union. Miller fired the new union's leader the very next day, and over the next week and a half, he fired the rest of the union's officers, along with most of the employees who backed them. But Miller says the only reason he got rid of those employees was because they didn't do good work.
Mr. MILLER: These people who were fired, it was not because they were unionists. It's because they were poor workers. They had poor quality, poor efficiency. You need to do it for business purposes. The next thing that I find out is, "Well, we were part of a union." As far as us trying to bust a union, that's inaccurate.
ZWERDLING: Miller suggests that there's a bigger message beyond the particular battles between factory owners and the unions. He said you can't look at what's happening in Nicaragua from an American perspective. It is true, he says, it's hard working on the clothing assembly lines. And, yes, the workers don't make much money by American standards, although they do make as much as Nicaraguan nurses and police. And, yes, Miller says, many workers can't afford to live in anything more than a shack with dirt floors and two chairs and one lightbulb.
Mr. MILLER: If I wasn't here, would they have two chairs? Would they have food on the table? Would they have the electricity to put on that lightbulb? This is a country that is just starting to grow, a country that is basically going through its own industrial revolution. You know, go back a hundred years in the United States, the conditions that we have today were certainly not the way they were then. You know, and these people were born into this lifestyle, as well. It's not like they were living in palaces and then came to this. For a lot of them, they're seeing the conditions improve, not deteriorate.
SOUNDBITE OF TRAFFIC AND HORNS
ZWERDLING: It's 6 AM, just outside the gates of the free [trade] zone. Busses are swooping in and out. They're disgorging the tens and thousands of workers who are about to start another day on the blue jeans assembly lines. There's a massive stream of men and women stretching as far as you can see. They're jammed shoulder-to-shoulder. They're shuffling through the gates of the factory. And they're largely silent. Just about the only voices you hear are the children hawking tamales.
SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN
Suddenly, a woman tugs on my sleeve. We'd met the week before at the day-care center. She had been working at Chentex, but she says the manager called her to his office and give her one of those forms denouncing the union. When she refused to sign it, he fired her. Now she's starting a new job at another factory at 30 percent less money. Sometimes, she says, she fantasizes what it'd be like to get the perfect job and earns lots of money.
Unidentified Woman #8 (Through Translator): I dreamt once that I had my house and I would like to have all the things that I've wished for, you know, a TV for my children. They love to watch cartoons. I would like a fan, a bed, a table, those things that I've always wished for.
ZWERDLING: Just a few weeks ago labor leaders in the United States announced that they're going to back the union battles in Nicaragua. They see them as a symbol of what's coming next in the global economy. They're going to send money to the blue-jeans workers to help fight their legal battles. And they're going to pressure chain stores, like Target and Kohl's, to refuse to sell clothing from Nicaraguan factories that fight the unions. [Not true. The international solidarity campaign is calling upon Kohl's and Target to use their influence with Chentex and Mil Colores to stop their union busting and to bargain with the unions.] Meanwhile, owners of the [Nien Hsing] Taiwanese consortium have announced that they've changed their plans. A few months ago, the Taiwanese declared that they were gonna shut down their factories in Nicaragua and move to another country. They didn't want labor problems. But now that they've managed to neutralize the union, they've decided to stay. [See Labor Alert for latest news.] I'm Daniel Zwerdling for NPR News and American Radio Works.
END
Global Labour Report Denounces Repression: Thousands of People Targeted for Trade Union Activities World-wide
Luc Demaret, International Confederation Of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) ~ Sept. 12, 2000
Brussels, September 13 2000 (ICFTU OnLine): At least 140 trade unionists were assassinated, disappeared, or committed suicide after they were threatened, because they had the temerity to stand up for workers' rights against the state or unscrupulous employers, according to an annual survey published today (September 13) by the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). The Survey details violations of trade union rights in 113 countries during the period from January 1, 1999 to December 31, 1999. It says that nearly 3000 people were arrested, more then 1,500 were injured, beaten or tortured and at least 5,800 were harassed because of their legitimate trade union activities. Another 700 trade unionists received death threats.
"This year's report gives an opportunity to denounce the prevailing hypocrisy which sees government officials parading at international gatherings, ostensibly promoting basic workers' rights, while those who actually defend those fundamental rights at home are being harassed, attacked, threatened, sidelined or silenced sometimes for ever," said Bill Jordan, general secretary of the ICFTU while presenting this year's findings.
Abuses compiled in the survey range from murder to subtle legislative arrangements that make trade union activities increasingly looking like a daunting obstacle race.
Some 12,000 workers were unfairly dismissed or refused reinstatement, sometimes with the complicity of the government, because they were active members of a trade union. At least 140 strikes or demonstrations were repressed by governments, sometimes with the support of the employers using strike breakers, while 80 of the 113 countries mentioned in the survey restrict the right to strike altogether.
"Ruthless repression in Latin America, attacks and interference in Asia, arrests and imprisonment in Africa, severe restrictions and non-payment of wage in Eastern Europe and a growing trend to "union busting" activities in industrialised countries" are key findings of this year's findings, according to Bill Jordan. The ICFTU's annual report forms part of its campaign to promote a link between respect for core labour standards and international trade arrangements. The survey reports on violations of two of the most ratified Conventions of the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO): Conventions 87 on Freedom of Association ratified by 130 countries and Convention 98 on the right to organise and collective bargaining ratifies by 145 countries.
The ICFTU is the world's largest international trade union organisations with affiliated national centres in 145 countries representing more than 123 million workers world-wide.
The Americas
The Latin American continent remains the most dangerous place in the world for trade unionists. 90 trade unionists lost their lives, twice as many as any other continent, and about 70% of those arrested world-wide for carrying out trade union activities were from Latin America.
Forming a trade union within an enterprise is virtually impossible in many Latin American countries. Workers' rights are ignored in the export processing zones (in particular in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras) and strikes are severely repressed: 726 trade unionists were injured or beaten for trying to enforce their rights. Those defending the workers' cause are constantly harassed by the authorities and employers. In at least two Export processing zones, renowned multinationals were described as resorting to pregnancy tests before recruiting workers.
In Colombia, 76 trade unionists were assassinated or reported missing. These included 23 trade union leaders, 52 grass roots union activists, and a union bodyguard. There were 676 death threats, 13 attempted assassinations, 22 kidnaps, 28 forced exiles. The authorities used unnecessary force to end strikes, 149 people were injured and 418 arrested.
In Argentina, mass demonstrations in several provinces to demand the payment of wages were brutally repressed by the police, leaving five dead and 25 injured.
The situation for trade unionists in Guatemala remained very dangerous. Three of them were assassinated and there were at least 20 death threats against trade union leaders. Violence was particularly bad against workers in the banana plantations, where transitional corporations tried to destroy the trade unions.
In Costa Rica, banana workers trying to form unions risk the sack, and are put on black lists. The suppression of labour unions enables employers to ignore safety regulations. Sometimes with dramatic results. The use of, otherwise forbidden, pesticides has led to the death of workers. Cases of sterility and of women delivering deformed babies were also reported.
In the United States, freedom of association and the right to strike are severely restricted. At least one in 10 union supporters campaigning to form a union is illegally fired. The instances of extreme exploitation have increased in particular of foreign workers recruited through private employment agencies. About 40% of public service employees are refused the right to strike and to bargain collectively. Workers regularly face harassment.
Africa
Trade union repression is rife in Africa. In this continent nearly four out of five arrests world-wide took place in Africa. 80% of the world total of those given prison sentences for their trade union activities were in Africa. Strikes and demonstrations were also harshly repressed. The legislation of 23 of the 31 African countries covered contains restrictive measures on the right to strike. Trade unionists are frequently harassed in Africa. The survey lists 834 cases, in nearly two thirds of African countries, a higher average than any other continent.
An overriding feature in Africa is government interference in trade unions internal affairs. In Libya, Sudan, and in Equatorial Guinea the ban on independent trade unions remained. In the Central African Republic, the government continued to target the USTC and its leader, Théophile Sonny-Cole, was beaten up and prevented from attending international conferences.
In Ethiopia, two leaders of the teachers' union ETA died in prison because of poor conditions, while another received a 15-year prison sentence, as part of continual harassment of the ETA. The national union centre the CETU remained under government control. The authorities in Djibouti imposed their own candidates at the top of the UGTD and the UDT, and froze their assets, claiming that the genuine organisations were illegal.
In Morocco, 23 trade unionists were sent prison after striking over labour law violations, 21 of whom had been tortured by police in detention.
In Swaziland, trade unions continued to be repressed, and the SFTU and its leaders were regularly harassed. The police detained the entire national executive committee of the Swazi Teachers Union, accusing them of "un-Swazi" behaviour because they had carried a coffin during a march.
Zimbabwe was another country where respect for trade union rights deteriorated dramatically, and three leaders of the ZCTU were attacked following a strike. Strikes were declared illegal, and those taking party severely harassed.
Asia and the Pacific
At least 37 trade unionists lost their lives during strikes and many others were wounded in 1999. All the countries in the survey have legislation limiting the fundamental right to organise. In some countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan workers have no trade union rights in the export processing zones, while in other countries such as Thailand, Fiji, India and Sri Lanka trade unions are not allowed in practice. Strikes and demonstrations are fiercely repressed. 19 of the 25 countries in the region have anti-strike legislation. In 40% of countries, trade unionists were beaten or injured as a result of their trade union activities. The authorities frequently intervened in trade union affairs, as according to the survey, nearly half of all cases of interference took place in Asia.
In North Korea and Burma, the authorities have banned the formation of independent trade unions..
China represses any attempt to form independent trade unions. Many trade unionists remained behind bars or were sent to prison without trial. At least 164 independent labour activists were sent to "rehabilitation through labour" camps. Hundreds of Chinese workers were injured during clashes with the police as they were protesting against the closures of factory which have resulted in millions of people losing their jobs.
In Indonesia, although the trade union situation has improved the fall of President Suharto, the police and military still brutally intervene in most strikes.
In South Korea, 230 people were arrested, more than 150 were injured and over 650 were harassed in anti-union repression.
The recent history of Australian trade unionism has been one of continual assaults on trade unions at national and state level through the introduction of repressive legislation to deprive unions of their rights.
There was no improvement in Pakistan's poor trade union rights record, and in 1999 the government added to the already severe restrictions. A wide range of workers cannot belong to unions, and in the country's export processing zones workers cannot form unions, bargain or go on strike.
In Turkey the police have a record of continually repressing demonstrations.
Middle East
Trade unions are virtually non-existent in the Middle East, according to the ICFTU's trade union rights' survey. In all the cases examined by the ICFTU, legal barriers prevent workers from organising or from holding strikes. In Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, foreign workers, who make up at least two thirds of the labour force have virtually no rights and are not covered by any of the existing collective agreements. The situation is slightly better in Kuwait, where workers who have been in the country for five years are allowed to join unions.
In Israel, the government used the law to ban strikes in the public sector, and Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip who work in Israel cannot join Israeli trade unions nor can they organise their own unions in Israel.
Europe
Seven people in Europe lost their lives owing to their trade union activities, while another two committed suicide to draw the authorities' attention to the conditions they faced. In one quarter of the countries examined, trade unionists were injured or beaten. In nearly half of Eastern Europe, the government interfered in the trade unions' internal affairs. This interference amounted to about one third of the world total.
In Belarus, President Lukashenko has established total state control over trade unions, making it impossible to start independent trade unions, or for unions to carry out legitimate activities. Trade unionists have been arrested for taking part in demons trations or threatened with the sack if they do not leave the union.
In Russia, four trade unionists were assassinated. Throughout the year the authorities refused to listen to the strikers' demands, often over the non-payment of wages.
In Malta, the entire leadership of the General Workers Union as well as striking workers were charged with criminal offences, during the six-month industrial dispute, and 80 trade unionists were injured and 41 arrested.
Restrictions on trade union rights persisted in Western Europe. In the United Kingdom companies used anti-union legislation still on the statute books to interfere in union affairs. 300 strikers were fired during a dispute with Lufthansa sky chefs, the world's largest catering company.
Belgium is mentioned for court decisions which undermine the right to strike, and Germany and Switzerland ban the right to strike for certain categories of civil servant.
For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224 0202 or +32 476 62 10 18.
END
Two Advisors to Workers of Master Toy Company Ordered Arrested
Junya Yimprasert, Thai Labour Campaign ~ Sept. 12
Dear friends,
Suntorn Boonyod and Saneh Hongtong are two of the main advisors to the Master Toy workers and stayed with the workers all the time during the demonstration period. After the case of Master Toy have been settled that the workers received full compensation. The Ministry of Labour requested the police to arrest Suntorn Boonyod and Saneh Hongtong for leading the demonstration to illegally enter the Ministry of Labour compound from June 2 - 9, 2000, although there was an agreement with the Deputy Minister of Labour, Prayuth Siripanich, when the case was settled that there would be no charges brought against them.
When they entered the Ministry of Labour building, however, the gate was open, the staff of the ministry of labour asked them to be orderly, not to make too much noise after 10pm and to keep the area clean. At no point did they request that they leave the compound. The security officers never approached them and the police were not involved.
The labour movement in Thailand feels that this is some kind of retaliation for bringing about an investigation of corruption within the Ministry of Labour. During the Master Toy demonstrations, workers approached the Supreme Administrative Parliamentary with allegations of corruption of Ministry of labour staff in Chachoengsao province. We also have been informed that the Parliamentary Labour Committee have been requested to drop any further investigation on Master Toy case.
On Wednesday 13, representatives of the Central labour congress, federation of Paper and Printing of Thailand and many trade unions will go the to ministry of labour and ask questions of the minister about this case.
On Thursday 14 Sept. Suntorn, Saneh and supporters will also go to Ministry of Labour to ask about the case.
On Sunday 17 Sept. Suntorn Boonyod, Saneh Hongtong and around 100 former Master Toy workers will turn themselves in to the police. Expecting over 2,000 supporters will be present and everyone including the press are also invited.
Saneh is also the campaign coordinator for Thai Labour Campaign so we will keep you inform closely of the progress.
Yours in solidarity,
Lek....
Suntorn Boonyod, 43 years old.
In 1978, after finishing his diploma from technical school, Suntorn was working in many of the car assembly companies. In almost every companies he either forming the union or actively involve in union activities. In 1984, he formed the Fiat and Automobile Workers Federation. His technician career ended after the forming of the federation.
From 1984 to 1995 he was directly working for many trade unions, starting from coordinating the Paper, Printing Workers Federations, the Bangkok Bank Workers Union, and the Banking and Finance Workers Federations of Thailand. Since 1995 he worked with the State Railway Workers Association (Union). During all those years of directly involve in many of the labour struggle in Thailand, Suntorn became one of the best labour leaders’ trainer, and demonstration organizer in Thailand. His successes in leading the Master Toy demonstration has then pressure him to lead the Thai Durable Workers in their struggle.
Suntorn is currently the IUF, coordinator for Thailand.
Saneh Hongtong, 31 year old.
Seneh was the former leader of the Par Garment Labour Union. She was dismissed by the company in 1994 from her involvement in union activities. After that she was working for the Par Garment Labour Union and from 1997 to May 2000 she worked with Young Christian Workers, Thailand. Saneh resigned from YCW Thailand due to her actively engagement with the Master Toy case and has no time for the YCW, Thailand. In September she starts working with Thai Labour Campaign as campaign coordinator.
Junya Yimprasert, Coordinator
Thai Labour Campaign
Phone: +66 2 692 7963, Fax: +66 2 692 7963
END
Campaign To Support Unions in Nicaragua's Las Mercedes Free Trade Zone Having Iimpact
Campaign for Labor Rights ~ Sept. 9
[Information for this alert provided by the Nicaragua Network: 202/544-9355, Witness for Peace: 202/588-1471, and the National Labor Committee: 212/242-3002]
The campaign in support of unions in Nicaragua's Las Mercedes free trade zone is making an impact. Kohl's and Target, the management of the Chentex and Mil Colores factories, the free trade zone management, the Nicaraguan government and the U.S. embassy in Nicaragua all have been shaken by the international pressure which the workers' struggle has inspired.
KOHL'S AND TARGET CUTTING AND RUNNING? There is growing evidence that both of these U.S. retail companies are downsizing their production at the conflicted factories. If so, this move is almost certainly an attempt to avoid the heat which the solidarity campaign has generated. Getting reliable information on production levels is difficult under the best of circumstances - even more so when union busting disrupts our intelligence system (the workers who produce for the various brands).
We have said from the start that Kohl's and Target should not cut and run. They should use their considerable influence with the management of Chentex and Mil Colores so that the fired union members are reinstated, the criminal charges for union activity are dropped, the unions are recognized and fair contracts are bargained. Far from letting Kohl's and Target escape the heat, cutting-and-running would only add another reason why we need to increase the heat. Downsizing and canceling of production contracts