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Workers Attacked and Fired for Demanding Labor Rights
Labor Alerts: a service of Campaign for Labor Rights
January 17, 2001
IN THIS LABOR BULLETIN:
1. Workers Attacked and Fired for Demanding Labor Rights
2. Nike's Reaction to Labor Abuses
3. Background on Kukdong Struggle
4. Action Request
[ Information in this alert provided by the US Labor Education
in the Americas Project (US/LEAP), www.usleap.org
www.usleap.org, and United Students
Against Sweatshops (USAS), www.usasnet.org
www.usasnet.org ]
Striking workers, who produce apparel, including
university sweatshirts, for Nike, at the Kukdong factory in Atlixco,
Mexico - were violently attacked the evening of Thursday, January 11
by a group of "construction workers" who were later identified as FROC-CROC
"enforcers". FROC-CROC is the government-backed union currently in the
Kukdong factory. Half of the striking workers had gone home to get some
sleep and bathe after spending 3 days and 2 nights on guard at the factory
gates, a group of "construction workers" entered the company grounds
pushing their way through the strikers and attempting to provoke a confrontation.
The strikers responded by not reacting to the provocation. Soon after
this, the 300 workers who had remained at the plant were surrounded
by 200 riot gear-equipped "Granaderos" (Puebla State Police).
The top police official told the strikers that they
had been ordered by the Governor to remove the strikers from the area.
However, the person who seemed to be directing the operation was the
"leader" of the FROC-CROC union, Rene Sanchez Juarez, who pointed
out the strike leaders and asked them - "Are you frightened yet?"
As the police began pushing the workers into a smaller and smaller
area, the workers sat down, raised their arms to show they were not
resisting and were unarmed, and began singing the Mexican national
anthem.
The police then proceeded to open a small space
between their ranks, and began pulling the workers out, pushing them
with their batons forming a sort of gauntlet. Several of the workers
were beaten severely by the police with their clubs. Fifteen workers
were taken to the hospital. The strikers, after passing the "gauntlet,"
were pursued by the police until they were completely out of the area
in which the factory is located.
Following the violence, on Saturday, January 13,
the leaders of the independent union, the Kukdong Workers' Coalition,
signed an agreement with Kukdong management and the local labor board
in Atlixco, Mexico saying that they would return to work. The company
committed to permit all striking workers to return to the factory
except for the workers who had been illegally fired last Tuesday,
January 9. Furthermore, the Koukdong management pledged to copy and
distribute copies of the agreement to all 860 workers at the plant.
By signing this agreement, the workers were NOT dropping their demands.
They had decided, for economic reasons, to return to work and continue
the struggle from inside the walls of the factory.
However, as of this morning, Wednesday, January
17, management has backpedaled and workers who were very active in
the strike are having those copies of the agreement taken from them
by the Kukdong security guards, and are being told they are fired.
This is a violation of Mexican labor law, university codes of conduct,
and Nike's code of conduct.
The workers are demanding the following:
- *Immediately reinstate all of the workers illegally
fired last week for organizing inside of the factory.
- *Stop the illegal firings happening en masse at
this moment against workers who participated in the protest, and
ensure that no reprisals are taken against anyone who participated
in the strike.
- *Drop the bogus charges filed against at least
6 workers and their supporters.
- *Recognize the Kukdong Workers' Coalition as the
legitimate, democratic, and independent representative of the workers
at Kukdong and agree to deal with them as such.
According to Nike's Code of Conduct, all of plants
producing for Nike must respect freedom of association, the most important
of all worker rights. Yet... Nike has not intervened in any illegal
firings nor requested the reinstatement of those fired last week before
the strike. They have stood by while Kukdong has taken out arrest warrants
on bogus charges against at least 6 people who were active in the strike.
Nike has not put pressure on Kukdong to recognize the only democratic
representative of the workers, the Kukdong Workers' Coalition, and to
end the protection contract that Kukdong management signed behind closed
doors without any worker involvement. Nike claims to know nothing about
the low wages, terrible health and safety violations, child labor, and
other violations at the factory despite the fact that it is one of the
most heavily "independently" monitored factories in Mexico.
On Tuesday, January 9, 2001 at 8:00 am, over 850
workers making college apparel for Nike staged a work stoppage, took
over the factory, and began controlling the gates at the Kukdong International
Mexico factory in the small city of Atlixco, Puebla in southern Mexico.
Kukdong is a Korean-owned factory that makes sweatshirts for the Universities
of North Carolina, Maryland, Michigan, Arizona, Penn State, Georgetown,
Michigan State and Oregon, amongst others.
The immediate cause of the strike was the firing
of 5 workers who had led rank-and-file protest about rotten food in
the cafeteria, low wages ($30 for a 45-hour week), and the failure
of the company to pay the Christmas bonus in accordance with Mexican
labor law. Between 20-30 others had recently been forced by the company
to sign voluntary resignation forms. The five fired workers are: Marco
Santiago Perez Mesa, Marcela Muņoz Tepepa, Josefin Hernandez Ponce,
Mario Nicanor Sefina, and Eduardo Sanchez Velasquez. Four were supervisors,
and one was recently named "employee of the month." [Look at www.behindthelabel.org
today to find videos, photographs and other testimony taken from Kukdong
workers this past weekend.]
In independent interviews with members of United
Students Against Sweatshops, workers also report physical and verbal
abuse, the unwillingness of the company to pay maternity benefits,
failure by the company to pay extra wages for overtime hours, attempts
by the company to impose forced overtime, and serious safety and health
violations. The company does not provide protective gear uniformly,
or mandate its use, and many workers report cases of throat, nose
and lung irritation as well as conjunctivitis. The company provided
food frequently leads to diarrhea, and a few workers report being
hospitalized due to infections caused by the food. According to all
workers, the food often is raw, rancid, or has worms.
Please copy, sign and send the following letter
to Nike. Phil Knight, CEO and Chairman of Nike, Fax: (503) 671- 6300,
Vada Manager, public relations representative for Nike on labor issues
vada.manager@nike.com or
800-642-8170
You can also go to www.a16.org/usas/ to send letters online.*
Please also send the following information (not
this entire alert!) to Campaign for Labor Rights at < clrchicago@afgj.org
mailto:clrchicago@afgj.org
>: I have sent a letter to Nike in response to the January 17 alert.
NAME:
CITY/STATE (or COUNTRY if outside U.S.):
ORGANIZATION (if listed with your signature to the letter):
Philip H. Knight, Chairman and CEO NIKE, Inc.
One Bowerman Drive
Beaverton, OR 97003-6433
Fax: (503) 671-6300
Dear Mr. Knight,
I am writing to urge you to support the demands of the Kuk
Dong workers in Atlixco, Puebla, Mexico. The demands are: 1) to
stop all punitive measures against workers taking part in demonstrations;
2) to reinstate all illegally fired workers; 3) and to recognize
the Kuk Dong Workers Coalition, the independent union chosen by
the workers.
According to Nike's Code of Conduct, the factory's actions
and failure to recognize the autonomous workers' are in violation
of Nike's code of conduct in addition to university codes of conduct
and Mexican labor law.
Furthermore, I am outraged at the use of force against workers
during recent demonstrations. Workers must have the right to organize
and to make their demands public without threats from riot police
and corrupt union thugs. I expect you to meet these workers' demands
and NOT to cut and run.
Sincerely,
* return to
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