LAJAT UPDATE ALERT

October 10, 2005

[This alert comes from the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, CLR's partner in the Jeans With Justice Campaign. See CLR's previous alert on the Lajat factory.]

Workers Face Blatant Corruption and Intimidation from Government and Company
More Support Needed to Visit Mexican Consulates and Pressure Levi-Strauss, Mudd Jeans and Aeropostale

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Please find the following below:

1. Update
2. Six Ways to Take Action
3. Sample Letters
4. Testimony from a Lajat Worker

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1. Update

The Lajat workers are still being manipulated and intimidated! The local Labor Board scheduled a hearing for October 7, last Friday, to determine the legitimacy of the Lajat workers' independent National Union of Garment and Clothing, but when the Lajat workers' representative, Fernando Lopez, and their lawyer Lic. O'Reilly, appeared at the Labor Board hearing, they discovered that negotiations between the Labor Board and the company lawyers were already underway. The hearing had begun without them!

When Lopez and O'Reilly objected that the Labor Board had failed to notify them and was proceeding without them, the Labor Board officials said they had sent a notice. Lopez demanded to see the signed receipt, but the document officials produced had no signature.

Blatantly corrupt practices like this are increasing as the alliance of government, corporation, and charro [corrupt] union tightens in the face of a growing and determined Lajat workers movement. Despite the fact that Lajat has transferred production from its Gomez Palacio plant to its other plants and subcontractors and cut workers' wages in half, the workers continue to demand a union election to let them decide which union will represent them, and the Labor Board, through various tricks, keeps putting them off.

As the hearing proceeded, Lopez and O'Reilly tried to speak up, but were silenced. They left when it became clear that participating in a proceeding which gagged one of the principal parties was a farce. The Labor Board President followed them out, and O'Reilly confronted him saying, "Never in all my years of legal work have I witnessed such blatant impunity!"

Indeed, since NAFTA, the authorities have never permitted maquiladora workers to freely choose a union. The Gomez Palacio labor board is no exception. It appears to be willing to trample on labor law and Mexican workers rights. The outcome of Friday's sham proceedings was that the Labor Board once again postponed a hearing until November 25. It is obvious that this delay is to let Lajat move production around in a shell game aimed at starving the workers into submission and demoralizing them in the hope that they will give up.

Besides cutting wages, the company has stopped paying mandatory health coverage. One worker with 11 years seniority has a child with birth defects. She needs oxygen, but her father now makes only $35 a week and has lost his health coverage. As if that's not enough, a manager attacked a worker last week for refusing to surrender her badge. The complaint filed by Gerardo Caro Rodriguez, who witnessed the attack, against Ruben de la Torre Pereyra, the new manager, is found below. The police issued a citation to de la Torre, but he failed to show up for the hearing. So far he has not been arrested. The company is also circulating a black list to other employers with the names of the workers in the coalition.

A representative from Lajat, who works for the Human Resources Department, recently visited the homes of the workers, offering them a generous severance pay (30,000 pesos, 6 times what they were previously offered). Obviously, the company is feeling the pressure and wants to buy off the workers, so that it doesn't have to deal with them any more. The workers, meanwhile, are earning only 350 pesos a week, putting tremendous pressure on them economically. This fight for Justice must be won!

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2. Six Ways to Take Action

We know from past experience that the Lajat workers will only win if we build a national and international solidarity movement for them that includes pressure on both the Mexican government and Lajat's client brands. The workers are relying on you. In the US and Canada we need letters and are organizing visits to the brands and Mexican Consulates.

Contact us if you are interested in participating!

*     Campaign for Labor Rights     *     202-544-9355     *     clr@clrlabor.org    *

You can help in the following ways:

1. Continue to send emails and faxes to Lajat's clients [see sample letters]. The Labor authorities are taking their lead from the company that listens to its buyers. Demands to include in your letters:

*Return production with full pay to the Gomez Palacio plant
*Meet with representatives of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras
*Pressure Lajat to stop the dirty tricks and insist on compliance with the Code of Conduct and international labor standards. We do not want them to cancel their contracts with Lajat; we want them to enforce their Code.
*Guarantee the workers' safety -- end the violence, harassment, and intimidation

Send letters to the following:

2. Arrange a visit to the Mexican Consulate in your city or write the Consulate a letter [see sample letters and contact info].

Contact CJM's Action Committee at jancel@igc.org or cjm_mojeda@igc.org or Campaign for Labor Rights at clr@clrlabor.org. For consulate locations, see www.mexonline.com/consulate.htm. CJM members have visited several Mexican Consulates who have been responsive and we can provide advice and sample materials.

3. Send an email or fax to Mexican President Vicente Fox [see sample letters and contact info].

4. Volunteer to help us organize leafleting at stores if necessary where Levis, Mudd Jeans and Aeropostale are sold. Contact the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras at 210-732-8957 (CJM) or email jancel@igc.org or Campaign for Labor Rights at 202-544-9355 or clr@clrlabor.org.

5. With wages cut, your donations can help enormously in helping the workers hold strong. Send donations for the Lajat workers to The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras. In memo area put "Lajat Workers" and mail it to: The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras at 4207 Willow Brook San Antonio, TX 78228.

6. Bring a Lajat worker to your city. The Coalition for Jeans With Justice is organizing a tour to spread the word and raise funds. Contact CJM at 210-732-8957 or cjm_mojeda@igc.org.

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3. Sample Letters

Click HERE for sample letters to the brands, the Mexican Government and the Mexican Consulate.

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4. Testimony from a Lajat Worker

POLICE REPORT
TO: THE POLICE DEPARTMENT
GÓMEZ PALACIO DURANGO
OCTOBER 4, 2005

By means of this written testimony I denounce Ruben de la Torre Pereyra, manager of the company Manufacturas Lajat (he introduced himself to us in that way). He had been working in that position in the plant for scarcely two days, when at 7.15 a.m. my co-workers and I requested that he open the shop floor to us since it was locked with a padlock. This included those areas for review, maintenance and control of production, as well as the cafeteria, where we keep our lunch that we consume during the working day. He answered in a despotic way that none of those areas were going to be opened and that we did not have the right to demand anything. So I demanded again that he had to open these areas since those are our working departments, to which he responded, "Be quiet or you are going to be f***ed!"

Minutes later he tried to remove the ID badge of one of my co- workers and she would not give it to him, since it is the only way we can prove that we came to work. He attacked her, pushed her, and she fell down on the floor.

For all these reasons I am here to do this denunciation.

I also want to mention that in my 10 years in this company's service I do not have any negative reports that would demonstrate I have misbehaved inside the company. Because of what I am doing now I'm afraid of what could happen to me or to my family, and if anything does happen then I hold responsible the above mentioned person and the company.

I am grateful for your attention to this declaration.
Sincerely,
Gerardo Caro Rodriguez

See CLR's Previous Alert on the Lajat factory

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