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CLR Newsletter #12January - March 1999 -- Web EditionIn this issue:
1999 Sweatshop Activist Organizing PacketThe first installment of the 1999 Sweatshop Activist Organizing Packet is now available from Campaign for Labor Rights. This multi-theme, multi-campaign packet provides local activists with valuable tools for outreach and organizing. Updated and additional materials will be mailed a few times during the year to everyone who orders the initial installment. Contents of First Installment Resources Brochure Masters Leaflet Masters Consumer Card Masters Gardenburger / FLAV-R-PAC (U.S. farmworkers) Disney Nike Phillips-Van Heusen Note on Brochures, Leaflets, Consumer Cards, Sign-on Letters The Campaign for Labor Rights budget does not allow for printing tens or hundreds of thousands of brochures, leaflets, consumer cards and sign-on letters. The organizing packet includes masters for these items. Local committees can decide which of these items to print for their outreach work, and in what quantities. Updates The organizing packet may be ordered at any time. A few times during the year, updated and additional materials will be sent automatically to all those who have ordered the initial installment. Future installments will include: brochures on additional topics, campaign updates, additional leaflet masters, new supportive documents for campaigns. In the last week of August or the first week of September, we will send a packet of special materials for the 1999 holiday season. To Order Place packet orders by email clr@clrlabor.org, phone (202) 232-5002. INCLUDE YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS!!! This packet is in hard copy only!!! Due to budgetary limitations, Campaign for Labor Rights will photocopy the packet in batches, as orders come in. We depend on contributions to be able to print more copies and to be able to mail you updated and additional packet materials during the year. No pre-payment is necessary. We include a donation form and a return envelope in the packet. SUGGESTED DONATION: $10.00 per packet. Donation covers the cost of the initial installment and updates. Orders are for whole packets only. It is not practical for us to break down packets and ship selected items.
Nike Report Card:Still Failing!Living wage: Failing! Nike shoe workers in Indonesia receive substantially less (now about $1.00 a day) than the already meager wages they were paid two years ago (about $2.56 a day). Monitoring: Failing! In a letter published in the official newspaper of Vietnam's state-run union, Nike Vice President Joseph Ha charged that critics of Nike "are not friends of Vietnam." Publication of Ha's letter had the immediate effect of intimidating Nike workers and their advocates in Vietnam from providing information to international human rights monitors. Freedom of association: Failing! Documents circulated by Nike itself state that the company prefers to produce its shoes in countries with authoritarian governments (which can be counted on to repress free trade union activity). Promoting development: Failing! In spite of company claims that "When Nike enters a country to manufacture products, wages increase and poverty decreases," the economy of Indonesia is now a disaster. Companies like Nike propped up former Indonesian dictator Suharto, who ruined the economy in order to enrich himself and a few cronies. Health and safety: Incomplete! Nike has put out lots of publicity about its commitment to change to water-based glues (some of which also can be toxic). However, Nike has been largely uncooperative with independent industrial hygienists who have tried to monitor progress in this area. Child labor: Incomplete! Nike made widely publicized promises to raise the minimum age of its shoe and apparel workers. Child labor has never been a significant problem in those factories anyway. However, stitching centers in Pakistan producing soccer balls for Nike and some other companies have refused non-governmental activists access to their facilities to assess the follow-through on promises to end their use of child labor. Overall grade: Failing! For more information, contact: Campaign for Labor Rights,1470 Irving Street, NW, Washington, DC 20010. (202) 232-5002, clr@clrlabor.org, web site: www.clrlabor.org. Note This is one of two leaflet masters included in the 1999 Sweatshop Activist Organizing Packet. (See story.) The version in the packet has space for local organizations to put their contact information.
Disney / Haiti Workers Write to EisnerIn February, Campaign for Labor Rights forwarded a letter from Disney workers in Haiti to Michael Eisner, CEO of the Walt Disney Company. A cover letter signed by several U.S. human rights organizations accompanied the workers' letter. The letter came from the union at Megatex, a factory in Port-au-Prince, Haiti which manufacturers various Disney lines of clothing. The letter sought Eisner's intervention in resolving problems at Megatex. It stated, in part: "Most of us earn 36 gourdes a day (US $2.15, at 16.70 gourdes to the US dollar). Our expenses to go to work and cook an evening meal at home amount to 84 gourdes a day (US $5.03). The following are our daily expenses:
Transportation to and from work: 8 gourdes (or US $ .47) So, how can we pay rent, pay for our children's schooling, buy medicine and clothes?" $2.15 a day comes to less than 27 cents an hour. (And that's if the workers don't have to put in more than 8 hours.) If Eisner and Disney do not intervene satisfactory to raise pay to the level of a living wage and to lower production quotas to a reasonable level, the Megatex workers have asked international human rights advocates to mount a serious and sustained consumer campaign directed at the company. Campaign for Labor Rights will keep its members apprised of developments and will alert you of any calls for action.
Report Details Disney / China Sweatshops[ Information provided by Global Exchange: (415) 255-7296, web site: www.globalexchange.org ] Chinese factory workers manufacturing clothes, hats and shoes for the Walt Disney Company are regularly forced to work long hours for poverty wages, according to a new report by the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (HKCIC). The report came as Disney investors prepared to meet in Seattle on February 23 for the company's annual shareholder meeting. According to Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange, "The reports adds further weight to the international call for corporations operating in China, such as Disney, to disclose the locations of their Chinese factories, pay their workers a living wage and make a serious commitment to independent monitoring." The HKCIC report, based on interviews with dozens of Chinese workers from four factories, revealed a disturbing pattern of abuse in factories making Disney products. In their eight months of investigation, researchers found that factory managers routinely violate both Chinese labor laws and Disney's own Code of Conduct for Manufacturers with respect to overtime, pay and contracts. Workers at one factory reported that they regularly work 16-hour days, seven days a week during peak production times, despite Chinese labor laws that establish a maximum 49-hour work week. In one factory, employees hadn't been paid in three months. Workers at all the investigated factories complained of working mandatory overtime for minuscule wages; at one factory, workers were paid a total of only ten cents above their standard wage for five hours of overtime. And at all the factories, workers are forced to pay the management "deposits" and "entrance fees" just to be able to work; at one factory, workers lose their deposit if they do not stay at the factory for at least two years and, at another, workers must pay a monthly "tool deposit." According to the report, workers at the four investigated factories earn between 13.5 and 36 cents an hour, depending on the production schedule. Independent research groups in Hong Kong say a wage earner must make 87 cents an hour to meet the basic survival needs of a small family in a major Chinese city. Like many other US corporations doing business abroad, Disney has adopted a Code of Conduct designed to guarantee that its overseas workers are treated fairly. But, as the report demonstrates, many of the worker protections in Disney's code -- including provisions covering overtime and distribution of the code to workers -- are rarely enforced.
Student Sit-In Victories[ To join the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) email list serve or to reach USAS activists, contact Ginny Coughlin at UNITE: 1-800-23-UNITE, gcough@uniteunion.org. ] During the first half of February, student sit-ins won important victories at Duke (Durham, NC), the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and Georgetown University (Washington, DC). At issue was university / college complicity in sweatshop abuses. Collegiate licensing is a multi-billion dollar business. University and college administrations sell manufacturers the right to put their school logo on clothing, banners, coffee mugs and endless other paraphernalia. Sales from such contracts are highly lucrative for Nike and other corporations. Profits increase when companies can keep labor costs at a minimum by having their products made in sweatshops. During the 1997/98 school year, students on a number of campuses began to pressure their administrations to adopt codes intended to guarantee that items bearing the school logo would not be made in sweatshops. In a few instances, negotiations between students and administrators actually led to passage of codes. As students and others concerned with sweatshop issues discussed the movement around licensing codes, there developed a near unanimity that the codes already passed on some campuses and any future codes passed on other campuses needed to be strengthened in two fundamental respects: 1) Disclosure must involve the public, not just corporate-friendly administrators. Students and the general public have a right to know the names and locations of the factories where items bearing the school logo are produced, and they must have access to reports resulting from monitoring of those factories. 2) The code must include a clear commitment to pay workers a living wage, not just the legal minimum in the countries where the items are produced. During the summer of 1998, in another important development, students from a number of campuses formalized their work by founding United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), and they improved their information-sharing by setting up a list serve. While the students were strengthening their hand, the companies profiting from licensing contracts prepared a retrenchment. Some 160-170 campuses use the services of the CLC (Collegiate Licensing Company). This for-profit business brokers deals for many of the companies seeking licensing contracts. While the CLC has a monopoly on neither the campuses nor the companies with such contracts (Nike, for example, negotiates its own contracts), the CLC was uniquely positioned to act as a counter-force to the student anti-sweatshop movement. To undermine the student movement, the CLC wrote its own, weak and toothless code. The Clinton administration got into the act, inviting key college and university presidents to the White House, urging them to opt for the CLC code. This is consistent with Clinton's policy of promoting "free trade" without meaningful provisions for labor rights. After some university officials moved to adopt the CLC code, students on at least three campuses rose to the challenge, occupying administration offices until their demands were met. In each case, the demand was for full disclosure of location, wages and conditions of manufacturers' facilities. News reports were unclear about whether administrators also agreed to make a living wage a standard in their licensing agreements. The student anti-sweatshop movement is alive and well. Student anti-sweatshop activists will need to maintain their pressure as administrators become tempted to yield to corporate pressure. How events will unfold next is anybody's guess.
Farmworker Tours[ To receive a farmworker rights campus organizing packet, contact Campaign for Labor Rights at (202) 232-5002, clr@clrlabor.org and give your postal address. Packet is in hard copy only. ] A speaking tour in the Midwest by Oregon farmworker and union member Leonides Avila was a rousing success. Food service directors at Loyola University (in Chicago) and Earlham College (in Richmond, IN) have agreed to pull boycotted brands Gardenburger, FLAV-R-PAC and Westpac. As more schools cancel their contracts with these brands, economic pressure mounts on the Oregon growers to bargain a contract with the farmworker union. Activists at other colleges and universities also committed to pressure their food services to honor the boycott. Organizations are now in place at other schools visited during the tour: the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis), the University of Wisconsin (Madison), the University of Illinois (Urbana / Champaign), Manchester College (N. Manchester, IN), Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA), Drake University (Des Moines, IA), Simpson College (Indianola, IA) and Carleton College (Northfield, MN). The Midwest tour, organized by Campaign for Labor Rights, featured Leonides Avila, a board member of the independent farm worker union PCUN (Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste; in English, Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United): (503) 982-0243, web site: www.pcun.org. Accompanying Avila were Trim Bissell, the national coordinator of Campaign for Labor Rights, and translator Jonathan Brier, on staff with CAUSA, an immigrant rights group in Oregon. Due to the rousing success of the Midwest tour, Campaign for Labor Rights and PCUN are organizing an East Coast tour for the last two weeks in April, with Avila, Bissell and a yet-to-be-determined translator.
Gap Demos in 15 Cities[ Information provided by Global Exchange: (415) 255-7296, web site: www.globalexchange.org. ] The March 6 national campaign kickoff against The Gap, targeting its use of sweatshops in Saipan, was a success, with demonstrations in 15 cities. Campaign organizers plan to continue leafleting on a monthly basis. The next national day of leafleting is scheduled for Saturday, April 10. UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) and three organizations in the San Francisco area have launched a campaign in response to revelations of gross labor rights violations in the Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan). They also have filed a lawsuit seeking compensation from The Gap and 17 other U.S. clothing manufacturers and retailers for immigrant workers toiling as indentured servants in the U.S. Commonwealth. Apparel companies profit from wages below the level of the minimum wage on the mainland and yet are allowed to import clothing into the mainland duty-free, with labels declaring that it was "made in the USA." The campaign has a two-fold focus: corrective legislation and pressure on The Gap, which is based in San Francisco. The following demands and goals were drawn up in consultation with workers interviewed on Saipan. Legislative goals: Pass federal legislation to end the system of indentured servitude in the Marianas and raise the minimum wage to be consistent with the mainland. Corporate goals: The Gap and other retailers doing business on Saipan must:
PVH Leafleting in 25 Cities[ For more information, contact the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project: (773) 262-6502, usglep@igc.org. ] Activists in some 25 cities leafleted at Phillips-Van Heusen direct outlets and at other stores selling PVH products. The shirt manufacturer became the focus of an international human rights campaign after the company announced that it was closing its only unionized facility, the Camisas Modernas factory in Guatemala, and moving that production to low-wage sweatshops elsewhere in Guatemala. Organizers charge Phillips-Van Heusen and its chief executive officer, Bruce J. Klatsky, with hypocrisy for recently shutting down its high-wage union factory in Guatemala while the company sits on a White House anti-sweatshop task force. A 6-year campaign culminated in a victory for the 500 Camisas Modernas workers in 1997, when the company agreed to bargain a contract with the union representing the workforce. As a result of that contract, workers at Camisas Modernas were paid approximately $9 a day. Workers in Guatemala and elsewhere in Central America at contractors currently used by PVH are paid $5 a day or less, about half of what is needed for a worker's family to escape poverty. A week of leafleting March 8-13 followed a speaking tour by two workers from the closed PVH factory and coincided with a visit to Central America by President Clinton. Stephen Coats of the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project noted that:
"President Clinton initiated an anti-sweatshop task force largely in response to sweatshop controversies in Central America two years ago. PVH is a member of the task force -- yet recently closed one of the few clothing plants in Guatemala that was not a sweatshop in order to concentrate production at factories that pay poverty-level wages. The occasion of President Clinton's visit to Guatemala would be an appropriate time for the President to ask PVH to reconsider its decision and restore what was a beacon of light for Central American apparel workers who want a living wage and dignity at the workplace." Jay Mazur, president of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), said the factory closing was intended to warn apparel workers at other plants in Guatemala and Central America that if they voted to join a union their jobs would be in jeopardy: ''By shutting the factory, Phillips-Van Heusen sent a message to other workers in Guatemala: If you fight for justice, if you fight for a union, we will not honor your contract. We will walk away.'' UNITE flew two workers from the Guatemala factory to the United States to publicize the hardship the plant closing has caused: "It was right before Christmas when they closed the factory, and we needed money to get gifts for our children," said Dora Cristina Morales, 20, who has been one of the most vigorous campaigners for the union. She said that, before the workers obtained a union contract, the water available at the plant was filthy and the food the factory managers served the workers was infested with vermin. Soon after the workers obtained a contract, the water and food improved and wages rose to $71 a week from about $56. Meanwhile, workers in Guatemala continue a round-the-clock vigil in front of Camisas Modernas. Workers remain firmly opposed to the closing, with 200 showing up a recent meeting to discuss the campaign. PVH is the leading U.S. marketer of men's shirts. Its brands include Van Heusen, Geoffrey Beene, Bass and Izod. The company recently announced an agreement to obtain the marketing license for John Henry and Manhattan shirts and recently sold its Gant brand, depriving European activists of their best PVH target. Mexican Independent Unionist Tours U.S. [ The Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT) is a federation of independent unions in Mexico. For more information about the FAT, contact the International Labor Affairs Department of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE): (412) 471-8919, ueintl@igc.org, web site: www.igc.apc.org/unitedelect. See alert section of web site every two weeks for labor and related news from Mexico. Bertha Lujan, one of the FAT's three top officers, recently spoke in several U.S. cities during a tour organized by the Mexico Solidarity Network, a coalition of 72 U.S. organizations that support struggles for democracy, justice and human rights in Mexico. The following is a summary of her speech at the UE District 11 hall, in Chicago, on February 23. ] "There is already a lot of organizing experience among groups in the U.S. and Mexico -- with political groups, human rights groups, women, environmental groups, indigenous organizations; and, we've also been able to see the opening of very interesting relationships among labor organizations," said Bertha Lujan, director of the Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT), a federation of independent unions in Mexico. "What is most important is the political agreement that we have been able to reach on both sides of the border, toward organizing independent unions," Lujan told her audience of labor and human rights activists, who had fought through traffic for an NBA game between the Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks to pack the UE District 11 hall, in Chicago, on Feb.23, as part of a tour of six Midwestern cities organized by the Mexico Solidarity Network. Lujan also described a "a more militant unionism," whereby the FAT strives to reach beyond the usual union battles at the workplace to forge links with community organizations:
"It's a unionism that contemplates working toward more just conditions, depending on the agreement that society comes to -- because, if there's no unity among the various sectors of society, it's difficult to think about making changes. It's also a unionism that takes into consideration the process of globalization -- the kinds of changes that this process has brought for workers." Asserting that "NAFTA has been a key part of the neoliberal policies," Lujan contended that while its proponents had promised that NAFTA would improve economic conditions, leading to a better life for the general population of all the countries it embraced, "NAFTA has only been beneficial for the large corporations that can easily move back and forth across the border -- for example, the automotive industry, which has been attracted to Mexico's cheap labor. Financial capital has taken advantage of NAFTA's provisions facilitating international investment -- especially the speculators, who were largely responsible for Mexico's financial crisis of 1994," added Lujan. "NAFTA has also benefitted purveyors of intellectual property; Mexico's 300 export companies, most of which are transnational corporations; the largest agricultural producers, which have been affiliated with U.S. and Canadian producers; the maquila sector, which has enjoyed the greatest growth of all." "However," continued Lujan, "many have suffered from the effects of NAFTA -- the small and medium business owners, who have been displaced; the small farmers in all three countries, who have been destroyed by the large transnational exporting companies; and indigent workers, because NAFTA has caused a big increase in unemployment." According to Lujan: "In balance, Mexico has lost much more than it has gained from NAFTA. Taking into account the industries where growth has occurred, about one million jobs have been lost. In Mexico, productivity has increased by about 30 percent since NAFTA was implemented, but the minimum wage has declined by 17 percent, to $4.00 a day. In spite of its growth, wages have fallen the most in the automotive industry -- by about 50 percent, while productivity has increased by 70 percent. NAFTA has increased the concentration of wealth in Mexico, resulting in greater inequality within our society, as well as among the other member nations. The beneficiaries of NAFTA have been the same people in all three countries. "This entrance of international capital into distinct sectors of the Mexican economy has resulted in the destruction of institutions that have a history of many decades in Mexico. One such institution was the subsidizing of popular consumption. One of the most important subsidies was for the tortilla, made of corn, which is the principal food staple in Mexico. In the Mexican countryside, the tortilla is the basis of nutrition. This year, we awoke with a very bad nightmare -- that the cost of tortillas had suddenly doubled. For people earning about two or three times the minimum wage, this increase might not be so harsh. But for people earning the minimum wage of $4.00 a day, it was a terrible blow. Last year, people were consuming 2.2 pounds of tortillas a day; this year they are only able to eat about one pound of tortillas a day. "So, this has caused a severe deterioration in living standards -- especially for people with meager resources. We can discuss a politics of extermination, because this leaves the people with nothing to eat. On the one hand, increasing the price of basic foodstuffs; and, decreasing the minimum wage, on the other hand. Prior to this, last year, the PRI and the right wing parties had approved a subsidy for the banks, to ostensibly rescue them from a national disaster. So, they provide subsidies to rescue the bankers, while they deny the impoverished masses their basic food staples. And, if the people are unable to pay their debts, they will confiscate their personal possessions." Lujan added that leading strategists of the neoliberal model have come to the realization that their paradigm now requires modification, "to limit the movement of capital around the world." Lujan explained that such theoreticians are now discussing the necessity of limiting "the movement of international investment, to avoid crises like that of Mexico, or the 'tequila effect,' the 'dragon effect' in Asia, the 'samba effect' in Brazil. So finally, they understand that it is an international effect that has come out of their own planning," said Lujan, who continued: "What can we say, for people who have been most affected by these policies? It is necessary to change these policies that have made people even poorer, that have been concentrating economic power in a few hands. Apparently, the neoliberal policies have reached their limit. Because the people who are dying of starvation are not going to simply stand by with their arms folded and accept such a fate. In the case of Mexico there are movements, such as the mobilization of Indians -- the Zapatistas in Chiapas, who say that they prefer to die with dignity rather than to just die of starvation. "So, they are talking about distinct models, such as 'sustainable development' or 'social justice,' and from this we can talk about the proposals that came out of the networks, composed of unions and other social organizations from throughout the Western Hemisphere that participated in the 'Social Summit' in Santiago, Chile, last year, to formulate an agenda to present to all who have been victimized by NAFTA -- an alternative to the policies of neoliberalism. What are these alternatives? What possibilities do they have? They should be discussed by all of the participating organizations as a potential common platform. Perhaps, workshops could be organized to discuss these proposals." Lujan also described the state of the Mexican labor movement: "For more than fifty years, a corporate type of unionism that controls the workers politically, ideologically and organizationally has existed in Mexico. The ruling party in Mexico, the PRI, has exercised political control, managing the workers as if they were its electoral clientele. The principal union federation in the private sector, the CTM, has also been one of the principal pillars of the PRI. The CTM obliges its affiliates to support the PRI candidates with mobilizations. And, the CTM unions, as such, participate in the functioning of the party. "The CTM union leaders think and talk as the PRI leaders, and there is no political freedom within those 'official' unions. Furthermore, there is no real democracy within the official unions. And, transnational corporations have been accommodated very well within this system. Almost the entire maquila industry has official unions, and 95 percent of the multinational corporations have official unions. The workers have not elected these unions; they accept this union structure when they accept work." "Eighty percent of the unions in Mexico are official unions. But, there are democratic currents within these unions. And, there are also independent organizations, such as the FAT. Up to now, we have been the minority. So, the FAT represents part of this independent unionism that struggles for a representative and democratic unionism. Most of FAT's members work in small and medium level businesses -- sectors like textiles, shoes, metal mechanic, services, transportation. The largest industry is the maquilas. All of the public sector continues to be controlled by the official unions." "The conditions in the maquilas are not all that different from the rest of the country," asserted Lujan, explaining that while the pace of work in many of the maquila shops is harsher than in Mexico proper, comparable working conditions and earnings exist for maquila workers employed by the large corporations. However, maquila workers, in general, do share a "special situation," according to Lujan, who elaborated: "Workers from all over the country have been concentrated in the border areas. But, these borders cities were unprepared to receive this huge influx of workers. The maquilas pay the same miserable minimum wages as the rest of business in the country, but they pay no taxes. And, they don't pay the most important tax in Mexico -- the income tax for utilities, or the corporate sales tax. This is because the maquilas don't sell their products within the country. So, one of the principal problems is that the maquilas don't assist with the social costs of the cities in which they are located. This causes very serious social problems. "So, you find conditions where a group of workers live in a single room, and horrible houses made out of cardboard or wood scraps, with no services, because the municipal government has no money to resolve these problems. And, besides that, the workers earn miserable wages. It's a vicious cycle. And, in the face of these terrible conditions of the workers, you find the maquilas built in the middle of gardens -- they're very clean, and you can imagine what the houses of the owners are like. "Another problem is the kind of work that is carried out in the maquilas. There is a kind of permanent rotation of personnel in the maquilas. The people work in various places from year to year, with no permanence in their employment. Under such conditions, it is very difficult to organize the workers. "And so, the principal problem that NAFTA has created is that it has amplified and consolidated this method of industrialization. NAFTA contemplates converting Mexico into a huge maquila, without national industries, but a maquila industry with workers who are very poorly paid -- serving the transnationals by producing for the rest of the world." Lujan explained the methods through which the FAT is striving to confront these difficulties: "The FAT has a center for training and helping the maquila workers in Ciudad Juarez. There's a very interesting process of organizing the maquila workers along various parts of the border. In Tijuana, Metamoros and Reynosa, the object is to consolidate an organization for the future, and not just concentrate on immediate goals that will achieve no long-term benefits. "In other sectors, the struggle has been more permanent. For example, the railroad workers have a rich history of struggle. Now, they are fighting against the privatization of the railroads. And, their struggle is going to be a great help with other struggles against privatization." Lujan, who contended that political change will be necessary for real progress to occur in Mexico, said she was encouraged by the "apparent democratization within the political life of the country." Lujan added she anticipates that if, as occurred in the most recent municipal elections in Mexico City, the opposition unseats the PRI in Mexico's national elections scheduled for the year 2000, it would strengthen independent organizations such as the National Union of Workers (UNT) or the FAT. "This is a process that we can see in the intermediate term." "There is a great importance for the independent unions, such as the FAT; the UNT; the democratic unions in the public sector, including the teachers and railroad workers; as well as for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights organizations, in order to change the unjust situation that exists," Lujan continued. She also described the importance of alliances that are forming among independent unions in Mexico and similar unions in the U.S., as well as other nations: "We understand that international capital has put workers against the wall. In the North, the corporations threaten to close factories in order to win concessions. In the Southern countries, we understand how the acceptance of neoliberal policies is conditioning our terms of employment. "So, on this tour, we are discussing the concrete forms of solidarity that can be constructed among the various organizations. How can we go beyond discussion, and discover concrete forms of mutual assistance? Obviously, the theme of communication is very important. How do we improve communication and circulate information among our organizations? And, how can we think in terms of concrete forms of assistance that would include campaigns around specific labor conflicts? For example, campaigns that would oblige transnational corporations to abide by codes of conduct. Or mobilizations that would oblige transnational corporations to change their practices, in both the Northern and Southern continents. "One mechanism that has appeared to work very well is parallel accords, such as the labor side agreement to NAFTA, which function as a forum where we can publicize violations of workers' rights. In Mexico, we have also presented demands and denunciations before the International Labor Organization (ILO), and received favorable decisions. However, as with NAFTA's labor side agreement, the ILO lacks the ability to enforce its decisions in any country. Governments can ignore the ILO's recommendations, because there is no provision for their enforcement. "Another possible direction was provided by the Social Summit that was held in Santiago, Chile last year. As I mentioned earlier, one of the groups that was very important at the summit presented a document outlining alternatives to neoliberalism that we think should be discussed by these various organizations, as a common platform. "One of the most interesting examples is the experience we have accumulated between the FAT and the UE. Our brothers and sisters from the UE are helping us to organize workers in Mexico to struggle for more democracy. But also, brothers and sisters from the FAT have come to help the UE in organizing within the Latino districts. This is a very concrete form of solidarity that we can work to improve upon in the coming years. "The movement of the UAW toward independent unions involved with the automotive industry in Mexico is also very important. The UAW and FAT have reached an agreement to mount a campaign against the Dana Corporation. It's a strategic agreement to develop a relationship among the Dana workers in all three countries, and especially to try to improve the conditions of Mexican workers. This is an historic relationship, because it's tri-national, and also because it's directed at a corporation where there is a labor union from the UAW in the U.S., the CAW in Canada and the FAT in Mexico. I think that this alliance is going to bear fruit, very quickly. I think this is an example of how we're beginning to construct a level of solidarity that transcends the border. "Sometimes we have affiliates of the FAT, but we also do educational work and advisory organizing work within the affiliates of the CTM. At Ford, the union has already gone through a process of democratization for several years. We're also doing work at General Motors, especially in the Northern part of the country. And, in this way, we hope to create independent unionism in the automotive industry." Perhaps, Lujan's opening remarks provide the most appropriate conclusion: "Here in the U.S., you talk about networks of solidarity with Mexico; perhaps we in Mexico should be obliged to form networks of solidarity with the U.S. So, we are going to take this proposal back to Mexico and see if we can achieve a more equivalent relationship in terms of solidarity."
Local ActivismGraduation Pledge: Manchester College is the national coordinator of the Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility for college graduates: "I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider or any organization for which I work." At Manchester, the pledge is a community-wide event. Fifty to sixty percent of students sign and keep a wallet-size card stating the pledge, while students and supportive faculty wear green ribbons at commencement and the pledge is printed in the commencement program. The pledge can be a focal point for consciousness-raising on issues such as corporate sweatshop practices. For more information, contact NJW@Manchester.edu, GPA, MC Box 135, Manchester College, 604 E. College Ave., North Manchester, IN 46962. Mock Fashion Show at UNC: About 75 students gathered on January 27
on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill for
a mock fashion show intended to highlight working conditions worldwide
for many of the workers who produce the university's athletic apparel.
The fashion show supported a demand by Students for Economic Justice
that UNC reject the code of conduct proposed by the Collegiate Licensing
Corporation (see "Student Sit-In Victories") and hold out for a tougher
code. According to SEJ member Marion Traub-Werner, the CLC's proposed
code fails to guarantee either a living wage to workers or to require
licensees to reveal the precise location of the factories in which subcontractors
manufacture their apparel. For more information, see the article by
Thad Williamson on the sports-oriented web site accnews.com.
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