Newsletter #8

Julu-September 1997 Newsletter -- Web Edition

• Farmworker Struggle Goes to Campuses
  
• Sweatshops without Walls
  
• Immigration Issues
  
• Disney/Haiti Negotiations Continue
  
• Monitoring
  
• The School of the Americas: A Concern for US Labor
  
• Chiquita
  
• Nike/Indonesia Wage & Needs Study
  
• Han Young Strike Continues

Farmworker Struggle Goes to Campuses

Campaign for Labor Rights is joining with PCUN to build a national campus network for the Gardenburger / FLAV-R-PAC boycott We are asking student activists to bring the boycott to their campuses. To receive the special campus action packet for the Gardenburger / FLAV-R-PAC boycott, contact Campaign for Labor Rights at (202) 232-5002 or clr@clrlabor.org.

Campus activists are especially well-placed to make a difference in this struggle. By getting Gardenburger and FLAV-R-PAC food products out of their dormitory and student union food services, students can exert measurable pressure on NORPAC and the Gardenburger company.

This campaign touches on several important issues.

• Agribusiness in the United States has created "sweatshops without walls" for farmworkers who toil long hours under dangerous conditions, often for sub-minimum wages and with no benefits, with the result that farmworkers and their families live in substandard conditions.
• Heavy use of pesticides in agriculture poses a serious danger to farmworkers and those who live within range of "pesticide drift," as well as to the nation's water supply.
• US immigration policy makes criminals out of the people who provide the food on our tables.

Farmworkers in Oregon have struggled for years to win justice from NORPAC, the largest farm cooperative west of the Mississippi. For many of us, the word "cooperative" has associations of sharing, but in this case it represents exploitation. NORPAC is a multi-hundred million dollar, vertically integrated business controlling everything from growing and processing to marketing and distribution. It has used its muscle to gets its way in the state legislature and to see to it that law enforcement agencies tend to turn a blind eye to violence against PCUN organizers and intimidation of farmworkers.

Not one grower in the entire NORPAC cooperative has signed a contract with the union. The growers refuse to bargain in good faith, preferring to spread disinformation and to engage in union-busting activities. That is why PCUN has called for a boycott of FLAV-R-PAC, the grower's own brand. PCUN also has called for a secondary boycott of Gardenburger. The Gardenburger company continues to use the NORPAC distribution system, even though good alternatives are available. The founder of Gardenburger, Paul Wenner, declined opportunities to discuss the issue with PCUN and has made public statements demonstrating a complete lack of sympathy for the plight of farmworkers. Gardenburger's contract with NORPAC provides profits which help the growers weather the FLAV-R-PAC boycott. Gardenburger, in spite of its green image, is no friend of working people. Just when the boycott was starting to have an impact, Gardenburger budgeted $15 million to a national advertising campaign. PCUN and Campaign for Labor Rights can't begin to match the financial resources of large corporations. But we do have the commitment of labor rights activists, environmentalists, immigrant rights advocates and other people of conscience.

Sweatshops without Walls

"One of the workers who said he had worked eight hours, earned $32 for the day. At Oregon's $5.50 per hour minimum wage, he should have gotten $44 for the day's work. This was also the story we got from other workers." - Linda Rush of Portland

"We...asked what the reason was for the duct tape on the face of each scale since the needle disappeared behind the tape each time a crate was weighed. The questions brought another angry outburst, 'It's nothing!' and 'None of your business!'" - Ellen Bondourant, member of Central Presbyterian Church in Eugene

"It's been a long and emotional day. Starting at 4:30 watching children arrive for work at a NORPAC field and ending watching exhausted strawberry pickers leaving another field after 12+ hours of work." - Grace Cox, founder of two food co-ops in Olympia, WA

"They [ field workers ] also told us about spraying of chemicals daily on the hops for 100 days. The workers had to work in the fields right after the spraying." - DeEtte Beghtol, Presbyterian Church Elder

Oregon law allows representatives of religious organizations the right to gather for worship on growers' property. However: "Maybe you should ask some of the other accompaniers how it felt to have Marion Country police officers surround us and about thirty other people from nearby churches last Tuesday night in Woddburn, Oregon all because we chose to pray with and for the migrant farmworkers at their camp - a camp that the farm owner has forbidden outsiders to visit and forbidden the workers to leave at night. The farm owner has posted a guard at the gate. At a time when law enforcement officials tell us that they just don't have enough personnel to protect us from crimes in our neighborhoods, the Marion County Sheriff's Department was able to send eight police officers, six police cars, the K-9 unit, and a passenger van to carry us all to jail. They put a video camera up to our faces as we prayed and sang together." - Rev. John Paul David, III, First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in Portland

"Recently two growers have plowed under their strawberry fields to show that the power is in their hands. As a person who grew up in a deeply religious family from one of the poorest countries in the world, Bangladesh, I am enraged by the immorality of purposefully ruining crops so that poor people have no work and no place to live." - Nancy Haque, an organizer for Jobs with Justice in Portland

"On the way [ to a NORPAC farm ] we pulled over to speak to some hop workers. They greeted us with 'Viva PCUN!' slogans. After ten minutes of positive conversation with them we got back on the road... Each place we went to I never met a worker who told me to go away." - Manju Koshy, school teacher and member of American Federation of Teachers Local 111 s

Immigration Issues

We have a labor rights problem, not an immigration problem, when it comes to agricultural work. Our country has depended for over 100 years on immigrants and people of color doing work in the fields that others have refused to do because of low pay and poor living and working conditions. Without Mexican farmworkers, legal or not, the rest of us wouldn't eat. Failure to legislate and enforce fair standards for farmworkers is a conscious policy that takes advantage of problems in other countries. We need to address the pay and conditions faced by farmworkers instead of criminalizing those who put the food on our tables. Those who promote anti-immigrant bigotry and legislation have never had labor's interests at heart. Free trade allows corporations to cross any border, frequently unencumbered by labor or environmental regulations. Why should corporations be allowed to move from place to place, seeking lower wages, while working people are prevented from moving to seek higher wages? Why are corporate profits more important than the right to make a decent living?

Immigration is U.S. policy coming home to roost. U.S. intervention created and prolonged bloody conflicts which devastated the economies of Central America. U.S.-supplied weapons terrorize peasants in Chiapas, causing many to flee. Since the passage of NAFTA, the economy of Mexico has collapsed, with untold thousands driven off their land and thousands of small businesses driven into bankruptcy.

If U.S. policy were designed to protect the working people of this country, we would expect an increase in funding for Department of Labor inspectors, whose raids penalize employers guilty of breaking the federal labor code. Instead, funding is directed toward the INS, whose raids penalize undocumented workers. Immigration policy has not stopped the entry of undocumented workers. It raises their vulnerability, in order to keep them from standing up for their rights.

Disney/Haiti Negotiations Continue

[ Information provided by Batay Ouvriye, whose members established a union at the Megatex factory in Haiti and are involved in negotiations with management. ]

An alliance of organizations in New York City is organizing a tribunal on the sweatshop practices of Disney, Nike and Wal-Mart to be held at the Union Theological Seminary December 4 and 5. For more information, contact the Disney/Haiti Justice Campaign: Kapab@aol.com.

The Megatex plant in Port-au-Prince, Haiti produces clothing for Disney and other companies. In July, management suspended two workers who had spoken with a monitoring team visiting the factory. Following an outpouring of international pressure, those workers were reinstated. On August 10, Megatex workers initiated the official process to have their union certified. This constituted a huge risk for the union leadership, who then became subject to arbitrary firing. International pressure again appears to have been crucial in heading off repression at the factory.

Talks between the union and management at the Megatex factory, originally scheduled to be held on a weekly basis, have proceeded unevenly. Management has canceled some meetings. On October 6, when the union and Batay met with Michel Liautaud, the owner of Megatex, several issues were discussed, including: Unrealistically high production quotas: Mr. Liautaud insists that the mechanisms for establishing quotas are appropriate and that the quotas realistically take into account the workers' capacity to produce - which the workers vehemently deny. The union offered to return with numerical documentation for a later discussion. Downsizing: Mr. Liautaud contends that a workforce reduction is necessary because the factory has no current contracts for garment production. Batay's response is that the factory recently had two truck trailers waiting to be filled with merchandise to be sent to the US. Many workers have had to work overtime. Two previous meetings with Liautaud had been canceled - by him - because he was too busy shipping garments. Batay suspects that Liautaud may be fabricating the order shortage to use layoffs in a union-busting manouver.

Business relationship with Disney: A letter dated September 18 and signed by Disney's director of corporate communications refers to "audits of the manufacturing facilities used by our licensees in Haiti." He states: "Specifically with regard to the Megatex clothing factory, earlier audits revealed a number of violations. Since our goal is to correct the situation whenever possible, we worked with our licensee to make sure that every problem identified by the inspectors be addressed in a prompt and satisfactory manner." It is disturbing that Mr. Liautaud has repeatedly denied to workers that he produces for Disney. The workers suspect Liautaud of hiding his business dealings with Disney in order to strengthen his bargaining position with the union.

Monitoring

by Batay Ouvriye (Workers Struggle)
translated by a member of the Disney/Haiti Justice Campaign in New York City, translation approved by Batay Ouvriye

[ We continue our series on independent monitoring with a statement from Batay Ouvriye, which is organizing workers in factories in Haiti producing clothing for Disney. Batay Ouvriye prepared this statement for a US conference on independent monitoring help in April 1997. ]

There are workers' representatives from several countries attending the Monitoring conference. As Haitians, we also think it is important for us to participate in this conference. Nowadays workers' struggles must overcome a huge void: There is no international workers' organization able to coordinate and unify workers' struggles throughout the world. This is one of the reasons why very often workers' struggles deviate from their true orientation. This is also one of the reasons we find many organizations that aren't truly workers' organizations involved in coordinating and linking workers' struggles. This is a result of the deterioration of the workers' movement worldwide, its ensuing disorientation and lack of organization. This is the void that many petty-bourgeois currents, democratic or humanitarian, attempt to fill.

In light of this situation, it is important to consider the following points:

• Those organizations and movements that view themselves as being truly tied to the working class and its fundamental interests should strive to put forth points of view that represent working class interests everywhere they are at stake, without any illusions, while making sure that they are not falling into traps.
• Those organizations and movements that are tied to working class struggles and that possess a clear understanding of working class interests should strive to establish direct links and coordination between themselves in order to move forward in the global struggle of the working class, its final worldwide struggle against worldwide exploitation and domination.

Our participation here today, as well as the struggles we are engaged in in Haiti, is based on these considerations. We hope this text, although limited in scope and in length, will help clarify our stand.

Within the context of capitalism, the popular masses, laborers and workers are engaged in some necessary democratic struggles. They must be aware of their limits and in the case of the working class, in spite of these limits, they must maintain their autonomy. This means that these democratic struggles must be determined by more fundamental struggles, particularly the struggle to abolish exploitation.

"Independent monitoring" is one element of certain democratic struggles. We need to be aware of its serious limitations. All democratic struggles bear the class imprint of the class leading them. Even if "monitoring" is occurring in relation to workers' struggles, we need to take into account which class is organizing it. We must take advantage of contradictions between the ruling classes. We also need to rally all forces that can weaken them. But we must remain aware that workers must maintain themselves as the main force in their struggle. The respect of our rights can only come from the struggle we wage against our bosses, when we force them to respect our rights, and for that to happen it must come mainly from our autonomous struggles.

We must learn from each other's struggles, without empiricism or dogmatism. Above all, the lessons learned must be drawn in accordance with fundamental positions that correspond to working class interests. This will help us avoid eclecticism.

With regard to the question of "Independent Monitoring," in those countries where the blatant violation of human rights is the norm and the working class is relatively weak, it is very easy for bosses to ignore agreements that workers have won through their struggles. In such cases, it's possible for workers to seek an independent organization to monitor the implementation of these agreements. This can be either an indigenous organization or an organization of natives and foreigners.

In that case, it's important, for the short term, to have sufficient information about these organizations, how they function, where they get their funding, their relations with the bourgeoisie and the imperialists. It could even happen that we might have to create such an organization in cases where there aren't any "independent" organizations. Also, we must not be fooled by so-called "human rights" organizations that are generally dependent on imperialists. In the long run, it's important to be aware that these monitoring organizations are an integral part of a global system, and that they have a tendency to develop into a parallel state structure, complementing and shoring up the existing state under the guise of "NGOs." This should serve to emphasize the need to maintain the autonomy of workers' organizations and struggles, as well as the need to see workers' organizations and struggles as being fundamental.

In cases where there are foreigners in these organizations, it's necessary to reach a minimum agreement on the concept of solidarity. At least, there must be a minimum level of delimitation, an agreement on what can be done together. We must be careful to avoid any kind of paternalism or meddling.

"Monitoring" also results from the relationship between workers and their bosses. The bosses will always look for ways to control and take advantage of the monitoring process. We should be aware of this to avoid falling under their control. It's a struggle and we should be aware of its limitations from the very start. We should use this struggle to maximize our interests. We should never accept limits from "Independent Monitoring" on our autonomous work, on the agitation and diffusion of ideas in the interest of the working class among workers and on the work to strengthen our forces in quest of our emancipation. We should never let this kind of activity interfere with and limit our struggles. Workers can take part in defining "Independent Monitoring" as part of their struggle to demand the respect of their rights, within the limitations of this particular activity. But we should always be aware that "Independent Monitoring" is not a working class struggle, even if it is centered around the struggles of the working class.

We feel these positions are important and that they can be useful in the dialogue between workers and those non-workers who are interested in workers' struggles. Let us make this debate useful for the struggle of the working class.

The School of the Americas:

As you may be aware, the School of the Americas (SOA) is a US Army facility located in Fort Benning, GA where Latin American soldiers are trained in counter-insurgency tactics. The graduates of this school have repeatedly returned to their countries and committed some of the worst human rights atrocities documented in the 20th century. What you may not know - that all US working people, labor rights activists and union organizers should be seriously concerned about - is the harmful impact this training has on the workers and union organizers of Latin America.

In 1997, the Department of Defense declassified Spanish-language training manuals that were used at the School until 1991. These manuals advocated execution, torture, false arrest and the paying of bounty for enemy dead. Proponents of the school have claimed that objections to these manuals were exaggerated and that a thorough curriculum review has been conducted. In a January 1998 report, the Defense Department stated that the manual contained only "24 inappropriate or vague statements inserted throughout six publications that were otherwise completely consistent with US law and human rights policy." However, the manuals are in fact filled with objectionable statements. The following is an example of a statement that the Department of Defense failed to include in its list of inappropriate passages: "Organizations or groups that are able to be a potential threat to the government also must be identified as targets... Examples of hostile organizations or groups are paramilitary groups, labor unions, and dissident groups."

It is quite disturbing that the Department of Defense could consider a passage such as this "completely consistent with US law and human rights policy," and even more disturbing that the training manuals were filled with such passages. If the Department of Defense, the US Army and the School of the Americas can't recognize that this material violates democratic norms, how can they effectively review current curriculum or implement necessary reforms?

In light of the curriculum taught at the SOA, it is not surprising that SOA graduates have been hostile to workers and union organizers. For example, troops commanded by SOA graduate Juan Rafael Bustillo from El Salvador were cited in an Amnesty International report for targeting union members for torture and murder. Another example is Farouk Yanine Diaz, who was implicated in the massacre of 20 striking banana workers in Uraba, Columbia. Yanine Diaz visited the School twice as an honored guest speaker, even after his involvement in this massacre was known.

The SOA has contributed to creating an environment in Latin America that is hostile to workers and union organizers. It has helped to deprive the working people in Latin America of many freedoms, such as the right to organize, that we take for granted. For these reasons, many believe that the SOA must be shut down. The US labor movement can help make this happen.

The effects of globalization, exemplified in the implementation of NAFTA, have made the necessity of cross-border labor organizing more obvious than ever before. Under the auspices of this trade agreement, the maquiladora zones of Latin America are being flooded with foreign industries (many originally from the US) setting up shops that violate countless safety standards and paying workers unliveable wages. Many maquiladora workers want to organize independent unions that will defend their rights but face enormous resistance from factory management and local authorities. The Han Young workers in Tijuana conducted an organizing drive where management resorted to election sabotage. Last fall, three of the workers even engaged in a 26-day hunger strike; yet still the Mexican labor commission refused to enforce labor law in favor of the workers. It is important to note that Mexico is currently the largest "customer" of the SOA. The money currently being spent on the SOA could be put to much better use in programs that support the working people of this country, not to fund massacres. The workers of Latin America deserve our solidarity.

SOAWatch monitors the SOA and calls for its closure. Please join SOA Watch's efforts to protect worker rights.

• Help circulate the petition to close the SOA in your solidarity organization, union or local labor council (no group too big or too small). For copies of the petition contact the SOA Watch Georgia office at (706)682-5369.
• Join the labor contingent at the November 22nd vigil at Ft. Benning, GA. SOAWatch web site: www.soaw.org.

Chiquita

Chiquita Brands International has responded positively to an international campaign urging it to meet with the Coordination of Latin American Banana Workers Unions (COLSIBA). In an October 7 letter to COLSIBA, Chiquita Banana Group President Robert Kistinger agreed to a meeting. COLSIBA had been seeking the meeting since July in an effort to initiate a dialogue with the company to address issues of concern to Chiquita banana workers in the region. In another important development, Chiquita sent a letter to the European group Banana Link on September 10 in which the company stated it was beginning to hold its suppliers accountable for treatment of the environment and workers. Chiquita, like other banana companies, owns plantations but also buys bananas from plantations it does not own.

These are positive developments on paper. It remains to be seen whether Chiquita will engage in a serious meeting with COLSIBA and whether its newly-stated policy of holding suppliers accountable will translate into concrete advances for workers. Watch upcoming newsletters for action suggestions.

Nike/Indonesia Wage & Needs Study

The third international Nike mobilization, which took place on October 17, was a success. A few highlights from local events:

• NEW YORK CITY: The lead-off event for the mobilization took place on October 15. It was a shoe give-back and leafleting event at the Nike Town store in Manhattan. The protest grew out of organizing which had originated at the Edenwald-Gunhill Neighborhood Center in the Bronx, whose members also coordinated with other community centers, youth organizations, unions and other community groups throughout the city. A staff person from Edenwald-Gunhill said that they brought more than 150 from their center and that, before they arrived, there already were hundreds of people protesting outside the store.
• MINNEAPOLIS: Shoppers coming to the largest shopping mall in the United States on October 17, were greeted by a "human billboard" denouncing Nike's sweatshop abuses. Some 130 - 150 students, union members and people from religious and social justice groups ringed the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Twin Cities event was organized by the Resource Center of The Americas and the Twin Cities Clean Clothes Campaign.

Demonstrations were scheduled in many other US cities, as well as Canada, Ireland, England and Finland. This mobilization focused on the issue of wages, especially for Nike workers in Indonesia. A month earlier, Global Exchange [ (415) 255-7296, web site www.globalexchange.org ] released a study of wages and needs of Nike workers in Indonesia. Global Exchange and Campaign for Labor Rights are members of the Living Wage Campaign, formed in July. The campaign has selected Nike as its first target.

On October 15, Nike announced that it would increase the base wage by 25 percent for 30 percent of its its workers in Indonesia. As the study makes clear, this increase comes far short of offsetting the loss of purchasing power due to the decline of the rupiah. Even with the promised increase, Nike workers in Indonesia still will struggle to meet their basic needs. Wages and Living Expenses for Nike Workers in Indonesia released by Global Exchange, September 1998 (excerpts):

This research is based on approximately 50 in-depth interviews with Nike workers in Indonesia about how the present economic crisis has affected their standard of living. While workers producing Nike shoes were low-paid before their currency, the rupiah, began plummeting in late 1997, the dollar value of their wages has dropped from $2.47/day in 1997 to 80 cents/day in 1998. Meanwhile, the prices of basic goods have sky-rocketed. Workers reported that they had received a 15 percent pay raise earlier this year, meaning that their base salary had increased from about Rp. 175,000 per month (approximately $17) to about Rp. 200,000 per month (approximately $20). However, they estimated that their cost of living had gone up anywhere from 100 to 300 percent.

Many Nike workers have quit their jobs and have chosen to return to their home villages because they can no longer afford to live in the city. Workers who continue in their jobs say that the wages they receive are completely consumed by the end of the pay period. This means they cannot put aside any money in savings or send money home to parents in the village. Nor can they afford to buy clothes and other necessities.

In addition to the interviews with workers, we did an exhaustive study of the cost of fulfilling the minimum physical needs of a single worker - including food, cooking fuel, housing, clothing, toiletries and transportation. We found that the cost for a single male worker is $33.20/month, and $35/month for a female worker. The base pay for Nike workers, however, is $20/month-not enough to fulfill the basic needs for one worker, much less a family.

Background:

In 1993, 1994 and 1995 Nike factories throughout Jakarta were rocked by massive strikes and demonstrations. Each year, the government raised the minimum wage by a few cents. Each year, the shoe manufacturers refused to pay the minimum wage raise. Each year, days of strikes and protests finally forced managers to agree to pay what was mandated by Indonesian law. Each year, several Nike workers were fired for their role in organizing these strikes to receive what was owed them under the law.

In 1997 Nike escorted former civil rights activist Andrew Young through the Indonesian factories. The company told Young, and he told others, that Nike factories were paying minimum wage. In 1997, once again the Indonesian government announced a minimum wage hike from $2.26 a day to $2.47 a day. Once again, Nike subcontractors refused to pay this increase, despite another year of record profits for the company. This time, 10,000 workers went on strike to demand the raise. In response, company representative Jim Small remarked, "Indonesia could be reaching a point where it is pricing itself out of the market."

In late 1997, as the currency crisis began to hit Indonesia, the Indonesian Sports Shoe Manufacturers Association lobbied the Indonesian government to institute a wage freeze. The shoe contractors claimed they could not afford to pay higher wages in rupiah, despite the fact that all the company profits are made in dollars. Worker salaries, however, had dwindled to less than a dollar a day. Therefore, while Nike shoes continued to sell for the same price in dollars, Nike wages in dollars shrank drastically from $2.47 per day to as low as 50 cents per day. Meanwhile, the cost of basic goods was rising fast. By April 1998 most Nike workers could not afford even to eat three meals per day.

Newsweek reported that the company claimed it could not pay workers more rupiah. "Nike . . . says it would like to raise wages for its 60,000 workers in Indonesia as the value of their currency plummets, but the government recently banned wage hikes as inflationary in this time of crisis," the magazine reported. Nike was stretching the truth by claiming that the government "banned" wage hikes. Nike competitor Reebok managed to raise wages by 20 percent during this period, but Nike continued to take a hard line, paying only the bare minimum wage required by law.

Under intense public pressure, the Indonesian government finally did decide to raise the minimum wage by 15 percent this year. Nike followed suit, ordering its subcontractors to raise wages by 15 percent. This raise has provided workers with barely enough income to prevent them from going hungry.

This research was conducted by Indonesian NGO activists with long-standing relationships with Nike factory workers in Bogor and Tangerang. The research centered on approximately 50 in-depth interviews with workers in five Nike factories.

Workers were asked what they had been able to afford with their salary last year and the year before that. They reported that during the past couple of years they had found their salary to be sufficient to cover the following expenses: rent, meals and purchase of basic necessities like soap, shampoo, clothing and shoes. In addition, many workers reported that they had been able to save some money in a workers' cooperative, pay children's school fees, or send some money home to their parents in the countryside. Most workers also reported that they usually had a little bit left over for weekend excursions.

During their one day of free time each week, the young women workers reported that they liked to take a bus and go to some other part of town that was different than the hot, overcrowded slums in which they lived. Many of them liked to go to the new luxury shopping malls that have sprung up in Jakarta in recent years. They enjoyed strolling around in the air-conditioned interiors of these malls and window-shopping. This year, even that meager pleasure is denied to them. Nearly all the workers interviewed reported that this year, they no longer go anywhere on their day off. They can no longer afford the bus fare.

They cannot afford many of the other items they purchased last year. While they report that they still have enough to buy food and to continue to pay rent, many added that the food they ate was far less filling and nutritious than what they used to eat. They are subsisting largely on rice, tempe (a soybean derivative) and vegetables, and can only occasionally afford to supplement this diet with some protein source such as eggs, chicken or fish. Both male and female workers no longer go to barber-shops/salons to cut their hair. They have no money for new clothes or shoes. And they have no money for recreation, to buy books or other reading material. Most can no longer afford to send any money home to their parents, and some report that their adolescent brothers and sisters have been taken out of school, because their families can no longer afford school fees.

The researchers asked these workers whether they had been able to afford to go home for the holidays this year. Indonesia's population is predominantly Muslim, and the biggest holiday of the year is Idul Fitri, the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. All of Indonesia travels on Idul Fitri to be with family. This year, however, many workers said they could not afford to go home for Idul Fitri. The workers wondered whether they would be able to go home next year, and whether they would be able to afford any presents for their family. Every year, they had been able to bring home money or presents for their parents and family members. This year, however, many workers were afraid they would have to return home empty-handed. One young worker told the researcher sadly that she probably would not go home this year, because she would be too embarrassed to face her family with nothing to show for her labor.

The following is an exhaustive study of the basic cost of living for a single person living in Jakarta as of September 1998. It is calculated for a male worker, with the figure for a female worker being slightly higher due to additional needs such as bras and sanitary pads.

[ By categories. All categories are itemized in detail in the study. ]

      Need                              Cost (Rupiah)
I.    Food                              162,250
II.   Fuel                              9,800
III.  Housing/kitchen equipment         92,774
IV.   Clothing                          24,330
V.    Miscellaneous*                    43,373
                Total for I-V:          332,527

*15% of the totals of I+II+II+IV. This category includes transportation, recreation, medicines, education/reading material and haircut, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc.

As the chart indicates, the total minimum physical requirements per month for a single male worker is 332,527Rp ($33.25US). The minimum physical requirements for female workers are estimated at 350,000Rp/month, or $35US. The present base wage for Nike workers of $20/month does not even fulfill the needs of one worker, and certainly does not come close to taking care of an entire family.

Han Young Strike Continues

On September 19, local activists all across the US and Canada participated in a Han Young Day of Action. We are asking local committees to continue leafleting and picketing at Hyundai Motors dealerships. For an organizing packet, which includes a leaflet master, contact Campaign for Labor Rights at (202) 232-5002 or clr@clrlabor.org and be sure to give your postal address.

Background:

A clear majority of the workers has voted three times to be represented by an independent union. The workers have stood firm in the face of armed thugs, bribes, firings, disinformation campaigns and a host of illegal actions by management and government officials in Mexico. The workers won certification of their union in January after a 26-day hunger strike, but management has refused to negotiate a contract with the independent October 6 union. Since May 22 of this year, when the previous contract expired, virtually the entire regular workforce at Han Young has been on strike.

The Han Young workers remain strong and unified, in spite of the economic hardships resulting from being on strike. Many are doing odd jobs and also rely on whatever money their wives, most of whom work in other local factories, can bring in. The strikers continue to maintain strong links with workers at other factories in the area, where there is strong interest in joining the independent October 6 union. International solidarity also has been important in maintaining the strikers' morale. The essential elements of international solidarity are: political pressure on the Mexican federal government to enforce its own labor law and economic pressure on Hyundai to use its considerable leverage with Han Young, which produces only for Hyundai.

Han Young Factory Moved:

Hyundai Contract with US Army:

International Outreach:

In Washington, there were meetings with the AFL-CIO and a number of Congressional representatives and staffers, as well as a plenary presentation and workshop at the 50 Years Is Enough national conference (attended by approximately 400 people). A highlight of the tour was a press conference at the statehouse in Trenton (NJ), where the Han Young worker was the featured speaker. Governor Christine Whitman had returned a few days earlier from a trade delegation to Mexico. The Industrial Union Council of New Jersey hosted the press conference in order to present the Mexican workers' side of the story about labor right abuses under NAFTA.

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