 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Newsletter #9September-November 1996 Newsletter -- Web Edition In this issue:
Nike NewsInternational Mobilization: Activists in at least 9 countries are organizing events for the October 18 mobilization in support of the rights of Nike workers. In the United States and Canada, scores of community and campus-based organizations have announced plans to leaflet at stores selling Nike products. From previous experience, we know that the groups which notify us represent only a fraction of those with plans for actions. If you are planning a Nike event for October 18, please let us know!Nike action packets are free via email (send a request to clr@clrlabor.org) or $5 for the printed version (send a check to Campaign for Labor Rights, 1470 Irving Street, NW, Washington, DC 20010 with a note saying that you are prepaying for a Nike action packet or call (202) 232-5002). Bronx Nike Shoe-In: A neighborhood center in the Bronx has organized a return of Nike shoes at the posh Nike Town store on 57th Street in Manhattan. The Edenwald-Gun Hill Neighborhood Center has joined with young people at 7 other community centers in planning their September 27 action. People all across the country have been sending old Nikes to be added to the pile. Kids' Sweatshop Play Goes To Broadway: Last year, 4th graders at the Hawes School in Ridgewood, New Jersey wrote a play depicting the sweatshop conditions under which Nike and Disney products and McDonald's "happy meals" toys are made. The young people were ready to present their play to the entire school when the principal squelched those plans. End of story? No! Word got around about the play, which is now going to be produced on Broadway, starring the original child authors. The one-night-only performance will be at the Roundabout Theater at 7 PM on October 27. For more information, call the kids' teacher, Maria Sweeney. Her work number is (201) 670-2720. SEC Nixes Sweatshop Resolution: On July 10, the Securities and Exchange Commission upheld a Nike challenge to a shareholder resolution introduced by the pension board of the United Methodist Church. This was the first time the SEC has allowed a company to omit a sweatshop resolution from its proxy statement. Nike convinced the SEC that sweatshop practices fall within the "normal range of business decisions" (!!!) which can be left to a company's board of directors. With this decision, the Clinton administration may be closing a door to an important pressure tactic against sweatshop abuses. Grassroots action will be all the more important now for the Nike campaign and other struggles to win justice for sweatshop workers. Timothy Smith, of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, pointed out that the SEC decision follows by mere months the release of a preliminary agreement by the White House Apparel Industry Partnership and that the Partnership's recommendations are similar to those in the Methodists' resolution. "Nike is a member of the Partnership... Yet Nike and the SEC staff consider the issues inappropriate for shareholder debate." Nike Workers Attacked In Bangladesh: A Bangladesh newspaper, The Independent of Dhaka, reported on July 14 that 9 workers from a Nike clothing contractor, the Youngone factory, were in jail, 300 injured, 97 fired and 800 others charged with criminal offenses after they tried to present a statement to their employer. Before the workers had a chance to make their statement, they were attacked by an overwhelming contingent of police. Youngone is the largest export manufacturer of sportswear in the world. Half of their total production in Dhaka is for Nike, about 300,000 pieces per year. Investigation Demolishes Report: In June, Andrew Young's for-profit company, GoodWorks International, published a report on its investigation of Nike's labor practices. Nike, which had contracted with GoodWorks to do the report for a sum that both parties refuse to disclose, was so pleased with the report's soft treatment that it took out full-page ads in newspapers all across the U.S. and Canada to announce the findings. A remarkable piece of investigative journalism written by Stephen Glass and published in The New Republic magazine in August revealed the following: · To lend credibility to the investigation's methodology, the report lists 34 nongovernmental organizations with whom GoodWorks met or spoke. But, in a number of cases, GoodWorks did not consult with these experts at all. Among the several examples listed by Glass: "Anita Chan, a researcher who has studied China extensively at the National University of Australia in Canberra, appears on the list. Chan...says she was never contacted by Andrew Young or anybody at GoodWorks. Logan Ide, a GoodWorks spokesman, explains that Chan was included accidentally because her name was on an internal office memo of people they should call. 'It was just a simple mistake,' Ide says, adding that GoodWorks has formally apologized to Chan and that she has accepted the apology. But that, too, is wrong, according to Chan. 'I have never heard from them,' she said. 'No, they have never called me.'" · When Young toured Nike factories, he chose to use Nike's translators, although he could easily have hired his own. Diane Orentlicher, author of Bearing Witness: The Art and Science of Human Rights Fact-Finding, said when informed of the reliance on Nike-provided translators: "[D]oesn't it just violate common sense? How can you speak freely when your employer is listening or someone who might talk to the employer is literally in the room?" · "Another basic precept in labor and human rights investigations is to spend enough time at the job to really investigate. Young reports that his investigators spent, on average, up to three to four hours in each factory -- a fact that prompts derision from veteran inspectors who have worked for manufacturers and unions in the past. Generally, these experts say, inspection teams on a tour will visit each factory at least ten times -- for several hours at a shot...Some of the very labor rights experts whom GoodWorks listed as consultants say Young was told that he was not spending enough time on the ground to conduct a thorough study. One such consultant says he personally warned GoodWorks about this on five separate occasions." · "On page ten is a picture of Young sitting at a table with a group of Vietnamese men and women. The caption says, 'Andrew Young meeting with plant management and union representatives in Vietnam.' One man and one woman from the photo appear again on page twenty-two, posing with Young in front of a sign that says 'Trade Union.' Here the caption reads: 'Andrew Young with union representatives at Vietnamese factory.' This picture comes as something of a shock to the Vietnamese Confederation of Labor, which represents workers at the Nike factory. Faxed a copy of the photograph, the confederation's officials said they do not know who the individuals are. When pressed, Veda Manager, Nike's spokesman, said they are Nike employees, who collect their salaries from the company, not the union or the government." · GoodWorks personnel could have met with Hoang Thi Khanh, the union official who is in charge of the plant where Young was photographed with imposter union reps, but GoodWorks declined repeated opportunities to do so: "Thuyen Nguyen, the head of Vietnam Labor Watch, called Young's office two or three times to set up the meeting. At the time of the calls, Khanh was actually in the U.S. for several weeks, meeting with federal officials in Washington, D.C., and was anxious to visit Young; Khanh even offered to visit Atlanta if it was more convenient, Nguyen says. But Nguyen was told that GoodWorks wasn't interested." · The report explicitly avoids the issue of whether Nike is paying its workers a living wage, stating that determining what constitutes a living wage was "well beyond the technical capacity of our small firm." Glass: "Yet, as Nike's critics rightly point out, salary compensation is the one area of foreign labor on which so much has been written that even a novice could quickly get a basic handle on what fair wage estimates are. Provided with a copy of the report, a pro-business economist from the University of Pennsylvania said, 'That's idiotic. When I read that, I knew the author was doing a p.r. job, not a serious look.'" The full text of Stephen Glass's article is available by email from Campaign for Labor Rights. Send a request to clr@clrlabor.org. Canadian Sweatshop Campaign(based on an article in the Maquila Network Update)In the Toronto metropolitan area, women are sewing clothing for the Northern Group -- Northern Traditions, Northern Reflections, Northern Getaway -- for piece rates well below minimum wage. Women sewing in small factories or at home have earned as little as $4.50 ($3.21 US) an hour and sometimes as low as $2.50 ($1.79 US) an hour. These women have been denied overtime pay, vacation pay, statutory holidays, employer contributions to Employment Insurance, the Canada Pension Plan and other benefits mandated by law.Despite the very Canadian loons on their label, the Northern Group is a division of the US-based multinational, Woolworth Corporation. Woolworth also owns Randy River, Weekend Edition, Foot Locker and other well-known specialty stores. Walking Away From The Problem: In December 1996, Woolworth met with homeworkers and factory workers to hear their complaints. Woolworth agreed to investigate two contractors. The workers urged Woolworth not to do anything to jeopardize their employment. In February 1997, Woolworth reported that it had completed its investigation and that it was cutting off future orders with one of the contractors. To date, Woolworth has not provided any information on the results of their investigation, nor has it offered compensation to the workers whose rights were violated. Woolworth's irresponsible cut-and-run policy intimidates other workers from bringing forward complaints. Canada-Wide Blitz Focuses On Northern: WearFair (a campaign of the Labour behind the Label Coalition) is bringing together people and organizations concerned about the exploitation of garment workers and violation of labor law. On June 21, the coalition -- together with the Ontario District Council of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) -- staged a "Sweatshop Fashion Show" outside the Toronto Eaton's Centre. As UNITE members modeled Northern clothes produced under sweatshop conditions in Metro Toronto, the MC contrasted the sewing cost and sales price of each garment. On September 6, over 40 participants in a Stop Sweatshops forum in Hamilton, Ontario leafleted their Eaton's Centre and the Northern Reflections store. Before being escorted out of the mall by security guards, they delivered a letter of protest signed by forum delegates to the store manager. The Labour Behind the Label Coalition is calling on groups across Canada to increase the pressure on the Woolworth Northern Group to redress abuses of Metro Toronto home and factory workers whose rights were violated by Woolworth contractors and to ensure that similar violations do not recur in the future. Leafleting of Northern stores is being organized in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. For further information on the Northern campaign and to receive a WearFair action packet, contact the Labour Behind the Label Coalition: (416) 532-8584, perg@web.net. Hidden Labor:Uncovering L.A.'s garment industry by Judy BranfmanOn May 4th, 180 people -- garment workers past and present, artists, activists, union organizers, politicians, friends and relatives - celebrated the opening of the exhibition "Hidden Labor: Uncovering L.A.'s Garment Industry." Installed by the Common Threads Artists Group in nine large storefront windows of an historic building on the edge of the L.A. garment district, "Hidden Labor" presents a sequential look at the history of L.A.s garment workers since the late Nineteenth Century, and their efforts to improve working conditions.Over the past year, the eight women artists have interviewed several dozen of L.A.'s retired and present-day garment workers, ranging in age from 20 to 100. These interviews, accompanied by photos, a timeline and collected and assembled items, form the heart of the exhibit. They spotlight a few of the 130,000 garment workers employed in the nation's largest apparel industry and some important, but little-known, moments in L.A.'s history. Because the installation is in display windows on the street, it's visible 24 hours daily. It will remain in place until May 1, 1998. The exhibit chronologically depicts workers' efforts from the turn of the century to the present. One of the nine windows focuses on the organizing of thousands of sportswear workers in 1933, mainly Latinas. Other windows chart the changing demographics of a largely immigrant workforce that was once mostly Jewish and Italian and is now primarily immigrants from Latin America and Asia. Another window reflects experiences of the Thai garment workers who worked in semi-slavery in El Monte and outlines the Retailer Code of Conduct that was endorsed last year by the L.A. City Council. The final window, "Time for a Change," highlights garment workers fired by GUESS in retaliation for their union organizing activities. "Hidden Labor" was developed in response to a call for proposals for art projects in the Community Redevelopment Agency's (CRA) downtown redevelopment area. Much of L.A.'s downtown is underutilized and deteriorating. The CRA hopes that art can contribute to a revitalization effort. One percent of the cost of development projects is set aside for art. The Downtown Cultural Trust Fund directs a portion of that money toward art projects within the redevelopment area. "Hidden Labor" was selected for a grant from the Downtown Cultural Trust Fund, and the management of the building approved the idea. The L.A. Business Journal (April 28, 1997) reported discontent among some apparel industry leaders: "Anything [Common Threads] would produce would have a very slanted point of view," said Bernard Lax, president of the Coalition of Apparel Industries in California. "I'm not sure that type of art project should be funded by the city." And Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association said "People never hear the entrepreneur's side of the story, what it takes to build a business." Without a guest book, there's no way to track who sees the exhibit and what they think of it. But, at a minimum, hundreds of people walk by the windows every day and many have become familiar with it. From our experience, the moguls of the apparel industry do not speak for working people in the Los Angeles garment district. Common Threads is a women's organization that supports garment workers' efforts to improve their working conditions, primarily through unionization. Over the past 2 1/2 years, Common Threads has done extensive outreach to diverse groups and has organized actions, some with special themes, mainly in support of UNITE's efforts to organize workers in GUESS sewing shops. Common Threads is no stranger to controversy. Last year, GUESS sued us for libel after they sent an employee to spy on a literary reading we sponsored in support of striking GUESS workers. The suit got the GUESS campaign and us a lot of great publicity and generated a second reading. GUESS dropped the suit earlier this year. The artists have also produced several posters, which have been plastered guerrilla-style all over town and placed in buses. And a Common Threads web site will be ready soon. The artists group is now thinking about touring the exhibition starting in mid-1998. Several small museums around California have expressed an interest. If you have any ideas for events, windows or other venues where you think "Hidden Labor" should be exhibited, please let us know. The exhibition will remain relatively large and complex, but we'd love to work with you if you are interested. Contact Common Threads at (310) 967-5122 or jbranfman@loop.com. [At the Case Farms poultry processing factory in Morganton, North Carolina, although workers voted more than two years ago to join the Laborers' Union, the company has yet to negotiate with them. Case Farms actively recruited a mostly immigrant (Guatemalan) workforce. In Creswell, Oregon the Fircrest Farms factory has a workforce which is mostly Mexican in origin. The following report describes the treatment of guest workers in a country with diminishing funds for labor inspectors but seemingly unlimited money for immigration agents. Thanks to the author and to the Committee in Solidarity with the Central American People for generously allowing us print an abbreviated version of this article, which appeared in the Summer 1997 edition of El Aviso. To find out how to support the Case Farms struggle, contact the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice at (773) 381-2832.] Workers, Justice and the INSby Annalise RomoserThe Immigration and Naturalization Service has struck again and this time close to home. On April 30th, one day before payday, the INS raided Fircrest Farms in Creswell. Thirty workers were immediately deported to Mexico and some legal residents were caught up in the shuffle and taken along with others to Portland. Workers were not given an opportunity to notify family members, make child care arrangements, receive their paychecks or gather personal belongings. Children were left behind in daycare, families were left without food and rent money and one man was forced to leave his wife, who was in labor. According to one Fircrest Farms worker who was taken to Portland, the INS treated workers "like animals, laughing and telling us 'hasta la vista, we'll see you again,' as they pointed at the workers shackled at waist, feet and wrists."These men and women are not unruly criminals; they are workers who put in long hours for wages many of us would not tolerate. They are the ones who help us to fill our cupboards, cover our tables and they are the ones who enable us to nourish our bodies. It is of course not only the government but also Fircrest Farms that treated these people despicably. These workers were Fircrest's employees, many of whom had dedicated years of their life to the company Although aware of the impending raid, Fircrest officials failed to identify documented workers and in the aftermath have offered no support or services to the families left behind. Nor have they made efforts to see that employees receive pay owed to them. Local human rights organizations held a rally near Fircrest Farms on May 20th. Approximately 60 people gathered to show support for our fellow community members who have been deported, to gather money to assist families left behind, to hear from Fircrest Farm workers who had been taken to Portland with other, now-deported workers and to protest the general attack on immigrant labor in our community. One worker who is in the United States for medical treatment told of her experience: "The INS treated us without dignity, would not let us make a phone call to tell someone to bring our documents, and Fircrest Farms, for who we have worked so hard, has given us nothing, not even a penny." Back-to-School Boycott of Guesscondensed from an article by Patricia CamposStudent Stop Sweatshops is a national student organization with members on over 50 college campuses. It started at Cornell University in the Fall of 1996 and has continued working with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) on the Guess campaign. We also have worked with the National Labor Committee and CISPES and have participated in many anti-sweatshop activities. Our focus is to involve students, who are the market for many sweatshop-produced consumer products.Students are an important part of the national movement to win justice for garment workers and others who toil in sweatshop conditions. One outcome of this movement has been the formation of a White House task force on sweatshop abuses. On October 4, there will be a Day of Conscience To End Sweatshops as part of an effort to strengthen the final report of the White House Apparel Industry Partnership, due to be released in November. GUESS has been at the forefront of this country's recent sweatshop scandal. Last year, students at many schools joined GUESS workers to send a strong message to GUESS to stop using sweatshops. GUESS responded by sponsoring an independent film tour to polish its image. Student's didn't buy it, and leafleted at GUESS campus film tour screenings around the country. Some of the very directors whose films were part of the tour joined students in condemning GUESS. For more information and to receive a campus action packet, contact Student Stop Sweatshops at 202-785-5690 ext. 231 or campos@pwr.org. Community-based activists wanting information on the Guess boycott can contact UNITE at 212 265-7000 x 821 or gcough@uniteunion.org. Child-Free? Questionable!U.S. companies selling Pakistani soccer balls with labels saying they were made without child labor are probably misleading consumers, says Foulball campaign director Dan McCurry. The industry's own monitoring programs for eliminating the use of illegal child labor are not yet in place. FoulBall invites consumers buying soccer balls to protest fraudulent claims for sporting goods and to help prepare for a potential legal challenge.Send a copy of your ball's purchase receipt, brand name and price along with your name and address and a photocopy of the ""Child Labor Free" label to FoulBall campaign, Suite 920, 733 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20005. For more information, call (202) 347-4100. FoulBall's web site http://www.laborrights.org will list the 800 phone numbers for consumers to call companies directly and challenge them on the truthfulness of their labeling. Sweatshop ActivismPetition If you are collecting sweatshop petition signatures, be sure to make a photocopy so you will have the names and addresses for local organizing projects. To help build a national network of labor rights activists, please send us your completed petitions. We will computerize the list and forward the petitions to the National Labor Committee. Send petitions to: Campaign for Labor Rights, 1470 Irving Street, NW, Washington, DC 20010. Day of Conscience: Put your local or national organization on record as an endorser of the Day of Conscience To End Sweatshops and let the National Labor Committee know about your plans for October 4: (212) 242-3002 or natlabcom@aol.com. Also, see their new web site at www.nlcnet.org Vermont Challenges Sweatshops: A newly formed statewide organization, the Vermont Coalition on Sweatshop Labor, will hold a rally on October 4th at Burlington City Hall Park as part of the National Day of Conscience. National Labor Committee Director Charles Kernaghan announced the Day of Conscience from Vermont on a May visit as the guest of U.S. Congressman Bernie Sanders. Stop Sweatshops Bill: The Stop Sweatshops bill in the House now has a Republican co-sponsor. Representative Bob Ney of Ohio joined 57 Democrats in supporting H.R. 23. So far, Edward Kennedy is the only sponsor in the Senate. The legislation would make garment manufacturers (including retailers acting as manufacturers) responsible for their contractors' violations of the minimum wage, overtime and child labor laws. Call your representative and senators and ask them to co-sponsor the Stop Sweatshops bill. Capitol switchboard: (800) 962-3524. "Fast Track" To Ruinbased on an article by Soren AmbroseAfter a failed attempt to slip NAFTA-type free trade expansion into the omnibus tax bill recently, the Clinton administration is trying to get Congress to pass a "fast track" bill this fall. Fast track forbids: · Any debate in Congress on extensions of NAFTA-like trade agreements to other countries. The vote is up or down, without discussion. · Any changes to proposed trade agreements. Once the wealthy and powerful have crafted their agreements in secret, they don't want the rest of us meddling with the results. Please contact your Senators and Representative and ask them to vote against fast track. Capitol switchboard: (800) 962-3524. Fast track would grease the skids for a group of trade measures, each a serious threat to labor rights. In this article, we focus on one of the bills, MAI, which the administration hopes to pass via the fast track route. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment is being mapped out by 29 of the world's "developed" countries. The guiding principle of the MAI is that external investors should be treated no differently than domestic ones. In theory, if given enough flexibility, the free market system will create more wealth and distribute resources more efficiently and fairly than government controls can. The fact that existing free trade policies have deepened poverty in 90 or so countries around the world (the sweatshop belt) -- not to mention the ballooning of external debts and increased environmental degradation -- seems not to bother these theorists. The MAI would allow foreign companies to sue a host government if they are "discriminated" against in any way. The MAI would bar: requirements that companies hire a minimum number of local employees; local laws banning the purchase of goods or services from particular countries or companies operating in particular countries (e.g., the Massachusetts sanctions on Burma and Berkeley's boycott of oil companies active in Nigeria); and provisions to encourage community development, such as preferential purchase agreements. Without regard to worker or consumer safety, companies could file complaints over any governmental move that would "have the effect" of expropriation -- for example, the prohibition of toxic ingredients that a company's home country permits, because such a regulation would deprive the company of profits it could otherwise have made with its existing product. The MAI contains no provisions for individuals or civic organizations to file complaints against either companies or governments. The only rights protected by the MAI are those of corporations and investors, who are given a whole new body of rights and a mechanism for enforcing them. The people affected by private investment would have no voice in their fate. MAI includes no recognition of human rights. Its only principle is the right to profit. The following letter is reprinted, with slight changes approved by the author, from the Register-Guard newspaper in Eugene, Oregon. A Hyundai plant being built in that community is the subject of controversy, due to environmental concerns and more than $100 million in tax abatements. Labor and human rights activists in Eugene have formed bonds of solidarity with workers and others whose lives have been affected by the operations of another branch of the Hyundai conglomerate near Tijuana, Mexico. Eugene activists are pressing forward with plans to leaflet in support of the rights of Han Young workers. Thanks to Christina Cowger for generously allowing us to share her letter with our readers. Two Cities, One CompanyI respect K--- B---'s pride in the place where he works, which is Hyundai (letter, Aug. 13). But I'd like him and others to know about problems Hyundai is causing in Tijuana, Mexico.The Han Young plant in Tijuana produces chassis and platforms for Hyundai's tractor-trailers. Under Mexican law, Hyundai as sole purchaser of Han Young's production has complete responsibility for guaranteeing workers' rights at the plant. Han Young workers make $33 to $46 a week, too little for their families' basic expenses. They complain of serious on-the-job injuries, such as vision loss. The workers have formed an independent union to press for living wages and adequate safety equipment. Han Young has responded by making promises it hasn't kept, and then firing the union's leadership. Moreover, Hyundai itself has a plant in Tijuana where the chassis and containers are finished and stored. It stands next to a community called Maclovio Rojas, where 7,600 extremely poor people live. Hyundai admits that it wants the Maclovio Rojas land, and a move is underway to squeeze the residents out. A Eugene coalition is trying to meet with Hyundai here to discuss matters in Tijuana, but Hyundai officials claim they're "not involved." Hyundai plants in Eugene and Tijuana have the same corporate parent; we're sure they can communicate. Our two communities both need decent jobs, a clean environment, and land and tax policies that benefit the majority. We should work together across borders to reach our goals. Christina Cowger, Eugene, Oregon Crisis at HyundaiThe Han Young plant near Tijuana produces chassis for Hyundai, which has a tractor-trailer plant in another district close to Tijuana. In early June, a walkout by workers at Han Young resulted in company concessions on key issues of pay, safety and recognition of an independent union. After workers returned to their jobs, however, there were signs that the company was dragging its feet on implementation of its promises. Since then, things have gone from bad to worse.Han Young management hired a full-time union-busting consultant. Retaliation against workers followed in quick order. On August 6, Emetario Armenta, one of the leading organizers, was fired by the company as a "trouble maker". Armenta was offered a substantial bribe to discontinue his union activities and not to file charges against the company. He refused the offer. Soon after, two other members of the elected executive committee of the union also were fired. They, too, had been offered "severance packages" similar to Armenta's. The workers were told that the reason for their termination was their involvement in union activities. The key issue now is for the Conciliation and Arbitration Board to schedule a timely, free and fair election to decide the issue of union recognition at the Han Young plant. As of this writing, Conciliation and Arbitration has promised to announce in late September when the election will take place. The board's history of corruption makes the workers wary. Worker support for the union remains very strong. If the union wins the vote, it will be the very first truly independent union to gain official recognition in the entire Mexican maquiladora (assembly) sector. Such a precedent could have enormous implications throughout the border region, where workers receive meager wages producing goods strictly for export, mostly to the United States. Please fax letters -- English is fine -- to Antonio Ortiz, Presidente, Junta de Conciliation y Arbitraje (Conciliation and Arbitration Board) at: 011-526-686-3300. If no answer, call 011-526-686-3214 and say that you want to send a fax. Sometimes personnel at the board unplug the line. Please keep trying! Talking points: · Proceed with setting a union election soon. · Ensure a free and fair election. · Prevent the company from further illegal intimidation, firing or attempted bribery. · Order the reinstatement of the three illegally fired workers. For more information, contact the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers: (619) 542-0826. Boycott Grapes? YES!The boycott is still in effect against California table grapes, with one exception: Freeman Grapes, from the ranch of David Freeman in the Coachella Valley, the only grape grower who has signed a contract with the UFW. Table grapes from anywhere outside California are not the target of a boycott. This is not to say that grape growers in other locales are necessarily doing right by their workers. It just means that the UFW is not trying to organize workers at table grape operations outside California. Why do we hear so little about the grape boycott? The UFW is focusing its energies on the California strawberry campaign. However, that shouldn't stop the rest of us from spreading the word about the continuing boycott against (all but one source of) California table grapes. To find out how to support the California strawberry campaign, check out the UFW's web site at www.ufw.org or contact Dan Hawes of the AFL-CIO at (202) 637-5212.Guatemala Labor Newscondensed from materials provided by the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project (773) 262-6502, usglep@igc.apc.org.Phillips-Van Heusen: In a major advance for the basic rights of apparel workers in Central America, the workers at the Guatemalan factory owned by PVH have ratified a contract agreement with the company, making it the only collective bargaining agreement in Guatemala's apparel-for-export sector and one of the very few in the region. The contract responds to all of the major concerns of the union, including losing jobs to outsourcing, ending arbitrary and discriminatory treatment by supervisors, raising wages and visible recognition of the union. Starbucks: Negotiations with the Starbucks coffee company continue. As of this writing, there is no word on whether the company will commit itself to a sufficiently meaningful pilot project to avert a resumption of the grassroots pressure campaign. The U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project is seeking to have Starbucks make good on its promises to ensure that its Guatemalan coffee beans are grown and harvested under conditions where basic worker rights are respected. Pepsi: On July 15, management of the Mariposa Pepsi bottling plant in Guatemala City fired 28 members of the SITRAEMSA union. The Guatemalan owners of the Pepsi plant have replaced the fired employees with 25 new workers. The company's contention that it was merely downsizing when it fired the union workers is clearly bogus. The firings occurred as the union submitted a new contract proposal; several of those fired are involved in contract negotiations. The union obtained recognition and a contract in 1994, in part because of pressure from the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade probation that had been imposed on Guatemala by the U.S. at the urging of Guatemalan trade unions and international human rights groups. In 1993, union members reported death threats, intimidation and other attacks on the union. The SITRAEMSA struggle became an important GSP issue for the U.S. government in 1994 and shortly afterwards the company negotiated a contract. Guatemala's GSP probation ended in May. The company went after the union with full knowledge of the current political context. This case can be seen as an opening salvo from the Guatemalan business community now that GSP probation has been lifted. As such, it is an important test of how the Guatemalan government will enforce the law as well as a test of the U.S. government's position that trade probation on Guatemala is no longer needed. The Guatemalan government says that it has found no evidence of wrong-doing by the company. Recently, there have been some discussions between management and the union. While the company has pledged to negotiate a renewal of the collective bargaining agreement, due to expire October 1, management has refused to reinstate the fired workers. Until there is an acceptable settlement, the union requests that protest faxes be sent to: Enrique Castillo Monge, President, Corporacion Mariposa, S.A.: 011-502-366-4145 and the Honorable Hector A. Cifuentes, Minister of Labor, Ministry of Labor: 011-502-230-1363. Socially Responsible?Wholesome and Hearty Foods, producer of the famed Gardenburger, has helped many to make a painless transition from a meat-dominated diet. Now Wholesome and Hearty is being asked to take another step toward responsibility in business. So far, the company isn't budging.At issue is Wholesome and Hearty's refusal to break ties with its distributor, NORPAC Sales, even though alternatives are readily available. The distributor is the sales arm of an Oregon agribusiness whose abusive treatment of farm workers has been widely condemned. NORPAC's FLAV-R-PAC brand is the subject of a primary boycott by the Oregon farm workers union, PCUN. A growing number of food co-ops, alternative groceries and healthfood restaurants have decided to switch to substitutes for the Gardenburger, to respect the secondary boycott of Wholesome and Hearty. Until recently, Wholesome and Hearty spokespeople sought to distance their company from the farm worker controversy. However, perhaps irritated at the increasing success of the secondary boycott, company president Paul Wenner came out fighting during an interview on the radio program E-Town taped in August. Wenner, who has gotten a lot of mileage from the pro-environmental nature of his product, showed that he is no friend of working people. In spite of considerable documentation to the contrary, he claimed that Oregon farm workers average $8 an hour, live in adequate if simple housing and could easily afford to rent better housing away from the migrant camps if they weren't so tight with a dollar. He did not acknowledge that farm workers who seek decent conditions and a living wage face firing, intimidation and -- sometimes -- outright violence. He also failed to mention that farm workers bear the brunt of the pesticide-laden agribusiness industry. So much for Wenner's environmentalism. To find out how to support the Gardenburger and FLAV-R-PAC boycotts, contact Erik Nicholson at PCUN: (503) 982-0243. Ambassador RespondsIn the previous issue of our newsletter, we included a sign-on letter to Lino Gutierrez, U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua. Stung by criticism that the presence of Embassy personnel added to the intimidation of workers seeking to form a union at a U.S.-owned company (Cupid Foundations, which produces women's undergarments), the ambassador has responded.in May, a U.S. Embassy official attended (according to Ambassador Gutierrez, "as an observer") an obviously intimidating meeting with workers which was also attended by management, representatives of the right-wing government of Arnoldo Aleman, the police, and local government officials. The U.S. has a 150-year history of intervention in Nicaragua on the side of American corporations. When Ambassador Gutierrez makes assurances that he will continue to follow "our well-established policy of fostering sound labor practices and worker rights observances as well as assisting U.S. business operations in Nicaragua," we can guess how that policy is likely to play out in practice. A Nicaraguan court is scheduled to make a ruling on the dissolution of the union at Cupid Foundations by the Labor Ministry. At press time, we had not yet received a report. New from CISPESFall Tours: Two leaders of popular movements in El Salvador will describe how that country's people are responding to economic globalization as part of October-November speaking tours of the U.S. sponsored by the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). In El Salvador, over 30,000 women assemble clothing for the US market, with pay at 57 cents an hour and conditions often subhuman. Marina Rios leads a group of women garment workers who are looking at new organizing models. She will discuss independent monitoring, unionization, and outside-the-factory organization. The FMLN party recently won almost one-third of the seats in the Salvadoran legislature. David Hernandez, an alternate representative for the FMLN in the legislature, will discuss a proposed raise in the minimum wage and other measures which, if enacted, could greatly improve the conditions of Salvadoran working people. SweatGear: This all-new edition of the famous catalog features the "President's Line," based on elements of the preliminary accord of the White House sweatshop task force. It asks citizens to push for strengthening of key provisions of the code (wages, hours, monitoring). For more information, contact CISPES at (212) 229-1290 or cispesnatl@igc.org. Global Sweatshop Curriculum PacketMore than 60 pages of useful information, including:
Separate versions for the U.S. and Canada. There is nothing else like this available. The sweatshop curriculum packet is campaign-oriented. It presents a highly abstract concept -- global economics -- in concrete terms. Throughout the packet, issues are framed with reference to two specific campaigns dealing with child labor (FoulBall and Rugmark) and three specific campaigns dealing with sweatshop practices (Nike, Disney, Guess). The packet discusses sweatshop issues both at home and overseas. For use in classrooms for 4th through 12th grade students. The material is not divided by grade levels. Instead, teachers are invited to select and adapt as appropriate for their students. Pre-Pay Only: $12.50 (US) to U.S. addresses, $20.00 (Canadian) to Canadian addresses. Send check or money order to Campaign for Labor Rights, 1470 Irving Street, NW, Washington, DC 20010. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
