INTERNATIONAL LABOR

Vol. 8, No. 2
April, 1999



	INTERNATIONAL LABOR NEWS UNITE Fights Closure of Unionized Factory in Guatemala In Guatemala, more than 80,000 garment workers produce clothes for the apparel-for-export industry. Most are young women working in unsafe and unhealthy conditions for wages that average 60 cents an hour. They are often pressured relentlessly by supervisors, forced to work many hours of overtime without additional pay and fired if they dare to complain. In 1997, more than 500 workers won a six-year struggle to obtain a union contract at CAMOSA, a Guatemalan factory run by Philips-Van Heusen (PVH), the leading shirtmaker in the United States. CAMOSA became the one and only apparel-for-export factory in Guatemala to have signed a union contract. The workers won major improvements under the contract, including a substantial wage increase, from $56 a week to $71; subsidies for child care; better working conditions and a ban on forced overtime. However, last December, workers arrived at the factory to find locked doors and 30 armed guards patrolling the factory grounds. A notice from the factory's management on the door informed them that "the healthy future of the company requires that we do what we are doing today." Since the CAMOSA plant closing, workers have kept an around-the-clock vigil in front of the factory, withstanding cold and hunger, demanding that PVH reopen the factory. Demonstrations are being staged around the United States in front of PVH stores, organized by anti-sweatshop activists. UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) has been one of the strongest defenders of the rights of Guatemalan workers and has been promoting their cause in the United States. It is the sponsor of a tour by two women CAMOSA workers who are sharing their story with university students, investors, union members, religious groups and other anti-sweatshop activists. The factory closing is particularly disturbing in light of PVH's role as a founding member of the Apparel Industry Partnership, a task force that includes apparel companies and non-governmental advisory groups. Rather than eliminating sweatshops, PVH's actions contribute to the downward spiral of international labor standards and the creation of more sweatshops at home and abroad. Japanese Can't Count on Lifetime Jobs For decades, it was part of the unstated social contract that when a Japanese worker was hired by a company, he could expect to work there until he retired. It was part of the nation's culture to have a humane policy toward its work force and, in return, companies would receive loyalty and hard work from their employees. Thus, from the end of World War II until just a few years ago, Japan had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. With the country suffering from seven years of economic recession, all that has changed. There are now 2.9 million Japanese looking for work and their number is growing. Almost twice as many people are looking for jobs as there are job openings. The unemployment rate stands at 4.1 percent, still low compared with the rates in Western countries. To keep unemployment from rising further, the government offers generous subsidies to companies to keep workers on their payrolls. In many cases, financially struggling companies have cut wages substantially to keep from closing their doors. Workers at age 45 and over have been particularly hard hit by the mass layoffs. Even more than the loss of income, they feel the shame and humiliation of being forced into the ranks of the jobless, a fate that seemed impossible just a few years ago. Younger workers who have been laid off are turning to vocational schools to learn an occupation where there is still some demand for labor, such as hotel and and restaurant services, health care, computer operator and business accounting. AFL-CIO Speaks Out on Global Crisis Declaring that the world faces the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the AFL-CIO Executive Council has called for emergency action to restructure the global economy. The labor federation's statement grimly noted that "40 percent of the world's output is in recession. Japan's decade-long slump threatens to turn into a full-scale collapse; the Asian tigers are decimated, the Russian economy has imploded and the contagion threatens to spread still further." Referring to the situation in the United States, the statement said: "The loss of manufacturing jobs has accelerated — over 150,000 since last January — our trade deficit has soared, and turmoil in financial markets reflects sharply reduced consumer confidence." The AFL-CIO proposed: • "A transformed IMF and World Bank that focuses on financing growth and broad-based prosperity. Both the 'moral hazard' of bailing out creditors who helped to cause the crisis, and the 'immoral hazard' of enforcing austerity on the workers must be ended." • "Trade, investment and other multilateral economic agreements must be written to assure that the promise of global growth does. not become an ugly race to the bottom as investors seek the most exploitable worker in the most degradable environment. Firm, enforceable rules that protect workers' rights, environmental standards and health and safety must routinely be incorporated in all such agreements. " Disney: An Exploiter in China Chinese factory workers who manufacture clothes, hats and shoes for the Walt Disney Co. are forced to work intolerably long hours for poverty-level wages, according to a report by the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (HKCIC). After eight months of investigation, researchers found that factory managers routinely violate both Chinese labor laws and Disney's own Code of Conduct for Manufacturers on wages, overtime and contract protections. Human rights groups say that conditions in these Disney factories need to be monitored by an independent agency if the abusive treatment of workers is to be rectified. The HKCIC report is based on interviews with dozens of Chinese workers from four factories manufacturing Disney products. Workers at one factory said that they regularly worked 16-hour days, seven days a week during periods of peak production, despite Chinese laws that limit the workweek to 49 hours. In one factory, workers couldn't afford to go home because they hadn't been paid for three months. The HKCIC report states that at all factories, workers are forced to pay management "deposits" or "entrance fees" just to be able to work; at one factory. workers lost their deposit if they did not stay at a factory for at least two years; at another factory workers had to pay a "tool deposit." At the four Disney factories, workers earn between 13.5 and 36 cents an hour, depending on their job and the production schedule; but workers must earn 87 cents an hour to meet the basic needs of a small family in a major Chinese city. The HKCIC report clearly demonstrates that Disney and other companies with manufacturing operations in China cannot be relied on to police themselves in regard to wages, hours and working conditions of their Chinese workers.

INTERNATIONAL LABOR NEWS

UNITE Fights Closure of
Unionized Factory in Guatemala

In Guatemala, more than 80,000 garment workers produce clothes for the apparel-for-export industry. Most are young women working in unsafe and unhealthy conditions for wages that average 60 cents an hour. They are often pressured relentlessly by supervisors, forced to work many hours of overtime without additional pay and fired if they dare to complain.

In 1997, more than 500 workers won a six-year struggle to obtain a union contract at CAMOSA, a Guatemalan factory run by Philips-Van Heusen (PVH), the leading shirtmaker in the United States. CAMOSA became the one and only apparel-for-export factory in Guatemala to have signed a union contract. The workers won major improvements under the contract, including a substantial wage increase, from $56 a week to $71; subsidies for child care; better working conditions and a ban on forced overtime.

However, last December, workers arrived at the factory to find locked doors and 30 armed guards patrolling the factory grounds. A notice from the factory's management on the door informed them that "the healthy future of the company requires that we do what we are doing today."

Since the CAMOSA plant closing, workers have kept an around-the-clock vigil in front of the factory, withstanding cold and hunger, demanding that PVH reopen the factory. Demonstrations are being staged around the United States in front of PVH stores, organized by anti-sweatshop activists.

UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) has been one of the strongest defenders of the rights of Guatemalan workers and has been promoting their cause in the United States. It is the sponsor of a tour by two women CAMOSA workers who are sharing their story with university students, investors, union members, religious groups and other anti-sweatshop activists.

The factory closing is particularly disturbing in light of PVH's role as a founding member of the Apparel Industry Partnership, a task force that includes apparel companies and non-governmental advisory groups. Rather than eliminating sweatshops, PVH's actions contribute to the downward spiral of international labor standards and the creation of more sweatshops at home and abroad.

Japanese Can't Count on Lifetime Jobs
For decades, it was part of the unstated social contract that when a Japanese worker was hired by a company, he could expect to work there until he retired. It was part of the nation's culture to have a humane policy toward its work force and, in return, companies would receive loyalty and hard work from their employees. Thus, from the end of World War II until just a few years ago, Japan had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world.

With the country suffering from seven years of economic recession, all that has changed. There are now 2.9 million Japanese looking for work and their number is growing. Almost twice as many people are looking for jobs as there are job openings. The unemployment rate stands at 4.1 percent, still low compared with the rates in Western countries.

To keep unemployment from rising further, the government offers generous subsidies to companies to keep workers on their payrolls. In many cases, financially struggling companies have cut wages substantially to keep from closing their doors. Workers at age 45 and over have been particularly hard hit by the mass layoffs.

Even more than the loss of income, they feel the shame and humiliation of being forced into the ranks of the jobless, a fate that seemed impossible just a few years ago.

Younger workers who have been laid off are turning to vocational schools to learn an occupation where there is still some demand for labor, such as hotel and and restaurant services, health care, computer operator and business accounting.

AFL-CIO Speaks Out on Global Crisis
Declaring that the world faces the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the AFL-CIO Executive Council has called for emergency action to restructure the global economy.

The labor federation's statement grimly noted that "40 percent of the world's output is in recession. Japan's decade-long slump threatens to turn into a full-scale collapse; the Asian tigers are decimated, the Russian economy has imploded and the contagion threatens to spread still further."

Referring to the situation in the United States, the statement said: "The loss of manufacturing jobs has accelerated — over 150,000 since last January — our trade deficit has soared, and turmoil in financial markets reflects sharply reduced consumer confidence." The AFL-CIO proposed:

• "A transformed IMF and World Bank that focuses on financing growth and broad-based prosperity. Both the 'moral hazard' of bailing out creditors who helped to cause the crisis, and the 'immoral hazard' of enforcing austerity on the workers must be ended."

• "Trade, investment and other multilateral economic agreements must be written to assure that the promise of global growth does. not become an ugly race to the bottom as investors seek the most exploitable worker in the most degradable environment. Firm, enforceable rules that protect workers' rights, environmental standards and health and safety must routinely be incorporated in all such agreements. "

Disney: An Exploiter in China

Chinese factory workers who manufacture clothes, hats and shoes for the Walt Disney Co. are forced to work intolerably long hours for poverty-level wages, according to a report by the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (HKCIC). After eight months of investigation, researchers found that factory managers routinely violate both Chinese labor laws and Disney's own Code of Conduct for Manufacturers on wages, overtime and contract protections.

Human rights groups say that conditions in these Disney factories need to be monitored by an independent agency if the abusive treatment of workers is to be rectified. The HKCIC report is based on interviews with dozens of Chinese workers from four factories manufacturing Disney products. Workers at one factory said that they regularly worked 16-hour days, seven days a week during periods of peak production, despite Chinese laws that limit the workweek to 49 hours. In one factory, workers couldn't afford to go home because they hadn't been paid for three months.

The HKCIC report states that at all factories, workers are forced to pay management "deposits" or "entrance fees" just to be able to work; at one factory. workers lost their deposit if they did not stay at a factory for at least two years; at another factory workers had to pay a "tool deposit."

At the four Disney factories, workers earn between 13.5 and 36 cents an hour, depending on their job and the production schedule; but workers must earn 87 cents an hour to meet the basic needs of a small family in a major Chinese city. The HKCIC report clearly demonstrates that Disney and other companies with manufacturing operations in China cannot be relied on to police themselves in regard to wages, hours and working conditions of their Chinese workers.

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