LOCAL FLORIDA GROUP PROTESTS UNION-BUSTING IN CENTRAL AMERICA
 

The Global Justice Group of South Florida distributed leaflets at three Target stores in Broward and Palm Beach counties in July protesting sweatshop conditions at the company's factories in Central America. The tri-county group of social activists responded to a "rapid response request" from the Campaign for Labor Rights, a clearinghouse of US NGO activity, to support Nicaraguan workers. The flyers read:

I am concerned that the Kohl's and Target clothing chains have refused to take corrective action even though serious sweatshop abuses have been brought to the attention of company management. Please tell your headquarters that concerned consumers want Kohl's and Target to use their leverage with the Mil Colores factory (produces for Kohl's and Target) and the Chentex factory (produces for Kohl's) in Nicaragua.

Rehire all fired union workers;
Drop charges against the 68 workers;
Recognize and bargain with the unions.
Your company has leverage.
Use it. Don't cut and run!

The balance between labor and management has never been equal in Central America. The region's unions are traditionally weak, with some significant exceptions in the public sector and banana companies. Repression of unions was part of the conflictive past of authoritarian regimes in the region. More recently, weak administration of justice has contributed to the denial of worker rights, especially in the maquilas, most of which produce garments for export to the US and European markets. International solidarity has provided a modicum of balance in the last decade; US and European NGOs have supported attempts to redress the region's inequities as most Central American countries struggle to establish working democracies.

In the past few years, however, some of the miniscule gains made by maquila workers in factory organization and collective bargaining appear to have been reversed. The trend started with the closing of the Phillips Van Heusen Camisas Modernas factory in Guatemala on December 12, 1998. This was the first factory with a collective bargaining agreement in that country's maquila sector. The closure of a factory owned by a major manufacturing concern, despite the international uproar it produced, "chilled" unionization campaigns in Guatemala and emboldened anti-union efforts throughout the region. Phillips Van Heusen moved production to non-union contractors, eliminating the union that had symbolized the resurgence of the right of workers to organize.

Similar problems arose months later in Honduras, despite the fact that the workers at the Korean-owned and operated Kimi factory (a JC Penney supplier) had ratified a contract. Production was being shifted to Guatemala, and it became clear that the owners had no intention of honoring their commitment to the workers. What followed was a long battle involving US NGOs and consumer pressure. Ultimately, 175 workers lost their jobs when the company shifted production definitively to Guatemala in May. 

One of the principal supporters and architects of Central American union solidarity is the US Labor Education in the Americas Project. As this organization states on its website (www.usleap.org), "The Kimi success before the factory closing is a good illustration of the importance of developing close coordination between campaign support activities in the North with solid organizing efforts on the ground by the workers themselves. Without international support and attention, the Kimi organizing efforts would probably have failed near the beginning just as others had. But without effective organizing efforts on the ground, these struggles would have collapsed even with extensive international support. That this model is being destroyed by the company is alarming and threatens other organizing drives in the area."

The trend has already reached Nicaragua, where, according to the Campaign for Labor Rights (http://www.summersault.com/~agj/clr/), the owners of at least four clothing factories in the Las Mercedes free trade zone are engaged in a campaign to eliminate unions. The organization alleges that the factory owners have the support of Nicaragua's Labor Ministry and the Las Mercedes management. It details blatant union-busting actions at the following factories:

* Mil Colores: More than 200 workers have been fired and 68 face trumped-up criminal charges.
* Jem III: More than 100 workers have been fired.
* Chih Hsing: The registration of the union has been canceled and two union officers have been fired.
* Chentex: The consortium that owns this and other factories in the free trade zone raised wages at all of its factories except Chentex, the only factory in the consortium where workers have a contract and a strong union.

A coalition has been established to coordinate US solidarity with workers in Las Mercedes. The group includes: Nicaragua Network, Witness for Peace, National Labor Committee, US Labor Education in the Americas Project, Quixote Center/Quest for Peace, Tecnica, West Side/Tipitapa Sister City Project and the Campaign for Labor Rights.

AmericasNet will continue to follow this conflict as it develops in an attempt to discover the underlying causes of the alleged union-busting. Could the area's maquilas be trying to limit union gains and intimidate their workers before the new worker rights language of CBI-NAFTA parity takes effect on October 1, 2000?