Levi Strauss jeans company must press Grupo M to end violations of workers' rights in Hait

Grupo M, the Dominican company which has for many years supplied Levi Strauss & Co, in August 2003 opened a new factory in neighbouring Haiti to assemble Levi's 505 and 555 jeans. In January 2004, the World Bank's International Finance Corporation agreed to lend Grupo M US$20million to help its venture in Haiti - with the proviso that workers' rights be respected.

Two to these rights, to organise and to bargain collectively, are - the Haiti Support Group is very pleased to note - clearly enshrined as key employment standards in Levi Strauss & Co.'s Global Sourcing and Operating Guidelines. However information provided by a team of independent observers monitoring labour relations at the Grupo M factory in Haiti since the beginning of May reveals that workers have been badly treated. When they took collective action to defend their rights at the beginning of June, Grupo M used mass firings to try and break the workers' union

In the June 30th letter to Levi Strauss & Co., Haiti Support Group director, Charles Arthur referred to the independent monitors' reports of "relentless increases in daily production quotas", "intimidation, provocation, and humiliation" of workers by the factory management, and the establishment of a "climate of terror"on the factory floor.

When, in early June, the workers' union, Sokowa, took strike action to defend themselves, Grupo M responded by first calling in soldiers from the Dominican Army to rough up and intimidate the workforce, and then proceeded to dismiss over 350 workers - nearly half of the entire workforce!

Since then, the Haiti Support Group wrote, "We understand that Grupo M has continued to fire workers from the plant assembling Levi's jeans - a further 18 workers have been dismissed since the mass firing of June 11th. We are also informed that Grupo M is still refusing to negotiate with the union, either about remedying the abuses of recent weeks or about the introduction of new working practices which workers are told to accept or be dismissed."

The Haiti Support Group is calling on the Levi Strauss company to exert the appropriate pressure on its supplier, Grupo M, which is clearly not adhering to its Global Sourcing and Operating Guidelines.

Grupo M runs extensive garment assembly operations in the Dominican Republic, and Levi Strauss & Co. sources jeans from there, as well as from Haiti. The Haiti Support Group notes that it is therefore relatively easy for Levi Strauss & Co. to apply pressure on Grupo M, and concludes that the company's continued failure to do so is seriously damaging its international reputation.

Contact: Charles Arthur
director, the Haiti Support Group, London, UK.
email: haitisupport [at] gn.apc.org


Participate in the Labourstart email campaign in support of the Sokowa union:
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=30


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This email is forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group.

See the Haiti Support Group web site:
http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org

Solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for justice, participatory democracy and equitable development, since 1992.
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