Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #1013, November 22, 2009

1. Honduras: Solidarity Wins for Maquila Workers
2. Honduras: Isolated, De Factos Prepare for Vote
3. US: SOA Protest Highlights Honduras, El Salvador
4. Haiti: UN Troops Shoot Again
5. Links to alternative sources on: Economic Crisis, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico

ISSN#: 1084‑922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate [at] gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/

*1. Honduras: Solidarity Wins for Maquila Workers
On Nov. 17 the US-based United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) announced an agreement with Russell Athletic of Atlanta for the sports apparel maker to rehire 1,200 workers it laid off in January when it closed its Jerzees de Honduras plant soon after the workers joined a union. Russell, a subsidiary of Kentucky-based Fruit of the Loom, is to open a new maquiladora (tax-exempt assembly plant producing largely for export) in the same area as the old plant, the Choloma region of the northwestern Honduran department of Cortés. The new plant will be called Jerzees Nuevo Día (“Jerzees New Day”).

The agreement is the biggest win to date for the decade-old student movement against sweatshops, which organized at nearly 100 North American campuses to force colleges to end licensing agreements for Russell sportswear because of the company’s labor violations. The workers were represented by the local Union of Empresa Jerzees Workers (SITRAJERZEESH) and the national General Workers Central (CGT). Although the most conservative of the three main Honduran labor confederations, the CGT has been active in the resistance to a June 28 military coup that removed President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales from office; Honduran business owners generally supported the coup [see Updates #997, 1000]. [...]

Read the full Update:
http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/2009/11/wnu-1013-solidarity-wins-for-honduran.html