Exposed for sweatshop abuses and union-busting, gucci parent company tries to cut-and-run

Update Brylane/PPR case -- August 2002

Please find below a request for action posted by the Campaign for Labor Rights in relation to labor rights violations at subsidiaries and factories producing for the French multinational Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR). In an earlier message (April 2002) we asked you take action in the PPR/Brylane case (also mentioned below). Some of you who have written letters of protest to PPR have received responses from them denying allegations of anti-union activity at their Brylane distribution center in Indiana, in the United States. For your reference included below is the letter that the CCC sent to PPR, responding to their denials. This case is ongoing. Since we first posted an appeal for action, the U.S. union UNITE has filed a complaint charging PPR with violating the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (see press release below), and continues to call for pressure to be put on PPR. If you'd like more information on the situation at Brylane, please take a look at the CCC website -- where you can find the complaint to the OECD and other background information on this case. More information and requests for action in relation to labor rights violations at other PPR subsidiaries will be circulated in coming weeks.

The CLR alert below directly links you to a protest letter that will be faxed to PPR - please take a moment right now to send a message to PPR that union-busting is unacceptable.

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Exposed for sweatshop abuses and union-busting, gucci parent company tries to cut-and-run

source: CLR Labor Alert

posted July 2, 2002

Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, the French multinational apparel company known for major brands like Gucci, Brylane, FNAC, Yves Saint-Laurent, and Ellos, is also becoming known for union-busting and sweatshop conditions at its subsidiary operations and supplier factories around the world.

At PPR's Brylane distribution center in Indianapolis, Indiana, managers are waging a campaign of intimidation, discrimination and harassment aimed at preventing workers from exercising their right to choose a union. Brylane workers are coming together with the union, UNITE, to win a voice at work and end unsafe conditions in their jobs, including an ergonomic injury rate more than 18 times the industry average.

But PPR's mistreatment of workers extends beyond its own operations. A recent report has revealed that poverty wages, excessive hours and unsafe conditions can be found at PPR supplier factories all across Asia. At a factory supplying PPR in the Philippines, workers earn the equivalent of about $3.25 US a day -- less than that country s legal minimum wage. Moreover, the company cheats the workers of wages and benefits, by keeping them on temporary status for well beyond the six month maximum allowed under Philippine law.

At another PPR supplier in Tirupur, India, some workers earn barely 10 cents per hour hardly a fifth of what is considered necessary to support a family. Some workers have to work 13 hours per day, six days per week for a total of nearly 80 hours per week, just to make ends meet.

After a report by CFIE (Le Centre Français d'Information sur les Entreprises, a French organization that reports on the social responsibility of French companies) revealed these abuses, an international coalition of unionists and labor rights supporters demanded that PPR work with suppliers to remedy these conditions. But despite explicit appeals that the company not cancel orders from these factories, PPR is attempting to run away from the bad publicity by cutting-and-running from their supply factories.

In June, Retail Week magazine reported PPR Chief Executive Officer, Serge Weinberg saying, Following the allegations, PPR had re-contacted the companies and ceased to trade with them. Rather than helping end to the illegal and abusive conditions faced by the workers who made its products, PPR is now trying to punish workers who told the truth about their working conditions!

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TAKE ACTION NOW!

Trade unions and worker rights activists around the world are demanding that PPR take responsibility for ending union-busting and sweatshop abuses at its suppliers and subsidiaries.

Instead of running away from its problems, PPR needs to recognize engage in good faith dialogue with trade unions and other labor rights advocates to fix the violations that have been reported and to adopt effective global standards and mechanisms to ensure basic rights and decent conditions for its workers worldwide.

**ACT NOW IT S EASY!Just click on the link below and fill out the information on the form that appears. Add a subject line to the letter in the space provided, and your fax will automatically be sent to the company.

Tell PPR to: Stop Sweatshops, Stop Union-Busting, Don t Cut-and Run!Demand that PPR respect workers rights at Brylane and around the world. To send a message to Brylane/PPR executives go to:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/brylaneppr