Dear Friends, Please find below an update on the ongoing case at the Chentex factory in Nicaragua, provided by the Campaign for Labor Rights in the United States. Note the action request included in this update.

In this Bulletin:

1. Victory at Chentex factory in Nicaragua-Court rules that union leaders must be reinstated to their jobs.
2. Factory Owners Threaten to Cut-and-Run-Nien Hsing representative says factory will close.
3. Call to Action-fax action to pressure Chentex to comply with court ruling and not to cut-and-run from Nicaragua.

{Information in this CLR Labor Bulletin provided by Nicaragua Network, CENIDH, and Witness for Peace}

On Wednesday April 4th at 9:15 am, the Managua Court of Appeals, in a 2 to 1 decision, ruled in favor of Chentex union leaders in their third and final legal appeal to be reinstated to their jobs. Pedro Ortega, General Secretary of the Textile and Garment Workers' Federation (CST-JBE), congratulated the union and the international campaign stating, "This is a victory for us all."

The case was brought before the court by the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) in support of the fired union officers at Chentex Garment Factory in Managua's Las Mercedes Free Trade Zone. The Court ruled that all nine union officers be rehired to their original posts within three days and that they receive 100% of their back pay for the nine months that they have been without work. The Nicaraguan Labor Code prohibits the firing of union officers during collective bargaining negotiations or during a strike resulting from the breakdown of those negotiations.

Bayardo Izaba, an attorney with CENIDH who has been working on the case, stated that this was a final ruling, and it cannot be appealed under Nicaraguan law. Furthermore, Izaba explained that, if the Chentex management does not comply with the order within three days, the factory's assets could be seized.

However, Chentex legal advisor, Doris Escalona, stated that the company will file a "recurso de aclaracion," which is a kind of injunction placed on the court's decision asking the court to explain its ruling. The recurso is viewed by the unionists as a stall tactic that will buy the company time before being forced to reinstate them. The nine union leaders plan to re-enter the factory at 7:00am on Monday morning (April 9). But the recurso may pose an obstacle for them: Next week marks the beginning of Semana Santa (holy week), meaning most Nicaraguan businesses and government offices will be closed. Because of the Semana Santa holiday, the court may not review Chentex's injunction until the middle of the following week. [See the call to action below to find out how you can support the leaders in their attempt to re-enter the factory on Monday.]

Gladys Manzanares, an official of the Chentex union was elated about the union's victory. She is among the union leaders being re-instated, and she said of returning to the factory, "Our first goal is to get the hundreds of other union workers who were fired last year re-hired to the factory." She reports that she and the rest of the union leadership are excited to begin working toward negotiating a wage increase as well as improvements in health and safety inside the factory.

Gladys Manzanares and Pedro Ortega both claim that, "It has been a strategy of the union to ask some of our supporters within the factory to renounce the union so they would not be fired. In this way, we have been able to keep strength within the factory that will surface when the union leadership goes back to work."

Chentex Owners Threaten to Cut-and-Run

The court's ruling came on the same day on which the union and management were to meet to sign an agreement. This agreement would have meant the rehiring of only two of the fired union officers along with twenty other fired workers out of 700 who were fired over several months during 2000. [For more background on the Chentex struggle, check Campaign for Labor Rights web site: http://www.summersault.com/~agj/clr

The meeting where the agreement was to be signed still took place at 5:00pm in the Intercontinental Hotel-hours after the court had announced its decision. In attendance were; Nien Hsing Consortium (owners of Chentex) representative Lucas Huang, consortium legal counsel Doris Escalona, Chentex manager Carlos Yin, Garment Workers Federation General Secretary Pedro Ortega, and Harling Bobadilla and Santiago Villalobos of the Chentex union, among others.

Pedro Ortega reported, "The meeting was very tense. Lucas Huang said that he would not obey the court's ruling. Doris Escalona said that the company would activate the criminal charges against the union officers in the Seventh District Criminal Court of Managua." These criminal charges were to be dropped as a part of the agreement that would have been signed at that meeting.

Pedro Ortega explained to the Chentex delegation that the court's ruling was considered a victory for the Chentex workers and for the international solidarity campaign in the U.S. and Taiwan. "There is no appeal to this ruling", he told Lucas Huang, "Management has to obey it."

Ortega reports that, during the discussion at the meeting, "Lucas Huang became extremely upset. He went so far as to threaten to close the Chentex factory."

According to Nicaraguan law, Chentex would have to gain permission to close the factory from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Labor by proving reasons of financial hardship. If Chentex does not follow this law or the recent court ruling, Nien Hsing (Chentex owners) will lose their assets to the government.

Call to Action: Send faxes to Chentex to pressure them to comply with the court ruling and not to cut-and-run!

Campaign for Labor Rights, along with Witness for Peace, Quest for Peace, US/Labor Education in the Americas Project, and the Nicaragua Network have sent out press releases to all media outfits in Nicaragua praising the court's ruling and encouraging Chentex to comply with it. The idea is that, by generating press coverage in Nicaragua, we may help pressure the Chentex management to comply with the court and allow the nine union leaders to be re-instated.

Campaign for Labor Rights also mobilized its Labor Defense Network today to add to the pressure on Chentex.

The following fax was sent with the signatures of the LDN's 276 subscribers. [For information on the LDN check the Campaign for Labor Rights web site.]

More pressure will be needed to make sure that:

1. The Chentex management allows the nine union leaders to enter the factory on Monday as ruled by the court. 2. Nien Hsing does not close the Chentex factory and move their jeans production to another site.

**Action: Send faxes to the Nien Hsing headquarters in Taiwan. Fax #: 886-37-728361

Sample fax:

Ron Chu Chen, CEO Nien Hsing Textile Co., LTD.

Dear Mr. Chen,

As a labor rights supporter, I have been following the situation at the Chentex factory in Managua, Nicaragua. Over the last months I have been very concerned about the labor rights violations that have occurred in the Chentex factory and have participated in the international campaign to support the workers' right to organize a union.

Today, I am writing to express my profound support of the recent ruling by the Managua Court of Appeals that Chentex must rehire nine of the leaders of the Chentex workers' struggle. As a consumer and an activist for human rights, I would appreciate your compliance with this court decision. This has been a long struggle. Many of the union supporters and leaders have been without work for as many as 11 months. The nine union leaders referred to in the court's ruling must be re-instated when they arrive at Chentex at 7:00am, Monday, April 9, 2001.

I am concerned about Chentex's motion to file a "recurso de aclaracion." This is an obvious stall-tactic that the factory's management is using to postpone the re-instatement of the union leaders. Chentex can not appeal the court's ruling, as it is final according to Nicaraguan law. I would like you to comply with the decision of the highest court in Nicaragua and not prevent the immediate return of the workers.

Further, I am concerned that Nien Hsing Representative, Lucas Huang, has made the threat to close the Chentex factory. The workers and their international support network, of which I am a part, have demanded that your buyers such as Kohl's not lower their level of production at Chentex. Today, I demand that Nien Hsing not cut-and-run from Chentex. I recognize the right to organize a union as a fundamental human right--Chentex workers must not lose their jobs for their efforts to organize.

I thank you in advance for your cooperation with the Chentex union and for not preventing the nine leaders from returning to their jobs on Monday.

Sincerely,

(your name)