Action
request for Tainan, El Salvador
Dear Friends,
10 May 2002, Please find below an appeal for action in the
case of the Tainan factory in El Salvador. The facility that
is the focus of the action request below is part of the same
group -- Tainan Enterprises, a Taiwan-based manufacturing company
that operates factories in China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Tawian,
and El Salvador, that was the focus of a 1999
CCC appeal for action when numerous labor rights violations
were reported at PT Tainan in Indonesia.
This action request, on behalf of the Sindicato de Trabajadores
de la Industria Testiles (Industrial Union of Textile Workers)
in El Salvador, is compiled from reports provided by the Campaign
for Labor Rights and US/LEAP in the United States. Please contact
them for additional information.
Tainan - Gap Factory in El Salvador
On April 26 the management of the Tainan factory in El Salvador
announced through an article in local newspapers that workers
who had been suspended from the factory would NOT be returning
to their jobs. The workers in the Tainan factory have been organizing
a union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Industria Textiles
(STIT) or the Industrial Union of Textile Workers, in the second
of the two plants at Tainan for almost two years. STIT obtained
legal recognition in July 2001 and had just submitted a request
to the Labor Ministry for collective bargaining rights when
the management made the announcement that it would close the
factory. Tainan then began to dismantle machinery in the factory
and initiated the legal process of dissolving the company. The
company had been suspending workers since last August claiming
lack of orders, though the union has evidence that the factory
was receiving work and sending it to other factories. Suspensions
escalated sharply at the beginning of April after a meeting
between the Labor Ministry, the company, and the union in which
the company announced that it would offer full severance benefits
to anyone who would voluntarily resign. If workers didn't resign,
they would be suspended. Tainan El Salvador produces for many
US retail companies - its primary customer world-wide is the
Gap.
Tainan Enterprises operates factories in China, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Taiwan, and El Salvador. It has operated the factory in El Salvador
for two years. Now, just as the union in El Salvador requests
permission for a collective bargaining agreement, the parent
company says it has insufficient orders for its Salvadoran plants
and is closing the facility that has an active union organizing
campaign. The workers at Tainan El Salvador suffer forced overtime,
harassment, and low wages at the factory. Those who support
the union hope that a union will empower them to both speak
out and end the on-going violations of their rights.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Tainan Enterprises must resume operations
in Salvador IMMEDIATELY, rehire all union workers, and negotiate
in good faith. Anything less indicates that Tainan Enterprises
is a union-busting manufacturing company.
* Contact Tainan Enterprises in Taiwan. Ask the parent company
to respect worker rights by reopening the factory, rehiring
all the union workers, and negotiating with the union in good
faith.
Fax: 011-886-6-230-6722
e-mail: lindy@mail.tainantn.com.tw
* Contact the Taiwanese government. Inform the Taiwanese government
of your concerns about worker rights violations at Tainan and
ask the government to urge the company to respect worker rights,
rehire all union workers, reopen the factory, and negotiate
with the union in good faith. Suggest that Tainan is giving
Taiwanese companies in the region a negative reputation. Contact:
His Excellency Ho, Ping-fu, Ambassador of the Republic of China
in El Salvador at
Email: sinoemb4@sv.cciglobal.net.
General Email: gioensal@sv.cciglobal.net
Fax: 011-503-264-6075;
* Mail:
Oficina del Consejero de Prensa Embajada de Republica de China
Apartado Postal (06)994
San Salvador, El Salvador, C. A.
Copy to: Ms. Victoria H.P. Hsieh, Economic Advisor of the
Taiwanese Embassy in El Salvador via the general email: gioensal@sv.cciglobal.net;
Fax to 011-503- 264-6099; or write to the address above.
For more information, contact Campaign for Labor Rights
clr@afgj.org, or US/LEAP,
www.usleap.org
