PT Kahatex: Update and Urgent Action request
13
Dec. 2003
Dear
friends,
Your support is urgently needed for the fired workers at PT Kahatex
Sweater Division in Bandung! On October 9 the CCC reported about the actions undertaken
in among others Germany and Austria to pressure companies Tom Tailor and s.Oliver
to rehire the 537 workers who were locked out after going on strike to demand
that they be paid the minimum wage and that other legal rights be implemented.
At and earlier stage H&M and Nike, the other main buyers, already agreed to
cooperate with the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) and local groups to investigate
matters.
Developments
since then include: In early October 200 new workers were hired, but
only 40 out of those were among the originally fired workers. H&M and Nike
have responded positively to pressure, and on October 13 successfully pushed Kahatex
Management to agree to rehire all 537 workers. Management however claimed that
it would only be possible to start reemploying people after the Ramadan break
ends (Dec. 3rd), and with the condition that the brands or workers first submit
a complete list of ALL workers requesting reemployment.
A
first list of 93 workers was submitted to PT Kahatex by H&M in the last week
of October, other workers have not yet submitted their names due to fear of further
retaliation and other disincentives resulting from PT Kahatex management's lack
of trustworthiness thus far. It was deemed unacceptable by the workers, their
local support organizations, and some buyers to wait until after Ramadan to begin
the promised reemployment process. H&M and Nike agreed to keep pressuring
management to reinstate the first 93 workers immediately, but shamefully Kahatex
did not reinstate even a single worker before the break. What's even more appalling
is that the break is now almost two weeks past yet there still hasn't been any
forward movement on behalf of Kahatex management.
After continued pressure
from the German and Austrian CCC, the German companies also (finally) started
to respond. At s.Oliver's request, Systain, a German social audit company owned
by Otto Versand, conducted an audit. The audit took place on 16th September 2003
but according to the CCC the report contains many inconsistencies and incorrect
information, which CCC communicated to s.Oliver and Systain on the 2nd of October.
A subsequent meeting between CCC, s.Oliver and Systain took place on October 24,
in which s.Oliver promised to talk to Kahatex Sweater about reemployment of all
workers.
Meanwhile, Tom Tailor finally contacted PT Kahatex end of November,
saying that they would place new orders if the workers were reinstated. CCC welcomed
this position and asked Tom Tailor to become more active.
On the 4th of
December a meeting between S.Oliver, Tom Tailor and Kahatex Sweater Division took
place. It's shocking that the outcome of the meeting (presented as a "milestone"
by the German company s.Oliver) was that Kahatex Sweater would give no real guarantees
for re-hiring any of the workers and that, according to the opinion of the attendees
of this meeting, eventual reemployment might take place in subcontracting facilities,
would be entirely conditional upon new orders to Kahatex and upon the CCC "revoking"
its international campaign for reinstatement of all Kahatex Sweater workers.
This
outcome is clearly unacceptable, and CCC has since communicated this to Tom Tailor
and S. Oliver, asking them to urgently contact Kahatex management to inform them
that they expect Kahatex to immediately rehire the 93 workers from the original
list and subsequently all the other fired workers concerned. Furthermore the CCC
has demanded that a meeting take place not later than the 22nd of December between
representatives of the dismissed workers to discuss the timeline for the reinstatement
of the remaining 350-400 workers.
On 5th of December the local CCC group
in Hamburg organized another action, which received good media attention. Regarding
the other companies: Olsen declares not to produce anymore at Kahatex for more
than a year, this however contradicts other findings and Olsen should investigate
the matter (possibly there is illegal subcontracting) and in any case they should
make an effort to support reemployment of the workers. Lerros has not responded
to any of the CCC's inquires.
In summary, several brands, most notably H&M
and Nike, and (in a later stage) Tom Tailor and S. Oliver continue to pressure
the PT Kahatex management regarding their promise to find these workers jobs again
within the Kaha Group. The situation however is becoming extremely difficult for
the workers, many of whom will have to leave the area unless progress is made
soon.
What can you do?
1. Write to
the top PT Kahatex managers in charge of this case (Mr.
Song, Mr. Trisna, and Mr. Haruman) TODAY stating that
you expect them to:
