Dec 2004, FLA Recognizes Action Taken by Gildan; Still More to be Done

FLA Recognizes Action Taken by Gildan; Still More to be Done

Canadian T-shirt company still must address El Progreso Rights Violations

December 16, 2004

Dear Friends,

On December 10, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) Board of Directors announced it was reinstating Canadian T-shirt manufacturer Gildan Activewear as an FLA Participating Company. Gildan’s membership had been challenged due to failure to comply with good labor standards at its El Progreso facility in Honduras. Gildan was threatened with termination of its FLA membership unless it took specific action, set out in an Oct. 26 resolution from the FLA. According to the FLA’s statement, Gildan has taken “substantial steps … to meet the conditions specified by the FLA Board in its Resolution of October 26, 2004.” For more information on the Oct. 26 resolution, please see the previous update on this case (Nov. 16) and the statement below.

Gildan still has a lot of work to do to address the rights violations at El Progreso and to ensure that workers at all Gildan supply facilities are able to exercise their rights. The CCC will continue to monitor developments in this case and will post a request for action should additional pressure on Gildan be needed. The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN), based in Canada, has been working closely on this case during recent months and released the following statement regarding last week’s FLA decision.

MSN RESPONSE TO FLA DECISION
(source: MSN, Dec. 13, 2004)

“MSN agrees that Gildan has taken a number of steps to meet the FLA Board’s six conditions for continued membership. At the same time, MSN believes that the central issue that prompted our original complaint to the FLA – the unjust firing of approximately 100 union supporters at Gildan’s El Progreso plant in Honduras – has not yet been adequately addressed.

For that reason, MSN was encouraged that the FLA Board’s statement called on Gildan to grant first-hire preference to former Gildan El Progreso employees at current Gildan factories in Honduras and at a future Gildan plant in that country “in order to fully restore their rights and complete the remediation.”

On December 13, Gildan announced that it intends to start a new sewing plant in Honduras and will “attempt in good faith and where practical to preferentially reintegrate workers from its El Progreso sewing facility.” We would urge Gildan to enter into discussions with the FLA, the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), MSN and local Honduran groups on how to effectively implement this new commitment in a manner that fully restores the rights of Gildan El Progreso workers, including unjustly fired union supporters, and completes remediation. MSN will continue to urge that Gildan provide former Gildan El Progreso workers first-hire preference at all Gildan manufacturing facilities in Honduras and makes public this commitment in Honduras as well as in North America.

MSN continues to believe that Gildan’s decision to close its El Progeso plant in the midst of a third party complaint was totally unacceptable and gave a clear message to all Gildan workers that if they try to organize to improve conditions they will be fired and if they speak honestly to auditors their factory will be closed. Offering first-hire preference to the former El Progreso workers, including fired union supporters, would go a long way toward repairing the damage caused by Gildan’s decision to close the factory.

In order to ensure that a satisfactory corrective action plan has been fully implemented, steps taken by Gildan to achieve remediation will need to be verified by the FLA and the WRC, which also carried out an investigation at Gildan El Progreso.

Corrective action that still requires verification includes:

payment of full back pay and severance pay to all 39 union supporters unjustly fired in October/November 2003;
application of the corrective action plan at the other Gildan factories in Honduras concerning compliance with legal requirements on hours of work, overtime pay, holidays and vacations, and women’s rights;
effective communication to all Gildan’s Honduran employees on the company’s commitment to respect their right to freedom of association; and
offering first-hire preference at other Gildan factories to former Gildan El Progreso workers, including fired union supporters.

The sixth condition set by the FLA Board of Directors was that Gildan constructively engage in discussions with the Maquila Solidarity Network on issues related to Gildan’s implementation of the FLA Standards. On November 25, representatives of Gildan Activewear, the Honduran Independent Monitoring Team (EMIH), and MSN met in Nicaragua to review the steps Gildan had taken to meet the conditions of the FLA Board and to remediate the worker rights violations documented by the FLA audit. Representatives of MSN and Gildan also had a preliminary face-to-face meeting and two phone meetings.

MSN believes that Gildan senior management participated in these meetings in good faith and demonstrated a willingness to engage in constructive dialogue. This is in sharp contrast to Gildan’s past practice. We hope that recent discussions will lead to more productive relationships between Gildan and MSN, but also between the company and local NGOs and labour groups in Honduras and other countries. Involvement of credible local NGOs in ongoing labour rights and gender training would be an important step in this direction.

At the same time, MSN believes the test of whether Gildan Activewear is constructively engaging with NGOs and labour groups will be the actions Gildan takes to complete remediation in the Gildan El Progreso case and how the company responds to other reports of worker rights issues at other factories. “