HONDURAS: Workers celebrate historic victory
Monday, 23 November 2009 13:22
Workers from the Honduran factory that has been the centre of a global anti sweatshop campaign are celebrating what commentators are calling one of the biggest ever victories of the global anti sweatshop movement. On the 14th November leaders from SITRAJEERZESH, the union representing the Jeerzes workers signed a historic agreement with Russell Athletic, the US-based company that ran the Jeerzes de Honduras factory that will see all workers compensated and re-employed by the company nine months after the JDH factory closed its doors.
The historic agreement is intended to repair the damage caused by Russell Athletic's decision to close the JDH factory during collective bargaining last January, which resulted in 1,200 workers being unjustly laid off by the company and was widely condemned as an attempt to bust the union. It commits the company to opening a new apparel factory in the Choloma area, re-employing all of the former JDH workers in its Honduran factories over the next year, paying out substantial economic assistance to the former JDH workers, conducting worker rights and freedom of association training in its factories and signing neutrality agreements to open the door for worker organizing at all of Fruit of the Loom's other Honduran facilities. Fruit of the Loom is the largest private sector employer in Honduras owning eight factories and employing over 10,000 workers.
The campaign to re-open the factory was launched after a report by the US labour monitoring group, the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) concluded that the factory closure had been motivated at least in part by a desire to get rid of the union from the factory. The report was based on several investigations done by the WRC following a complaint from the union about freedom of association violations at the Russell facility.
Labour Behind the Label worked with student campaigners People and Planet to call on universities and student unions in the UK to boycott Fruit of the Loom and Russell Athletic apparel until the factory was reopened. This action followed a similar call by the American anti sweatshop group, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) and the Canadian campaign group Maquila Solidarity Network which led to the cancellation of contracts by some of its biggest univeristy customers in the US and Canada. The campaign included actions at Fruit of the Loom headquarters, a transatlantic phone and email blockade of Russell/Fruit of the Loom offices in the US and Europe. 9 UK universities and over 100 universities worldwide boycotted Fruit of the Loom/Russell making it the largest garment boycott campaign in history.
“For us, it was very important to receive the support of the universities,” Moises Alvarado, president of the union at the closed plant in Choloma told the New York Times on Tuesday “We are impressed by the social conscience of the students." A joint statement from the company and the union said the agreement was “intended to foster workers’ rights in Honduras and establish a harmonious” relationship and "represents a significant achievement in the history of the apparel sector in Honduras and Central America.”
This agreement proves that solidarity between people across the globe can make a real difference, say Sam Maher of labour rights group Labour Behind the Label. When people ask us how individuals here the UK can really help imrove conditions for women making our clothes we can point to victories like these. Every email, every phonecall, every action taken by workers, students and campaigners in this case contributed to a victory that didn't seem possible 9 months ago."
'This is a historic win for the global justice movement' said Fiona Ranford, a campaigner for People & Planet. It's the first time global campaigning has resulted in the reopening of a large factory that a brand has already closed down. It shows that there are consequences to abusing workers rights and that companies can no longer hide their abuses in the shadows. Student pressure can be incredibly effective at regulating an industry famed for abuses.'
