Newsbriefs
The Gap Allows Monitors into Maquiladoras NEW YORK, JANUARY 20, 1996 After months of controversy, the Gap has agreed to allow independent monitoring of labor conditions in factories where...
...It is now time for J.C...
...and Haitian businesses...
...In June, 1995, Mandarin fired over 350 workers, including pregnant women and many who had joined the union...
...Over half-a-dozen candidates have emerged from virtually all the party's tendencies...
...At stake is whether the party continues to follow Mufioz Ledo's pursuit of "a negotiated democratic transition," or whether it opts for a more radical confrontation with the country's current rulers, and follows Cirdenas' call for the formation of a "government of national salvation...
...The Gap listened to its consumers and has taken a significant step in accepting direct responsibility for how and under what conditions its products are made...
...Things heated up in November, 1995 during a visit to El Salvador by a delegation of U.S...
...Their objective is not to seize state power, but to fight in the political arena for the 13 original EZLN demands: "housing, land, health, work, bread, education, information, culture, independence, democracy, justice, liberty and peace...
...retail outlets do not generally own the factories where clothes are produced, they have previously shrugged off labor abuses...
...The undergarments are sold at Wal-Mart and smaller retailers...
...If the "government of national salvation" line triumphs, the party will radicalize, challenging not only the corruption and authoritarianism of the PRI, but its free-market model of economic development as well...
...in Haiti: How to Get Rich on 11 an Hour," contact the NLC at 15 Union Square, New York, NY 10003, (212) 242-0700...
...economic assistance if it did not meet coca-eradication targets...
...Because U.S...
...Over the past year, seven people have been killed, scores wounded, and hundreds arrested as a result of conflicts between antinarcotics police and coca growers...
...The coca growers' protests were set off by massive sweeps carried out by Bolivian antinarcotics police in mid-January, in which 300 people were arbitrarily detained...
...Its objective was not to drive the Gap out of El Salvador, but to force it and other U.S...
...Maquiladoras in Haiti Violate MinimumWage Law NEW YORK, JANUARY 30, 1996 M ore than half of the approxI imately 50 assembly firms operating in Haiti are violating the minimum-wage law, according to a new report by the New Yorkbased National Labor Committee (NLC...
...The call to form the FZLN-the Zapatistas' third attempt to form a national organization--is a gauntlet thrown squarely at the feet of the radical followers of the PRD's "moral leader," Cuauht6moc Cirdenas...
...The U.S...
...Penney...
...The accord was negotiated by Oscar Salas, president of the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), Evo Morales, chief representative of the coca growers, and Minister of the Interior Carlos Sanchez Berzafn...
...Its dispatches can be read on-line in the Peacenet con- ferences: ips.espanol and ips.english...
...They fall, however, into two major campsthe moderate followers of current leader Mufioz Ledo, and the more radical followers of Cirdenas...
...To order "The U.S...
...Treating us as though we were the armed wing of the PRD is ridiculous," Marcos responded...
...The shape of Mexico's emerging left hangs in the balance...
...multinational corporations...
...When President Jean-Bertrand Aristide increased the minimum wage on May 4, 1995, many companies avoided complying by simply increasing the production quota...
...InterPress Service Sources Emily Bono is a freelance writer currently based in Kansas City, Missouri...
...labor in general, were interested in closing down Salvadoran maquiladoras in order to protect U.S...
...After nearly a week of government backpedalling, 150 of the women began a hunger strike on January 23...
...Fred Rosen Women Coca Growers Protest Coca Eradication LA PAZ, FEBRUARY 1, 1996 0n January 17, more than 500 campesina women entered La Paz after a 31-day march across the country...
...In order to receive Gap business again, Mandarin will have to reinstate the fired workers and meet with the union leaders at the Salvadoran Ministry of Labor...
...How-and whether-the accord will be implemented remains to be seen...
...National Labor Committee (NLC), the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textiles Employees, and several religious groups organized massive grassroots campaigns in the United States last year to protest working conditions in garmentassembly maquiladoras in Central America...
...Others joined the march as it passed through Las Yungas, another coca-growing region...
...Agency for International Development (U.S.AID) mission in Haiti, recently stated that U.S.AID "has no position" on the violations of the Haitian minimum-wage law...
...Lawrence Crandall, head of the U.S...
...After initially refusing to consider the possibility of independent oversight, the Gap announced in December that it would "explore the viability of an independent industry monitoring program...
...A rift between the two organizations resulted...
...A minimum-wage salary provides less than 60% of the basic needs of a family of five...
...union observers, maquiladoras operating in the region systematically violate labor rights...
...Marcos should calm down," said the PRD leader, "and understand that we are all seeking democratization, and that the surest way not to achieve it is to ask the people to absent themselves from the polls...
...Mandarin, a Taiwanese-owned factory, exploited workers and harassed union leaders who sought to improve working conditions...
...According to Central American and U.S...
...He is working for the Mexico City newspaper, El Financiero International...
...Penney, Dayton Hudson, Eddie Bauer, Nike, Reebok and others to catch up to the Gap...
...If workers cannot fulfill the quota, they are paid only a fraction of the minimum wage...
...The Gap Allows Monitors into Maquiladoras NEW YORK, JANUARY 20, 1996 After months of controversy, the Gap has agreed to allow independent monitoring of labor conditions in factories where Gap clothing is produced...
...The women claim their innocence, however, based on the fact that their activities are dictated by necessity and survival," says sociologist Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui...
...It is widely accepted-even by the coca growers themselves-that 90% of the coca grown in the Chapare goes toward the processing of cocaine...
...Special attention was focused on the Gap and its Salvadoran supplier, Mandarin...
...We didn't rise up in arms so that the PRD could come to power, but to demand liberty, democracy and justice...
...Since September, 1994, the U.S...
...The party's centrist national director, Porfirio Mufioz Ledo, accused Marcos of "confusion and amnesia" for calling for a boycott that could only benefit the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI...
...The Bolivian government decided to step up its antinarcotics operations in light of the U.S...
...The women, who are all coca growers, were marching to protest the government's continuing policy of forcibly eradicating their coca crops, and to demand alternative development policies for the countryside...
...The Zapatistas' New Year declaration called for "members of civil society" and "all those with no political party" to join the new front...
...companies under license with the Walt Disney Corporation contracted Haitian assembly firms to produce "Mickey Mouse" and "Pocahontas" pajamas...
...The Human Rights Ombudsman's office in the city of San Salvador will be involved in monitoring Mandarin's compliance with the Gap's Corporate Code of Conduct, which mandates that Gap suppliers adhere to the labor laws of the countries in which they operate...
...The NLC campaign was conducted in close collaboration with the fired workers of the Mandarin plant in El Salvador...
...This effectively deprived the PRD of many of its natural voters, and a chance to carry the state's main municipalities...
...These firms are paying workers as little as 15 gourdes (US$1) per day-12 cents per hour-in clear violation of Haitian law...
...At Excel Apparel Exports, jointly owned and operated with Kellwood Company, for example, quotas have been increased by 133% since the passage of the new minimum-wage law...
...Excel Vol XXIX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 19961 Vol XXIX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1996 1NEWSBRIEFS Apparel produces women's undergarments for the Hanes division of Sara Lee Corporation, under the "Hanes Her Way" label...
...government has given a total of $596 million in aid to Haiti, including more than $8 million in direct assistance to U.S...
...Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the NLC, says that companies like the Gap have been unable to monitor their suppliers adequately in the past...
...National Labor Committee Zapatistas' New Political Organization Prompts Realignments on the Left MEXICO CITY, JANUARY 30, 1996 M embers of Mexico's badly divided center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) have spent the month of January jockeying for position-and struggling for the party's selfdefinition-following the January 1 announcement of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) that it was seeking allies for a new national political organization, the Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN...
...U.S.AID has long pressured the government not to increase the minimum wage...
...Emily Bono U.S...
...Even Haitians who are fortunate enough to earn the new minimum wage have less buying power now than they did in 1990...
...U.S...
...The National Labor Committee is an independent human rights advocacy group which focuses on protecting labor rights...
...jobs and wages...
...The Gap will also allow independent third-party monitoring of all its suppliers throughout Central America...
...Fred Rosen is on leave from NACLA...
...She visited El Salvador last November...
...The Gap has promised to work with the New York-based Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and other interested groups to design and implement a longterm system of independent monitoring of its contractors...
...Ten were paying their workers less than the legally mandated minimum wage of 36 gourdes (US$2.40) per day, or 30 cents per hour...
...A radicalized party will very likely invite the fledgling FZLN to become one of its many semi-autonomous tendencies...
...government's warnings that Bolivia would lose U.S...
...The NLC carried out an extensive investigation of 15 maquiladoras in Haiti...
...In fact, the PRD finished second or third in many municipalities it was favored to win...
...The current jockeying within the PRD anticipates this July's party convention, at which a successor to party leader Mufioz Ledo will be chosen...
...The government freed the coca growers who had been detained during the protests, and promised aid to victims of antidrug police operations in the Chapare...
...In El Salvador, the debate over the maquiladoras has been bitter...
...On February 3, the government agreed to the growers' demand for an end to the compulsory eradication of coca crops...
...The pajamas are sold in the United States at Wal-Mart, Sears and J.C...
...corporations, provides less than 25% of the basic needs of a family of five...
...Their greatest aspiration is to feed their family and lead a better life...
...It will also align itself with the various mobilized groups of "civil society," including many whose ideological predisposition is more conservative...
...Maquiladora owners-many with ties to the military-have accused unionists of betraying their country by demanding better wages and working conditions...
...The Gap's acceptance of independent monitoring could set a new standard for U.S...
...InterPress Service (IPS) is an international news service based in Italy...
...The maquiladora owners, supported by the Salvadoran press, claimed that the delegates, and U.S...
...apparel companies to respect labor rights both at home and abroad...
...By taking this step, the Gap becomes the first retailer to agree to independent monitoring," Kernaghan said...
...unionists, government officials and business people investigating labor conditions in the maquiladoras...
...In October, 1995, for example, the EZLN's Subcomandante Marcos called for a boycott of municipal elections in Chiapas...
...An initial group of 200 women set off last December from the Chapare, a key coca-growing region 250 miles north of the capital city...
...As the PRD drifts to the center, the EZLN is clearly attempting to push Mexico's constantly mobilized, but badly organized left in a more radical direction...
...If the "negotiated democratic transition" wins, the party will move even closer to the center, win over a greater number of disaffected priistas, become a traditional socialdemocratic party, and probably lose the radicals to the new FZLN...
...A daily wage of 15 gourdes (US$1), common in factories producing goods for U.S...
Vol. 29 • March 1996 • No. 5
