A-Infos (en) Nicaragua: company claims refuted

["Shawn Ewald" <shawn@wilshire.net>]

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     A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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Retailers Deny "Hard Copy" Facts about Nicaraguan Labor Rights 
Violations A response from the Nicaragua Network
February 11, 1998

Many labor rights activists have received answers from the CEOs of JC
Penney, Wal-Mart, and Kmart to the letters they wrote protesting conditions
and wages in the Nicaraguan factories where these companies contract their
production.  Low wages and mistreatment of workers were revealed on the
television program "Hard Copy."  The letters and documents that activists
have received deny the accusations.  They are very smooth and professional
and have led many to doubt the accuracy of the "Hard Copy" report.   
 
The conditions in Nicaraguan maquiladoras were, however, accurately reported
in the "Hard Copy" programs.  In fact, there are other major labor rights
violations in the factories which were not included by "Hard Copy"
producers.  The most important of these is the use of threats, firings and
blacklists against workers who attempt to organize unions in the factories.
 
After the "Hard Copy" programs aired, Wal-Mart, Kmart and JC Penney all told
the press that they had inspected their contractors' plants in Nicaragua and
found that factory conditions met the high standards reflected in their
codes.  J. Duncan Muir, JC Penney Manager of Public and Financial
Information, in his answer to letters from concerned consumers and human
rights activists, stated, however, that it would not be appropriate for JC
Penney to require its suppliers to translate and post their code of conduct
since none of them produces exclusively for JC Penney.  Mr. Muir does not
answer the question of how workers can know about their rights if they are
not posted.  

JC Penney is also sending out a letter from Francisco Aguirre, Nicaragua's
Ambassador to the United States, stating that "the average minimal (sic)
wages paid to full time workers at the firms that I visited is (sic) four
times higher than reported by Hard Copy, or about 60 cents per hour.  This
comes to about $100 dollars a month or roughly twice Nicaragua's legal
minimum wage."  This was NOT what was revealed by the NLC/Hard Copy
investigation, however, and they have the pay stubs to prove it.  Base wage
in most factories is about 15 cents per hour, but with piece work wages and
overtime added on, most workers earn about $70 dollars per month for a 60
hour week. This is less than one half of what is needed to provide the most
basic needs (beans, rice and laundry soap) for a small family in Nicaragua.
Yes, it is more than minimum wage, but the minimum wage is set at a very low
level in order to attract foreign investment away from countries 
where the minimum is marginally higher, in a worldwide race to the bottom.  
 
Aguirre states that maquiladora workers earn more than police officers and
school teachers.  This is true.  Salaries have traditionally been low in
Nicaragua for teachers, nurses and lower level civil servants.  Since the
country has been under structural adjustment mandated by the International
Monetary Fund, these salaries have been cut even more and are truly at
starvation levels.  Mr. Aguirre's statement that maquiladora wages, because
they are higher than teachers' abysmal salaries, are comparable to U.S.
salaries of $75,000 to $100,00 is shocking.  The prices of rice, beans,
eggs, milk, meat, soap, clothing and shoes are about the same in Nicaragua
as in the U.S.  Rent and public transportation costs are somewhat lower.
Private cars and gasoline are much, much more.  How can $840 per year (or
even $1,200 per year if some maquila workers do earn as much as Aguirre
says) buy as much as $75,000 in the United States?
 
Both Aguirre's letter and a reprint of a Miami Herald article by Glen Garvin
indicate that the charges of sexual harassment at the factories in the Free
Trade Zone were merely complaints about the patting down of workers leaving
the factories to prevent theft and that the procedure was carried out by
women security guards.  But statements made to NLC/Hard Copy investigators
explicitly included accusations that male managers asked young female
workers "to go out" and indicated that they might be fired if they did not
oblige.  
 
Garvin's article in the Herald states that underage girls only get jobs in
the factories by using false papers.  In many factories, however, management
simply does not ask the age of those who apply, according to NLC/Hard Copy
interviews with many of the younger workers.  The Herald article says that
there are lunchrooms, medical clinics and a child-care center in the Free
Trade Zone. But, according to the Federation of Textile, Garment, Leather
and Shoe Workers (CST), there are lunchrooms in only two factories; workers
from the other factories have to eat outside in the sun or the rain.  There
are only two medical clinics for 14,000 workers and one 70-child day care
center in a zone where almost all of of the workers have one to four
children who need care.  In Nicaragua, single mothers must work or their
children will literally starve to death; so, children who have no one to
care for them - even very small children - are left alone.
 
Mr. Muir of JC Penney states in his letter that "We are not aware of any
worker at any Nicaragua factory used by our suppliers having been fired for
appearing in the "Hard Copy" series." However, according to the National
Labor Committee, on November 15 supervisors at the Chentex factory, which
has been sewing Arizona and Bugle Boy pants for JC Penney, set up a large
TV/VCR at the factory and played a video tape of the "Hard Copy" programs.
They watched for any of their employees who appeared in the show.  They saw
Julieta Alonzo and two days later fired her.  Her crime was speaking on the
program about the difficulty of getting permission to go to the medical
clinic and about forced overtime.
 
Letters from Dale Apley at Kmart Corporation and Jay Allen at Wal-Mart
Stores, Inc. are less detailed and are accompanied by fewer supporting
materials.  Apley encloses a copy of Kmart's corporate code of conduct which
states that Kmart suppliers must "ensure a clean, safe and healthy work
environment."  Most of the factories in the Managua Free Trade Zone are
clean and well lit.  But many are far from safe.  On November 18, 1997,
twenty-two year-old Oscar Jose Rivas, a worker at the Nien Hsing factory
which sews garments under contract for Kmart (Northwest Territory) and JC
Penney (Arizona jeans), was electrocuted while operating a dryer/centrifuge
in the laundry department.  Supervisors did not heed Rivas' repeated
warnings that the machine was malfunctioning.  Ordered on November 18 to
continue his work, he turned the machine back on and was struck with 380
volts.  Locked in the compound, the workers had to break the locks on the
gate to get Rivas to a hospital.  He died on the way.  He left behind two
children and a wife who was five months pregnant.
 
Wal-Mart, according to Allen's letter, "requires vendors (suppliers) to
assure that our standards are posted in factories they use."  However, the
workers that "Hard Copy" and National Labor Committee staff talked with at
the Chentex factory had never heard of, let alone seen, the codes of conduct
of any of the major retailers for whom they sewed garments.  None of the
codes had been explained, translated or posted.
 
None of the codes of conduct of the three retailers mandates freedom of
association - the right to organize a union and engage in collective
bargaining.  However, the Nicaraguan constitution and labor code do
establish the right to organize a union and bargain collectively, and yet,
all three retailers have contracted for work by a factory that has openly
threatened and later fired workers for organizing a union.
 
Approximately 1,800 workers at the Chentex factory staged a total work
stoppage for six hours on January 26 protesting the firing of 21 of the 90
workers who had signed papers in support of a union in the plant.  The
sit-down strike started in the early morning of the 26th and lasted through
several hours of negotiations until management committed itself to rehire
the workers who had been let go on Saturday.  Management had previously met
separately with each production line informing workers of the policy of
firing workers involved in union organizing.  Now, workers are awaiting word
from the Labor Ministry on legal recognition of their union which would be
the third in Nicaragua's Las Mercedes Free Trade Zone.  Recognition of a
third union could pave the way for the complete unionization of the Zone.  
 
International solidarity has been extremely important in the Nicaraguan
workers' struggle.  Hundreds of people have signed faxes sent to the Labor
Ministry while many others have supported the workers by asking the big U.S.
retailers to keep their contracts in Nicaraguan factories in order to
preserve jobs for Nicaraguan workers.  They are thus refuting the argument
of factory owners that the revelations of low wages and poor treatment of
workers are motivated by protectionism on the part of North Americans.
 
ACTION SUGGESTION:
 
If you have received answers to letters that you wrote to the CEOs of JC
Penney, Kmart and Wal-Mart, write a response refuting the arguments that
they present using the above material. If you have not previous sent a
letter to the companies, the material above could provide you with the basis
for a first letter.

Dale J. Apley                  
Kmart Corporation              
International Headquarters
3100 West Big Beaver Road
Troy, MI 48084-3163
 
J. Duncan Muir
Manager of Public and Financial Information
J.C. Penney Company, Inc.
P.O. Box 10001
Dallas, TX 75301-0001
 
Jay Allen 
Corporate Offices
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72716
 
Contacts and Resources:

Nicaragua Network (202) 544-9355 <nicanet@igc.org>.

Witness for Peace (202) 544-0781, <witness@w4peace.org> Order the booklet
"Sewing 
Justice: U.S. Solidarity & the Workers' Struggle in Nicaragua's Maquilas."
 
National Labor Committee (212) 242-3002, <natlabcom@aol.com> web site:
www.nlcnet.org  Order a videotape of the "Hard Copy" program and a packet of
information on Hard Copy and NLC's findings in Nicaragua.


To find out how to subscribe to the Labor Defense Network (which will send
faxes in your name in response to violations of workers' rights in Mexico
and Central America), contact (202) 544-9355, <ern@igc.apc.org>.

Labor Alerts: a service of Campaign for Labor Rights
To receive our email labor alerts, send a message to CLR@igc.apc.org
Phone: (541) 344-5410       Web site: http://www.compugraph.com/clr
Membership/newsletter. Send $35.00 to Campaign for Labor Rights, 1247
"E" Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. Sample newsletter available on
request.

------- Message History -------
Date:          Wed, 11 Feb 1998 20:14:06 -0800 (PST)
To:            clr@igc.org
From:          Campaign for Labor Rights <clr@igc.apc.org>
Subject:       Nicaragua: company claims refuted
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