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. According to Central American and U.S. union observers, maquiladoras operating in the region systemati- cally violate labor rights. Because U.S. retail outlets do not generally own the factories where clothes are produced, they have previous- ly shrugged off labor abuses. The Gap's acceptance of independent monitoring could set a new stan- dard for U.S. multinational corpo- rations. The U.S. National Labor Committee (NLC), the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textiles Employees, and several religious groups organized mas- sive grassroots campaigns in the United States last year to protest working conditions in garment- assembly maquiladoras in Central America. Special attention was focused on the Gap and its Salvadoran supplier, Mandarin. Mandarin, a Taiwanese-owned factory, exploited workers and harassed union leaders who sought to improve working condi- tions. In June, 1995, Mandarin fired over 350 workers, including pregnant women and many who had joined the union. After initially refusing to consid- er the possibility of independent oversight, the Gap announced in December that it would "explore the viability of an independent industry monitoring program." In order to receive Gap business again, Mandarin will have to rein- state the fired workers and meet with the union leaders at the Salv- adoran Ministry of Labor. 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 suppli- ers adhere to the labor laws of the countries in which they operate. The Gap will also allow inde- pendent third-party monitoring of all its suppliers throughout Central America. 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 long- term system of independent mon- itoring of its contractors. Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the NLC, says that companies like the Gap have been unable to monitor their sup- pliers adequately in the past. "By taking this step, the Gap becomes the first retailer to agree to inde- pendent monitoring," Kernaghan said. "The Gap listened to its consumers and has taken a signif- icant step in accepting direct responsibility for how and under what conditions its products are made. It is now time for J.C. Penney, Dayton Hudson, Eddie Bauer, Nike, Reebok and others to catch up to the Gap." In El Salvador, the debate over the maquiladoras has been bitter. Maquiladora owners-many with ties to the military-have accused unionists of betraying their coun- try by demanding better wages and working conditions. Things heated up in November, 1995 dur- ing a visit to El Salvador by a del- egation of U.S. unionists, gov- ernment officials and business people investigating labor condi- tions in the maquiladoras. The maquiladora owners, supported by the Salvadoran press, claimed that the delegates, and U.S. labor in general, were interested in clos- ing down Salvadoran maquilado- ras in order to protect U.S. jobs and wages. The NLC campaign was con- ducted in close collaboration with the fired workers of the Mandarin plant in El Salvador. Its objective was not to drive the Gap out of El Salvador, but to force it and other U.S. apparel companies to respect labor rights both at home and abroad. -Emily Bono U.S. Maquiladoras in Haiti Violate Minimum- Wage Law NEW YORK, JANUARY 30, 1996 M ore than half of the approx- I imately 50 assembly firms operating in Haiti are violating the minimum-wage law, according to a new report by the New York- based National Labor Committee (NLC). The NLC carried out an extensive investigation of 15 maquiladoras in Haiti. 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. U.S. companies under license with the Walt Disney Corporation contracted Haitian assembly firms to produce "Mickey Mouse" and "Pocahontas" paja- mas. These firms are paying workers as little as 15 gourdes (US$1) per day-12 cents per hour-in clear violation of Haitian law. The pajamas are sold in the United States at Wal-Mart, Sears and J.C. Penney. When President Jean-Bertrand Aristide increased the minimum wage on May 4, 1995, many companies avoided complying by simply increasing the production quota. If workers cannot fulfill the quota, they are paid only a fraction of the minimum wage. At Excel Apparel Exports, jointly owned and operated with Kellwood Company, for exam- ple, 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 divi- sion of Sara Lee Corporation, under the "Hanes Her Way" label. The undergarments are sold at Wal-Mart and smaller retailers. Even Haitians who are fortu- nate enough to earn the new min- imum wage have less buying power now than they did in 1990. A minimum-wage salary pro- vides less than 60% of the basic needs of a family of five. A daily wage of 15 gourdes (US$1), common in factories producing goods for U.S. corporations, pro- vides less than 25% of the basic needs of a family of five. Lawrence Crandall, head of the U.S. 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 mini- mum-wage law. U.S.AID has long pressured the government not to increase the minimum wage. Since September, 1994, the U.S. government has given a total of $596 million in aid to Haiti, including more than $8 million in direct assistance to U.S. and Haitian businesses. -- 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 self- definition-following the January 1 announcement of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) that it was seeking allies for a new national political organi- zation, the Zapatista National Liberation Front (FZLN). The Zapatistas' New Year dec- laration called for "members of civil society" and "all those with no political party" to join the new front. Their objective is not to seize state power, but to fight in the political arena for the 13 orig- inal EZLN demands: "housing, land, health, work, bread, educa- tion, information, culture, inde- pendence, democracy, justice, liberty and peace." 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. As the PRD drifts to the center, the EZLN is clearly attempting to push Mexico's constantly mobi- lized, but badly organized left in a more radical direction. In October, 1995, for example, the EZLN's Subcomandante Marcos called for a boycott of municipal elections in Chiapas. This effectively deprived the PRD of many of its natural vot- ers, and a chance to carry the state's main municipalities. In fact, the PRD finished second or third in many municipalities it was favored to win. A rift between the two organiza- tions resulted. The party's centrist national director, Porfirio Mufioz Ledo, accused Marcos of "confu- sion and amnesia" for calling for a boycott that could only benefit the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). "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 them- selves from the polls." "Treating us as though we were the armed wing of the PRD is ridiculous," Marcos responded. "We didn't rise up in arms so that the PRD could come to power, but to demand liberty, democracy and justice." The current jockeying within the PRD anticipates this July's party convention, at which a successor to party leader Mufioz Ledo will be chosen. Over half-a-dozen candi- dates have emerged from virtually all the party's tendencies. They fall, however, into two major camps- the moderate followers of current leader Mufioz Ledo, and the more radical followers of Cirdenas. At stake is whether the party con- tinues to follow Mufioz Ledo's pur- suit of "a negotiated democratic transition," or whether it opts for a more radical confrontation with the country's current rulers, and fol- lows Cirdenas' call for the forma- tion of a "government of national salvation." 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. It will also align itself with the various mobilized groups of "civil society," including many whose ide- ological predisposition is more con- servative. A radicalized party will very likely invite the fledgling FZLN to become one of its many semi-autonomous tendencies. If the "negotiated democratic tran- sition" wins, the party will move even closer to the center, win over a greater number of disaffected priis- tas, become a traditional social- democratic party, and probably lose the radicals to the new FZLN. The shape of Mexico's emerging left hangs in the balance. -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. 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. Others joined the march as it passed through Las Yungas, another coca-growing region. The women, who are all coca growers, were marching to protest the govern- ment's continuing policy of forcibly eradicating their coca crops, and to demand alternative development policies for the countryside. After nearly a week of govern- ment backpedalling, 150 of the women began a hunger strike on January 23. On February 3, the government agreed to the growers' demand for an end to the compul- sory eradication of coca crops. 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. The government freed the coca growers who had been detained during the protests, and promised aid to victims of anti- drug police operations in the Chapare. How-and whether-the accord will be implemented remains to be seen. 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. The Bolivian government decided to step up its antinarcotics operations in light of the U.S. gov- ernment's warnings that Bolivia would lose U.S. economic assis- tance if it did not meet coca-eradi- cation targets. 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. It is widely accepted-even by the coca growers themselves-that 90% of the coca grown in the Chapare goes toward the process- ing of cocaine. "The women claim their innocence, however, based on the fact that their activities are dic- tated by necessity and survival," says sociologist Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui. "Their greatest aspira- tion is to feed their family and lead a better life." -InterPress Service Sources Emily Bono is a freelance writer currently based in Kansas City, Missouri. She visited El Salvador last November. The National Labor Committee is an independent human rights advocacy group which focuses on protecting labor rights. To order "The U.S. in Haiti: How to Get Rich on 11 an Hour," contact the NLC at 15 Union Square, New York, NY 10003, (212) 242-0700. Fred Rosen is on leave from NACLA. He is working for the Mexico City newspaper, El Financiero International. InterPress Service (IPS) is an international news service based in Italy. Its dispatches can be read on-line in the Peacenet con- ferences: ips.espanol and ips.english.
