16894: (Arthur) Maribahoux free trade zone - 20 workers fired for being 'unsuitable' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Levi Strauss moving to Haiti
N. American plants closing in March

Don Thomas  - The Edmonton Journal (Canada) - Saturday, October 04, 2003

EDMONTON - As Levi Strauss prepares to close its North American plants,
including one in Edmonton, it's ramping up production in Third World countries,
including Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere.

With help from the World Bank, Grupo M, the Dominican Republic's largest
employer, has opened a plant in a free trade zone in nearby Haiti, where 300
workers are sewing jeans for Levi Strauss.

They are paid 80 cents Cdn per hour. But while that's atrocious by Canadian
standards, it's big money in Haiti, said Mark Constantine, of Washington, D.C.,
who works on the Grupo M project for the International Finance Corporation,
the World Bank division which finances corporations. The annual per capita
income in Haiti is $500 and 80 per cent of Haitians live in abject poverty, he
said.

The IFC is providing about $58 million to Grupo M for textile projects in the
Dominican Republic and Haiti, and says Levi Strauss is already one of Grupo
M's largest customers. Dockers and other Levi Strauss clothes are being sewn in
its Dominican Republic plants.

Plans call for two additional plants in Haiti with up to 1,500 workers making
clothes for Levi Strauss, Liz Claiborne, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo and Hanes.

Julie Klee, of Toronto, Canadian manager for Levi Strauss, would not say
where their clothes will be made when the North American plants are closed in
March. "Today, more than 30 per cent of the product we sell in Canada is made by
suppliers in more than 50 different countries in North America and around the
world."

She said suppliers must follow a Levi Strauss code of conduct for fair and
ethical treatment of workers. "We only do business with suppliers that adhere to
these guidelines, and we work with internal and third-party inspectors to
monitor suppliers vigilantly."

Child labour is banned and pay levels and hours of work must comply with the
laws of the country. Preference is given to contractors whose work week is 60
hours or less, said Klee, and contractors must respect workers right to form a
union and bargain collectively.

Edmonton union officials were unavailable for comment.

Constantine denied allegations by the Haitian Support Group in Britain that
20 Grupo M workers in Haiti were fired because of union-organizing activity.
They were let go because they "weren't suitable," he said.

Levi Strauss has promised that its 1,100 Canadian workers will receive
generous severance packages. And it said about $1 million in community transition
grants will be divided among Edmonton and Brantford and Stoney Creek in Ontario.

Details have not been finalized, Klee said.

______________________________________________


This email is forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group.

See the Haiti Support Group web site:
www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org

Solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for justice, participatory
democracy and equitable development, since 1992.
____________________________________________