21098: Arthur: Second update on campaign to support the Sokowa union at Grupo M FTZ (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Second update on campaign to support the Sokowa union at Grupo M free trade
zone - 31 March 2004 - Haiti Support Group

Thousand of individuals, union members and union branches across the world
have sent protest emails, and the Grupo M management was obliged to begin
negotiations with representatives of the Haiti's First of May-Batay Ouvriye Union
Federation.

However, although the Levi Strauss company has hailed these negotiations as
evidence of Grupo M's willingness to find a settlement, the union federation
representatives tell a completely different story. Rather than establishing a
dialogue and opening up a collaborative process to bring about a resolution,
Grupo M representatives have instead conducted themselves in an aggressive and
dismissive manner. Grupo M CEO, Fernando Capellan, even stormed out of a meeting
in Santiago, Dominican Republic, on Monday, 8 March, before it had concluded.

Since then, far from resolving the situation, Grupo M has prevaricated and
reneged on a promise to issue a final decision on the status of the dismissed
workers. This cynical tactic is clearly designed to pressure the dismissed
workers to accept their severance pay, thereby accepting their status as fired
workers, and, in so doing, ruin a planned legal action against the company for
unfair dismissal. Without pay for five weeks, the living situation of the fired
workers and their dependents is critical.

In order to help those workers carry on the fight for re-instatement and for
recognition of their right to form a trade union, the British solidarity
organisation, the Haiti Support Group, is appealing for donations to help keep the
struggle going. Please help the fired Sokowa union members carry on with their
fight to get their jobs back. It is not only their livelihoods at stake - if
the Sokowa union is broken, it will be a massive setback for all Haitian
workers across the country.
http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org/whats_new_index.html

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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.
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