22408: (Arthur) British journalists' union support Sokowa struggle (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Haiti Support Group - 17 June, 2004

Jeremy Dear, the General-Secretary of the British National Union of
Journalists*, has informed the Haiti Support Group of his backing for the struggle for
union rights at the Codevi free trade zone in Ouanaminthe. He has written to
Grupo M and the Levi Strauss Company in support of the Sokowa union and the
First of May-Batay Ouvriye Union Federation.

Over 300 workers at the Codevi free trade zone  -  including the Sokowa union
leadership - were fired this week in an attempt to break the independent
unionising drive in the textile assembly factories supplying Levi Strauss and Sara
Lee.

The case of the sacked workers at the Haitian textile factory owned by
Dominican company, Grupo M, got a huge boost when the International Textile, Garment
and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) raised the issue at the International
Labour Organisation conference. The ITGLWF is a global union federation
bringing together 225 affiliated organisations in 110 countries with a combined
membership of 10 million workers. The backing of the ITGLWF is very important,
but the Haitian workers also need the support of each and every one of you and
your local unions.

Learn more and send off a protest message from here:

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=30


* The National Union of Journalists is among the biggest and best-established
journalists' unions in the world, with 34,000 members. These members cover
the whole range of editorial work – staff and freelance, writers and reporters,
editors and sub-editors, photographers and illustrators, working in
broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, books, on the internet and in public relations. The
union was founded in 1907 and has fought for journalists, their pay and
conditions, their working rights and their professional freedom ever since.

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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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