22566: Arthur: Open letter to Levi Strauss & Co (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Grupo M: the violation of workers' rights in Haiti - an open letter to Levi
Strauss & Co. June 30th, 2004


To: Michael Kobori
Director, Global Code of Conduct
Levi Strauss & Co.
San Francisco
California,
USA

Dear Mr Kobori,

The Haiti Support Group - an organisation of individuals based in the United
Kingdom which has been working alongside grassroots organisations representing
the Haitian majority since 1992 - is writing to you to express our very grave
concerns regarding the behaviour of your supplier, Grupo M, at the Codevi
free trade zone in Haiti.

We have been active in support of Haitian workers' rights to organise and to
bargain collectively for some years, and we are very pleased to see that these
rights are clearly enshrined as key employment standards in your company's
'Global Sourcing and Operating Guidelines'.

In this respect we were greatly encouraged to receive your letter, dated May
5th 2004, in which you informed us that you had helped achieve a "positive
resolution" to the problem of the arbitrary dismissal of 34 members of the Sokowa
union at the beginning of March. You told us that in April your supplier at
Codevi, Grupo M, had reinstated all the dismissed Sokowa union members, had
enhanced the right of employee freedom of association, had begun to establish a
dialogue with the Sokowa union leadership, and had agreed to the monitoring of
labour relations by a team of independent observers.

However, since that letter, the situation has seriously deteriorated. During
the month of May, the independent observers noted "relentless increases in
daily production quotas", the "intimidation, provocation, and humiliation" of
workers by the factory management and, towards the end of the month, the
establishment of a "climate of terror" on the factory floor. Mr Kobori, we are
inclined to accept the veracity of these claims because two of the three-person
monitoring team had been selected by the Grupo M management itself!

In response to the above deterioration, and specifically in response to Grupo
M's failure to adhere to agreements reached in April, the Sokowa union
organised a one-hour warning strike on June 4th. The following day, Fernando
Capellan, the Grupo M CEO arrived at the Codevi free trade zone to tell workers that
the plant would probably be shut down. That afternoon, after another dispute
had developed when factory managers had forcibly removed the t-shirts and ID
badges from a group of women workers, the management called in the Dominican
Army to expel workers from the free trade zone.

A full one-day strike took place on June 7th. Workers then agreed to return
to work on June 8th despite the continuing presence of the Dominican Army
on-site, because the Grupo M management had agreed to negotiate with the Sokowa
union. However, instead of negotiating, over the next few days the management
dismissed over 350 workers - nearly half of the entire workforce!

Since then, we understand that Grupo M has continued to fire workers from the
plant assembling Levi's jeans - a further 18 workers have been dismissed
since the mass firing of June 11th. We are also informed that Grupo M is still
refusing to negotiate with the union, either about ways to remedy the abuses of
recent last weeks or about the introduction of new working practices which
workers are told to accept or be dismissed.

Mr Kobori, all the above is known to you, and we publicly call on Levi
Strauss & Co. to exert the appropriate pressure on your supplier, Grupo M, which is
clearly not adhering to your Global Sourcing and Operating Guidelines.

We know that Grupo M runs extensive garment assembly operations in the
Dominican Republic, and that Levi Strauss & Co. sources jeans from there, as well as
from Codevi in Haiti. It is therefore relatively easy for you, as a major
customer, to apply pressure on Grupo M. Your continued failure to do so is
seriously damaging Levi Strauss & Co.'s international reputation.

We await your reply with the shortest possible delay.

Yours sincerely,


Charles Arthur
director, the Haiti Support Group
London, UK.


______________________________________________


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.
____________________________________________