26711: Simidor (forward): DR and Haiti: Taking on Grupo M - Document, Video, Interview (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: daniel simidor <danielsimidor@yahoo.com>

New   Trade Union World Briefing & video portrait - Dominican Republic and
Haiti
  (EPZ): Taking on Grupo M   25/11/2005

    Brussels, 25 November 2005 (ICFTU OnLine):   Spotlight on the day-to-day
exploitation in the export processing zones of the   Dominican Republic and
Haiti, where workers produce clothing for leading   international brands ? and
are pioneering cross-border trade union   action.

In the Dominican Republic, the end of textile quotas has led to   thousands of
redundancies and a worsening of the already dismal working   conditions. "We
have to dash from one machine to the other. Sometimes they only   give us one
chair. It's like a bottomless pit that we are never able to fill,"   explains
Leonida Monegro, who sews Dockers®, a brand developed by Levi   Strauss.

In a bid to counter the ruthless competition on the   international textile
market, especially from China, Dominican industrialists   are now looking to
shift part of their production to Haiti ? for the simple   reason that the
labour there is even cheaper.

In spite of the crippling   poverty, Haitian workers from the Ouanaminthe
export
processing zone have   managed to wage any extraordinary battle against the
anti-union practices of   garment manufacturing giant Grupo M, with whom they
are on the verge of signing   their very first collective bargaining
agreement.

They hope their example   will spread to the factories of Port au Prince and
the
Dominican Republic.
Over recent months, the Dominican union SITRAFMIN, based in Santiago, and,
SOKOWA, in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, have been working on forming a common front to
tackle Grupo M, which, on the Dominican side of the border, is a using yellow
union, built on intimidation and bribery, to undermine the legitimate trade
union at a factory producing for Levi Strauss. How can local action combined
with international solidarity make all the difference in the fight against
exploitation? Report, firsthand accounts and analysis in this new   briefing.



- The Trade Union World Briefing "EPZs   in Haiti and the Dominican Republic:
Taking on Grupo M" (8 pages)

- The video portrait entitled   "Georges' Hope", the account of a worker who
sews the hems of Levi jeans for   just 15 euros a week and his appeal to
consumers around the world.

-The interview with Yannick Etienne (ESPMBO ?   Haiti)
"The workers' demands have been   constantly backed by international
solidarity"

The ICFTU represents 145   million workers through its 234 affiliated
organisations in 154 countries and   territories. The ICFTU is also a member of
Global Unions:   http://www.global-unions.org