Action Alert: CAFTA/ Nicaraguan Sweatshops

Date: 7/29/04

Source: National Labor Committee

The CAFTA agreement negotiated by the Bush Administration and submitted to Congress will fail workers in both the United States and Central America. The proof is already here.

King Yong, a large Taiwanese owned garment export factory in Nicaragua producing clothing for export to Wal-Mart and Kohl's, continues to defy repeated demands by the government of Nicaragua to immediately reinstate workers that were illegally fired after they organized a legal union, end excessive mandatory overtime, pay the legal overtime wage, and to correct numerous health and safety violations.

Conditions at King Yong Factory violate internationally recognized labor rights standards:

* Workers paid just eight to nine cents for every garment they sew for Wal-Mart and Kohl's. * Forced 12-to-15-hour shifts, six days a week. * Base wage of 29 to 34 cents an hour meets less than one-half of basic subsistence level needs. * Bathrooms are filthy, lacking toilet paper and often even water. * Drinking water is not potable. * Workers faint from the excessive heat. * Wal-Mart and Kohl's Codes of Conduct meaningless. * King Yong does not respect the country's Constitution and Labor Code. * CAFTA must include worker rights protections otherwise, companies like King Yong will be free to pit workers in Nicaragua and the rest of Central America against workers in the U.S. in a race to the bottom.

Take Action!

1- Contact your members of Congress: Ask that CAFTA be re-opened to negotiate enforceable worker rights protections as a core condition of trade. Surely the worker, the human being, deserves at least as much legal protection as the corporate trademark and product receives under CAFTA. To find your local congress representative go to http://www.house.gov/writerep/.

Sample Letter:

DATE

Dear _______________:

The ongoing violations at the King Yong factory in Nicaragua clearly demonstrate why the Central American Free Trade Agreement will fail the people of both        the United States and Central America. CAFTA should be renegotiated to include enforceable worker rights protections as core conditions to trade. It is wrong that under CAFTA, the product is protected but not the young women who make it. Surely the worker, the human being, deserves at least as much legal protection as is currently afforded corporate trademarks and products. Will you support reopening negotiations on CAFTA to guarantee fair trade? I look forward to your response. What is at issue is the need to level the playing field in order to end the race to the bottom, which can only be done by holding corporations accountable to respect fundamental human, women's, and worker rights.

Also, please inform the Nicaraguan government that you expect the King Yong factory to immediately reinstate the illegally fired workers, recognize the legal union, and end the violations. You can download the full King Yong report at: www.nlcnet.org/faxes/kingyong.current.asp 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

2- Write to Nicaragua's Ambassador to the U.S.: Tell the Nicaraguan Government that you will continue to monitor the King Yong case and will spread the word about what is happening at King Yong until the illegally fired workers are reinstated, the union recognized and the rights of the workers respected.

 Sample Letter

DATE Honorable Salvador Stadthagen Ambassador of Nicaragua to the United States Embassy of Nicaragua 1627 New Hampshire Ave. NW Washington, DC. 20009

Dear Ambassador Stadthagen:

I write you on a very urgent matter requesting your immediate intervention to help resolve a serious crisis at the King Yong garment export facility in Nicaragua. The workers at the King Yong facility are forced to work extensive overtime, but are then shortchanged on the legal overtime pay due them. Abusive supervisors routinely insult and humiliate the workers. The factory is excessively hot, lacks adequate lighting, violates acceptable noise levels, and has unsafe drinking water and filthy bathrooms. The workers' wages do not meet even their most basic subsistence level needs. Yet when the workers, exercising their constitutional right to freedom of association, organized a legal union on March 22, 2004, the company responded by illegally firing over 400, including seven newly elected leaders of the union.

I urge you to make it very clear to King Yong management that they must immediately reinstate the illegally fired workers, recognize the legal union, end the violations, and negotiate in good faith.

I intend to monitor this case very carefully and see it as a test case for the Central American Free Trade Agreement. The King Yong workers' demands are very just and modest.

Thank you for your attention to this very serious matter regarding respect for fundamental human rights.

Sincerely,

...And if you have time please send a copy to the National Labor Committee.

National Labor Committee 540 W 48th S., 3rd Fl., NY, NY 10036, (fax): 212-242-3821 (e-mail): nlc@nlcnet.org

They will gladly forward your letter to the President of Nicaragua, the Minister of Labor, and to the workers in Nicaragua.

STOP CAFTA!!

Right now, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) is on Congress' agenda. If Congress passes CAFTA, this could have devastating effects on people throughout the United States and Central America, the environment, human rights standards, and much more. Call your representatives and tell them to SAY NO TO CAFTA, and to support the Fair Trade for Our Future Resolution (H. Con. Res. 276). Call the Capitol Switchboard at 1-800-839-5276.

For more info check out:

Public Citizen

Citizens Trade Campaign

Oxfam America