Nike in Messico e in Indonesia - aggiornamenti - Clean clothes campaign

["Ersilia Monti" <ermont@tin.it>]

NIKE IN INDONESIA
Avrete letto nei giorni scorsi sulla stampa dell'uscita di un rapporto della
Global alliance for workers and communities, un organismo internazionale di
cui Nike fa parte, che ha reso pubbliche le violazioni dei diritti umani e
sindacali nelle fabbriche indonesiane di Nike. Il rapporto puo' essere letto
al sito www.nikebiz.com/labor. In coda a questo messaggio trovate la
posizione della Clean clothes campaign sul caso.

NIKE IN MESSICO: AGGIORNAMENTI SUL CASO DELLA KUKDONG DI ATLIXCO
I rapporti di due organismi indipendenti confermano la violazione dei
diritti dei lavoratori messicani di Nike
(fonte: Maquila Solidarity Network, 26 gennaio 2001 - Maquila Solidarity
Network (MSN) / Ethical trading action group (ETAG), 606 Shaw Street,
Toronto, Ontario M6G 3L6, Canada; tel. 416-532-8584; fax 416-532-7688;
www.maquilasolidarity.org)

Riepilogo del caso:
All'inizio di gennaio, 800 lavoratori della Kukdgong, azienda coreana che
produce per Nike in Messico, scendono in sciopero per i loro diritti e per
il riconoscimento di un sindacato indipendente. Sono attaccati brutalmente
dalla polizia
che fa 15 feriti. Le proteste che si levano nel paese da parte di
organizzazioni sindacali di altre categorie, fra cui quelle dei telefoni e
della Volkswagen, e la crescente pressione internazionale convincono la
direzione della fabbrica a
consentire il rientro degli scioperanti senza ritorsioni. Ma alla ripresa
del lavoro, diversi attivisti sindacali trovano la strada sbarrata, altri
vengono allontanati con la forza dal sindacato ufficiale che i lavoratori
non riconoscono.

L'importanza di questo caso come banco di prova dei codici di condotta:

Il conflitto di lavoro in corso alla Kukdong di Atlixco riveste una
particolare importanza in relazione al dibattito in corso sull'applicazione
dei codici di condotta.  Alla Kukdong, infatti, si confezionano felpe Nike
per almeno 14 grandi universita' degli Stati Uniti i cui contratti di
fornitura sono coperti da un codice di condotta.  Alcune di queste
universita' aderiscono al Workers' Rights Consortium (WRC), altre alla Fair
Labour Association (FLA), altre ancora aderiscono a entrambi. (il Workers'
rights consortium e' un organismo creato da studenti, docenti e sindacati
con lo scopo di verificare il rispetto dei codici di condotta universitari
attraverso ispezioni indipendenti nelle fabbriche che producono su
commissione per aziende fornitrici delle universita'; la Fair labour
association e' un'agenzia della Apparel industry partnership, nota anche
come The Clinton coalition, organismo di cui fanno parte alcune imprese di
abbigliamento e sindacati con lo scopo di definire un codice di condotta
comune e criteri per il suo monitoraggio, n.d.t.).

Il diritto violato alla libertà di associazione dei lavoratori della Kukdong
e' diventato un punto cardine delle
mobilitazioni studentesche promosse dai gruppi che si riconoscono nella rete
di "Students against sweatshops" (USAS), presente nei campus degli Stati
uniti. Il caso, infatti, e' un banco di prova importante non solo della
capacita' di Nike e del suo sistema di monitoraggio esterno di garantire il
rispetto della liberta' di associazione presso i suoi subfornitori, ma anche
dell'efficacia delle azioni previste da WRC e FLA per imporre l'osservanza
dei codici di condotta universitari.

I risultati di due indagini indipendenti condotte a fine gennaio da un team
del Workers' rights consortium, in rappresentanza di 67 universita',  e
dall'International labor rights fund (ILRF) per conto della  Fair labour
association, in rappresentanza di 149 universita',  confermano che ai
lavoratori più attivi nello sciopero del 9 gennaio e' stato negato il
rientro in fabbrica e che il diritto alla liberta' sindacale e' stato
violato.  La relazione del WRC sottolinea che cio' e' in contrasto con le
leggi del lavoro messicane, le convenzioni dell'Oil  e il codice di condotta
di Nike, ed invita le universita' aderenti ad assumere iniziative per
consentire la riammissione dei lavoratori allontanati (la relazione si trova
sul sito: www.workersrights.org).. La relazione dell'ILRF sollecita Nike a
inviare un incaricato con il mandato di  indurre la direzione della fabbrica
alla revoca delle sospensioni.  Poiche' l'indagine dell'ILRF e' stata
condotta su richiesta di Nike da un autorevole avvocato del lavoro
messicano, sara' difficile per la stessa ignorarne le raccomandazioni.
All'azienda di social auditing, Verite, sarebbe' stato affidato l'incarico
di effettuare un monitoraggio indipendente presso la Kukdong. Verite e' il
primo ente di certificazione sociale ad essere accreditato all'interno del
programma di monitoraggio esterno e di certificazione di FLA.
Il caso Kukdong rappresenta un duro colpo per la credibilita' di Nike con
riferimento alla asserita efficacia del suo codice di condotta e del suo
sistema di monitoraggio esterno. Nel marzo dell'anno scorso,
PricewaterhousCoopers effettuo' un audit della fabbrica e dichiaro' che la
direzione aveva "stabilito con i propri dipendenti rapporti flessibili e
trasparenti" e che "i dipendenti sentivano di poter esporre liberamente i
propri problemi in un clima improntato a correttezza e a un'efficace ricerca
delle soluzioni".

Potete ricevere il testo delle varie relazioni inviando un messaggio a
ermont@tin.it

--------------------------------

[cleanclothes] global alliance report on nike indonesia

23.2.2001
Dear all,

Yesterday The Global Alliance (of which Nike is a member) released a 106
page report on the labour conditions at 9 suppliers of Nike in
Indonesia.<You will find a copy of their press release below. The report has
been<described as devastating, many of the findings confirm what we have
been<saying for years. It seems to be the first time that Nike admits
that<violations are occuring at this scale and magnitude.

Next to health and safety issues this time overtime and wage issues are<also
adressed (in contrast to earliers global alliance studies, see the
CCC<website for a critique of the Thailand report and of the global
alliance's mission).

On the subject of relations with management and representation however, the
report concludes that 73.4 percent were satifisied about their work
relationship with direct supervisors, 67.8 percent with factory management
and 77 percent with labor unions. This is in contrast with the information
we receive from workers organisations in Indonesia, and in fact hardly
believable.

Key question of course is what will Nike do with the findings. The same day,
Nike also issued a press release, announcing they find the conclusions
disturbing and that "no worker should be subject to some of the
working conditions reported in this asessment". They have also drawn up a
remediation plan, some brief details of which are added to the press
release.  The most glaring point in the remediation plan concerns the wages:
The
global alliance reports that "Over half the workers in the focus groups said
that basic monthly salaries are not adequate to meet workers' increasing
cost of living". Nike, in its remediatioin plan however only talks about
verifying through independent audits that all factories have fully
implemented the new minimum wage, are paying the required wage, and
that workers clearly understand the wage calculation and compensation
structure".

We will try to make a more complete analysis soon, in the meantime all the
documents including the 106 page global alliance study can be found at
Nike's website, www.nikebiz.com/labor


Clean Clothes Campaign
PO Box 11584
1001 GN Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel: + 31 20 4122785
fax: + 31 20 4122786
e-mail:ccc@xs4all.nl



---------------------
Chi vuole essere escluso dalla lista o vuole ricevere informazioni sulla
Clean Clothes Campaign, puo’ inviare un messaggio a : ermont@tin.it
Ersilia Monti (Coordinamento lombardo nord/sud del mondo)
P.le Governo Provvvisorio 6
20127 Milano
tel.02-26140345
email: ermont@tin.it
-------------------



-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: Clean Clothes Campaign <info@cleanclothes.org>
A: cleanclothes@xs4all.nl <cleanclothes@xs4all.nl>; fsoli@magnet.at
<fsoli@magnet.at>; decladeberne@club.ch <decladeberne@club.ch>;
reseau-solidarite@globenet.org <reseau-solidarite@globenet.org>;
ermont@tin.it <ermont@tin.it>; frieda.dekoninck@wsm.be
<frieda.dekoninck@wsm.be>; nead@gn.apc.org <nead@gn.apc.org>;
women-ww@mcr1.poptel.org.uk <women-ww@mcr1.poptel.org.uk>;
ropalimpia@pangea.org <ropalimpia@pangea.org>; carole.crabbe@mdmoxfam.be
<carole.crabbe@mdmoxfam.be>; Catella@mdmoxfam.be <Catella@mdmoxfam.be>;
hvh@xminy.nl <hvh@xminy.nl>; erstling-u@vemission.org
<erstling-u@vemission.org>; Jack.Catarata@dgb-bildungswerk.de
<Jack.Catarata@dgb-bildungswerk.de>; info@renaklader.org
<info@renaklader.org>; samuel.poos@mdmoxfam.be <samuel.poos@mdmoxfam.be>;
asa.svensson@lotcobistand.org <asa.svensson@lotcobistand.org>
Data: lunedì 29 gennaio 2001 18.26
Oggetto: [cleanclothes] KUK DONG correction and news


>Dear Friends,
>Please find below an update from the Maquila Solidarity Network on the
>labour dispute at the Kuk Dong factory in Mexico, which produces for Nike,
>Naf-Naf and Pierre Cardin.
>
>IMPORTANT CORRECTION!!!!!
>Please note that an earlier message which listed a UK office for Kuk Dong
>was INCORRECT. Do not contact this UK office -- it's a different company!
>We apologize to those of you who contacted this company.
>
>Meanwhile, action is still needed on this case:
>
>Please contact the following Kuk Dong clients and demand that they put
>pressure on management to respect workers rights! Firing union organizers
>and giving them severance pay does not support workers' right to freedom of
>association.
>
>CONTACT NIKE:
>
>The U.S./Labor Rights in the Americas Project (U.S./LEAP) reported on Jan.
>26th that it is NOT TRUE that Nike does not have production going on at Kuk
>Dong. They report that sources in Mexico have infomred them that back-order
>production for Nike is still going on at the factory. Contact Nike and
>remind them of their responsibility to push for just resolution to the
>labor dispute at Kuk Dong. Giving workers severance pay to settle a labour
>dispute is not the answer! Remind them that the FLA code stipulates that
>Employers shall not offer
>or use severance pay ... as a  means of restricting union formation or
union
>operations.”
>
>· e-mail Vada O. Manager, director of Global Issues Management at Nike , to
>urge Nike to demand that Kuk Dong management respect workers rights and
>stop their campaign to prevent workers from organizing. Workers fired for
>trying to form an independent union must be reinstated! E-mail:
>vada.manager@nike.com
>
>· In Europe contact Hannah Jones, Nike's European Director of Corporate
>Responsibility
>Nike Europe
>165, Avenue Louise
>Brussels 1050
>Belgium
>Fax: 322-646-6908
>
>
>
>CONTACT NAF-NAF
>
>Chairman and CEO
>Gerard Pariente
>Naf Naf
>6 / 10 boulevard Foch
>93807 Epinay sur Seine Cedex
>France
>Phone: +33-1 48 13 88 88
>Fax: +33-1 48 13 88 59
>
>
>CONTACT PIERRE CARDIN
>
>Pierre Cardin
>82 Faubourg Saint Honoré
>75008 Paris
>Tel: 01 42 66 92 25
>Fax: 01 40 06 03 81
>
>
>---------------------------------------
>Two Independent Reports Confirm that Mexican Nike Workers' Rights Violated
>source: Maquila Solidarity Network, CODES UPDATE MEMO, JANUARY 26, 2001, #
4
>
>You likely have already received extensive information on the labour
>dispute at the Korean-owned Kuk Dong garment factory in Atlixco, Puebla,
>Mexico. However, since the bulk of information circulating through e-mail
>on this struggle has been in English, we thought it important to provide a
>summary in Spanish and so have produced this special issue of our "Codes
>Update" memo to share with contacts in Latin America.
>
>The dispute is particularly important in the codes of conduct debate
>because the factory produces Nike sweatshirts for at least 14 major US
>universities, and is therefore covered by the codes of conduct and
>licensing agreements of those universities. As well, some of the
>universities whose licensed apparel is made in the factory are members of
>the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), while others are members of the Fair
>Labor Association. Some are members of both.
>
>Violations of the Kuk Dong workers' right to freedom of association has
>therefore become a major focus of student mobilization by Students Against
>Sweatshop groups at university campuses across the US. The dispute has not
>only become a test of whether Nike and its external monitoring program can
>ensure that freedom of association is respected in its contract factories,
>it has also become the first major test as to whether the WRC and/or the
>FLA can successfully intervene to pressure a university supplier and its
>contractor to abide by the terms of their codes of conduct.
>
>Just released reports from two independent investigations into the Kuk Dong
>dispute have confirmed that supporters of an independent union who
>participated in a January 9 work stoppage are being denied the right to
>return to their jobs, and that the workers' right to freedom of association
>is being violated.
>
>On January 25, a six-member investigative team from the Worker Rights
>Consortium, representing 67 US universities, released a preliminary report
>confirming that severe ongoing violations of university codes were taking
>place, and calling on its member universities to take immediate steps to
>seek the reinstatement of fired leaders of the independent union and all
>other workers who have not been able to return to work after the work
>stoppage and are willing to go back to work.
>
>The WRC report concludes that Kuk Dong violated a legally binding agreement
>with worker representatives to rehire, without punitive action, all workers
>who participated in the strike, and that the company violated the workers'
>right to freedom of association as defined by Mexican labour law, the ILO,
>and the Nike Code of Conduct. For a copy of the WRC report, in English,
>see: www.workersrights.org.
>
>On the same day, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) released a
>report to 149 US universities affiliated to the Fair Labor Association,
>confirming that the company had failed to reinstate striking workers, and
>that this would have a negative impact on any subsequent union
>representation election.
>
>The ILRF report also confirms that workers who attempted to return to work
>after the work stoppage were not permitted to do so unless they signed
>statements in support of the Confederacion Revolucionaria de Obreros y
>Campesinos (CROC), an "official" union affiliated to Mexico's historical
>ruling party the PRI.
>
>The report calls on Nike to send a representative to the factory with the
>authority to insist that all workers be reinstated. According to the ILRF,
>Nike's Latin America compliance office supervisor, Gabriel Llaguno, visited
>the factory today, and confirmed that the CROC representative was refusing
>to allow workers who had sought a new union to regain their jobs.
>
>The fact that the ILRF investigation was carried out at Nike's request by
>Arturo Alcalde, a respected Mexican labour lawyer, will make it difficult
>for Nike to ignore his recommendations. Both Nike and the ILRF are members
>of the Fair Labor Association.
>
>The non-profit social auditing firm, Verite, has reportedly been contracted
>to carry out an investigation and independent audit of the Kuk Dong
>factory. Verite recently became the first social auditing organization to
>be accredited under the FLA external monitoring and brand certification
>program.
>
>The Kuk Dong dispute has been a major blow to Nike, which claims its code
>of conduct and external monitoring system ensure respect for freedom of
>association and other worker rights. In March 2000, PricewaterhouseCoopers
>carried out an audit of the plant and reported that management "has
>established relations with employees that were both flexible and
>transparent," and that "workers felt they could air grievances in a fair
>and effective way."
>
>
>Background:
>On January 9, 800 workers at the Kuk Dong factory staged a work stoppage to
>protest the illegal firings and forced resignations of 20 workers who had
>complained about low wages (US$32 for a 50-hour week) and rotten food
>served in the factory cafeteria, and had requested a copy of the collective
>agreement.
>
>The striking workers demanded that the company reinstate the fired workers
>and respect their right to organize an independent union.
>
>The workers are currently "represented" by the FROC-CROC, a union
>federation controlled by the historical ruling party of Mexico, the PRI.
>Workers complain that the FROC-CROC was brought in by the company without
>the workers' consent, and that it negotiated a "protection contract" with
>their employer without their knowledge or approval.
>
>On January 12, 300 state police in full riot gear attacked 300 workers who
>were guarding the factory. The workers, who put their hands in the air and
>retreated to the factory gates, were hit, pulled, pushed and insulted by
>the police.
>
>Fifteen workers ended up in the hospital, and two were kept overnight. One
>of them was in serious condition from blows to the head. Two strike leaders
>were violently kidnapped by the police, but were later released.
>
>The police had apparently been ordered to remove the strikers by the PRI
>state governor. As well, Rene Sanchez Juarez, the local leader of the
>FROC-CROC, was reportedly at the scene of the police attack, pointing out
>strike leaders to the police.
>
>Faced with protests by independent unions in Mexico, including the National
>Workers' Unity, the telephone workers and independent Volkswagen workers'
>unions, and increasing pressure on Nike from student, labour and solidarity
>groups in the US, Canada and Europe, Kuk Dong management agreed to allow
>strikers to return to their jobs with no reprisals.
>
>On January 17, management violated the agreement by refusing entry to the
>factory to several independent union supporters. Others union supporters
>who succeeded in entering the plant were picked out by representatives of
>the "official" union, reported to security guards and told to leave, or
>told they would have to resign "voluntarily."
>
>**************************************************************
>Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) / Ethical Trading Action Group (ETAG), 606
>Shaw Street, Toronto Ontario M6G 3L6, CANADA
>Tel: 416-532-8584 / Fax: 416-532-7688 / Web: www.maquilasolidarity.org
>
>
>
>
>
>Clean Clothes Campaign
>PO Box 11584
>1001 GN Amsterdam
>The Netherlands
>tel: + 31 20 4122785
>fax: + 31 20 4122786
>e-mail:ccc@xs4all.nl
>
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