Factory workers need University support

In October of 2008, UH officially affiliated with the Workers Rights Consortium.

They adopted a code of conduct, which, in part, protects the associational rights of workers who produce UH logo apparel. The WRC’s Model Code of Conduct at www.workersrights.org clarifies these terms.

A test case for how seriously the university would take its new commitment occurred in October when Russell Corporation, a supplier of UH logo apparel, announced it would be closing its Jerzees de Honduras plant in Choloma, Honduras, leaving 1,800 workers without a job. To quote a plant supervisor at Jerzees de Honduras, this is because “the company is not going to work with a union.” 

According to the Workers Rights Consortium, around March 2008, a supervisor stated during a lunch period in the factory cafeteria in the presence of many workers the “factory is going to close because of the union. … The workers will starve because they got involved with a union.”

Russell is claiming the decision to close the factory is unrelated to the workers successfully organizing an independent union. However, Russell does have a history of undermining associational rights, such as the unlawful termination of 145 Honduran workers in 2007.

The decision to close the Jerzees factory came, according to the WRC, “only days after the company reached an impasse with its workers’ union in bargaining for a first ever-collective agreement at the plant.”

This is where it becomes important UH uses its leverage to support these Honduran workers and also highlights why it is absolutely crucial UH President Renu Khator adopt the Designated Supplier Program.

Whenever Honduran workers make progress in attaining their rights, factories are shut down and moved to a location where goods can be produced using cheaper labor.

The DSP rewards factories that have a track record of respecting worker’s rights “including the right to organize and bargain collectively, and the right to be paid a living wage,” according to www.workersrights.org.

In December, UH Students Against Sweatshops gave a letter to Khator urging her to take action on the Jerzees de Honduras case.

In response, the student group received a letter from Dona Cornell, vice president for Legal Affairs and General Counsel, thanking the group for its letter and previous correspondence, and hoping association with the WRC would be productive.

Khator has stated “It will take this entire community to build a great university,” and she’s right. But that includes her and our entire administration.

By the time this article goes to print, the workers of Jerzees de Honduras will be without jobs. More initiative is expected from a university striving to become a premier international research institution.

Students wanting to explore these issues further may be interested in the screening  of the documentary Maquilapolis at 7 p.m. tonight in Cullen Performance Hall.  The screening will be followed by a talk from Carmen Duran, a worker featured in the film.

Frankie Perez is an English sophomore and may be reached at opinion@thedailycougar.com

2 comments

Timothy

Wed Mar 11 2009 20:01

It's nice to see an anonymous corporate excuse posted to try and confuse the issue. Actually as a member of Students Against Sweatshops and a student at UH, let me explain what Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous Corporate Excuse Maker did not tell you:

Members of United Students Against Sweatshops met with Jerzees de Honduras workers in Los Angeles and got the word from them that they were threatened with death and treated like crap, these workers also toured the country telling their story.

As of March 6, TWENTY-ONE universities cut their contract with Russell, see:
http://reininrussell.blogspot.com/

First the "Fair" Labor Association is anything but independent or "fair" they are actually made up of corporations like Russell. Their "report" by for profit monitors on Jerzees de Honduras actually agreed that animosity towards the union by Russell was one of the reasons the factory was shut down.

Furthermore read the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) report which says that union busting was the reason that Russell shut the factory down. The WRC is actually a third party INDEPENDENT labor monitoring organization made up of students, college administrators and labor experts, not corporations like Russell.

Finally to get the whole story read the WRC report:
http://workersrights.org/RussellRightsViolations.asp

Russell Athletic

Thu Mar 5 2009 12:45

I work with Russell, and I’d like to respond to the false accusation that we closed this plant because it was unionized. We had already recognized this plant’s union status for more than a year before announcing the closure. The Fair Labor Association, as well as an independent report it commissioned both agreed: it was imperative for us to close one of our three plants in Honduras because of the global economic slowdown. The independent report also confirmed the two reasons why we chose this plant in particular: 1) The need for products sewn there was lower than any of our other factories in Honduras. And 2) it was the only one with a lease we could vacate immediately, which saved us $2 million.

Once people see all the facts in this case, they come to a different conclusion. Princeton University, for example, decided to continue its merchandising relationship with Russell Athletic, Princeton Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee said today.

Daily Princetonian senior writer Jack Ackerman today wrote: “The University relies on the FLA for monitoring, Durkee explained, adding that he was not convinced that anti-union sentiment motivated the closure of Russell’s Honduras plant. “The decision to close this factory was driven by economic conditions,” he said.”

Russell had recognized the union at that plant on October 3, 2007, months before the global slowdown began. A separate report commissioned by the FLA found that management and the union actually had a “cooperative rapport.”

As the FLA noted in its report: “If the primary motive of the company had been to frustrate the union, it could have closed JDH earlier and even switched production from Honduras to Mexico.”

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