On Friday, May 9 Cicih attended a gathering hosted by the Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN). MSN is part of a Canadian coalition called Labour behind the Label. MSN functions both as a local and a national organization in Canada. It maintains direct connections with unions in Mexico and Central America and also has supported several important labor rights struggles, including the recently victorious Phillips-Van Heusen campaign.
Many U.S. actvists receive MSN mailings, as a source of information on Canadian-initiated struggles and to get a Canadian perspective on international labor rights campaigns originating from the U.S. and elsewhere.
To receive the MSN newsletter,contact Maquila Solidarity Network at perg@web.net 416-532-8584 606 Shaw Street, Toronto, ON Canada M6G 3L6.
Also at the gathering were staff members of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace. Last year, Development and Peace conducted a postcard campaign urging Nike to respect the rights of it production workers and to allow truly independent monitoring. Last year's campaign brought in 57,000 signatures. This year, Development and Peace did another postcard camapign -- this time bringing in 150,000 signatures. In Ontario, Development and Peace activists also have taken out full-page ads in local newspapers, urging Nike to respect worker rights.
The Ontario leg of the tour included speaking engagements in St. Catherine's, Windsor, Waterloo, London and Toronto. There were leafleting actions at stores selling Nike products in Waterloo and Toronto. All arrangements in Ontario were handled by the Social Justice Fund of the Canadian Auto Workers, often in conjunction with Development and Peace and/or the Labour behind the Label coalition.
The culminating event was a large public presentation in Toronto. Cicih was part of a panel which included representatives from Development and Peace, UNITE, Press for Change and the Canadian Auto Workers. Alex Dagg of UNITE brought out the Canadian connections in the Nike campaign.
A Canadian skate company, Bauer (no connection with Eddie Bauer), has operations in Cambridge, Ontario. After Nike bought out Bauer recently, it announced that it would close the Cambridge plant, with a resulting loss of 400 jobs. Some of the high end work will be shifted to the Bauer plant in Quebec but the bulk of the production will move to the third world.
Another Ontario company, York Manufacturing, had a long history of producing clothing in Canada. Most of its workforce was immigrant women, Portugese and others. In 1984, Nike established contractural relations with York. It pressured the company to drop its contracts with all other brands. York's owners poured substantial sums in upgrading their infrastructure, to be able to do high tech clothing production. By 1994, 95 percent of York's production was for Nike. But then Nike abruptly announced that it was severing its relations with York. Having become totally dependent on Nike, the factory went out of business, with a loss of 125 jobs. Some of the women had worked at York for as long as 30 years and had no other employment history and now no other employment prospects. York workers were unionized.
Nike is still doing some clothing production in Canada, but not in union shops. After the plant closure was announced, the York workers petitioned Nike. Nike's response was to threaten the workers with a lawsuit because their petition portrayed the company's trademark swoosh. Nike representatives refused to consider the needs of the workers it had abandoned, saying that the company makes a contribution to the community through its participation in sporting events. Also, Nike said that these were not their employees. Nike recently signed an agreement (arising from its participation in a White House task force on sweatshop issues) to be responsible for the labor practices of its contractors.
Nike's biggest global customer is the Foot Locker chain of stores, which has outlets all across Canada. Foot Locker is owned by the U.S.-based Woolworth company.Woolworth also owns the Northern Group department stores (Northern Traditions, Northern Reflections, etc.).
The Labour behind the Label coalition is trying to get the Northern Group to act responsibly toward home workers producing clothing for Northern contractors. Home work is legal in Canada. Paying less than the minimum was is not. The coalition asked Northern to look into allegations that one of its contractors was underpaying workers and to see that the violations were corrected.
Northern's response was to sever the contract. The message was clear: Workers who complain about violations of their rights will lose their jobs. The coalition has information on a number of other Northern contractors who also are illegally underpaying their employees. However, until the company agrees to redress the grievances of the one contractor's employees, the coalition is not going to expose the employees of the other contractors to loss of employment by providing further information to Northern.
Woolworth has refused to force its Northern Group stores to correct violations of Canadian labor law by its contractors. Look for more on this issue in future alerts from Campaign for Labor Rights. We look forward to a closer working relationship with Labour behind the Label and the Maquila Solidarity Network as a result of this speaking tour.
Next report: Cicih at the LELO retreat -- Haitian labor activists to press for justice for employees of a Nike contractor in Haiti.
[Background: Cicih Sukaesih is an Indonesian woman who was fired by a Nike contractor when she and 6,500 of her co-workers stood up for their rights. She currently is on a speaking tour in Canada and the U.S. The Canadian portion of the tour is being generously funded by a major grant from the Canadian Auto Workers Social Justice Fund, with additional funding from the Alberta Federation of Labor. The tour is organized by Campaign for Labor Rights and Press for Change. See earlier postings for days 1-7. Her experiences in a Nike factory and the story of her struggle are in the posting for day 1.]
REMINDER: There will be an international mobilization on Saturday,
October 18 in support of Nike production workers. Local community-based
organizations and union locals in the U.S. and Canada are invited to
organize leafleting events at stores selling Nike products. If that
particular date does not work for your organization or your community, feel
free to pick another day in the same time frame.
To read about important labor rights struggles and for information on how to support those struggles, subscribe to the Campaign for Labor Rights newsletter. Send $35 to 1247 "E" Street, Washington, DC 20003. For a sample newsletter, contact us at (202) 544-9355 or clr@igc.apc.org. We rely on subscriptions to help us provide the many services of Campaign for Labor Rights. Also see our web site at http://www.compugraph.com/clr
If you are not already receiving Labor Alerts/Labor News directly via email, send a message to clr@igc.apc.org with "labor alerts -- Nike campaign" or "labor alerts -- all campaigns" in the subject line.
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