From: Maria Roeper (maria.roeper@workersrights.org)
Date: Tue Apr 16 2002 - 10:29:20 EDT
Friends,
Below is a WRC update that WRC Executive Director sent to WRC primary administrative contacts at WRC affiliate colleges and universities. If you have any thoughts or questions, comments, please feel free to give me a call, either at work: 202-387-4884, or on my mobile phone: 202-437-0289.
Take care,
Maria
-----Original Message-----
From: Erin McGrath
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 10:04 AM
To: Maria Roeper
Subject: WRC Update - April
To: Primary Contacts/WRC Affiliate Colleges and Universities
From: Scott Nova, Executive Director
Date: April 15, 2002
Re: WRC update - April
I write to update you on the WRC's recent work. This update will cover the following topics:
-Developments at Mexmode (formerly Kukdong)
-WRC Factory Assessment at PT Dada (Indonesia)
-WRC Factory Assessment at BJ&B (Dominican Republic)
-WRC Receives grant of $415,000 from the US State Department
-New University Affiliations
-WRC University Caucus Meeting - May 10
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEXMODE (KUKDONG)
There have been two very positive developments at Mexmode in the last month.
1) On April 1st, the management at Mexmode and SITEMEX, the new independent union, signed a new collective contract. The contract calls for a direct wage increase of 10%, a 5% increase in cash benefits, and a new, substantial attendance bonus. Workers receiving the attendance bonus (granted to all workers who, in a given week, have no absences, instances of tardiness or disciplinary violations) will, as a result of the bonus and the direct increases, take home up to 40% more pay than they were receiving under the old contract. This large wage increase will have a very significant impact on the ability of Mexmode workers to support their families. The new contract is a clear indication of continued progress at Mexmode.
2) Also on April 1st, Nike announced the placement of a substantial order at Mexmode involving 215,000 units of fleece apparel -- with a value to the factory of roughly $2.5 million. This represents the fulfillment of Nike's pledge, announced in December, to place new orders at Mexmode in view of the substantial progress at the factory toward Code of Conduct compliance. It is unclear at this point whether Reebok is planning to place orders at Mexmode.
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PT DADA (INDONESIA)
As you know, the WRC has completed and issued our Preliminary Report on PT Dada Indonesia, a major supplier of college and university logo baseball caps. What is particularly encouraging about this case is the high level of cooperation from the licensees involved, all of whom have agreed to support the WRC's key recommendations for remediation.
As a result of the clear message being sent by the licensees, PT Dada management has pledged to implement the WRC's recommendations. There is much work to be done to ensure that management makes good on this pledge. I am planning to meet with the management in Jakarta at the end of next week to discuss a concrete remediation plan. The WRC has also organized a follow-up monitoring team, comprised of representatives of respected Indonesian non-governmental organizations. The team's role will be to assess progress at PT Dada in the weeks ahead.
I want to share with you an excerpt from an article on PT Dada from the University of Southern California campus newspaper, quoting an executive at the Top of the World, also one of the licensees using the Dada factory:
"We are willing to comply completely to rectify the situation at PT Dada," said Scott Jacobs, vice president of Top of the World. The company has been working with the WRC for the past two months to correct the labor abuses, Jacobs said. "We are behind the WRC 100 percent," he added.
As you know, the WRC is committed to conducting all factory assessments independent of industry involvement. At the same time, we recognize that we must be able to work with licensees on remediation efforts, as well as on other matters. Top of the World's statement, and the willingness of licensees to support the WRC's recommendations in the Dada case, are important indications that an independent approach to monitoring does not preclude effective cooperation with licensees where needed.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
BJ&B (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)
We are continuing our assessment of BJ&B/Yupoong, a major producer of caps for the collegiate market, located in the Dominican Republic. The WRC BJ&B assessment team conducted its on-site assessment in February, interviewing workers, factory managers, government officials, representatives of Dominican NGOs, union officials, and company and union attorneys. We are continuing follow-up research, include review of company personnel records, and plan to issue a factory report in early May.
In the meantime, we have continued to work with the factory and government officials to promote remedial action on the most immediate issue at BJ&B: attempts by management to repress workers' associational rights through means that violate college and university Codes of Conduct. There has been some significant progress on this front, beyond the reinstatement of fired union leaders that we reported to you earlier. In February, after several meetings between top officials at the Dominican Secretariat of Labor and representatives of the WRC, the Dominican government granted legal recognition to the new union at BJ&B -- recognition which had originally been denied, despite the fact that the union clearly qualified for recognition under Dominican law. In my view, the scrutiny of the government's approach that resulted from the WRC investigation and the brands' intervention was a significant factor in prompting the government to act. The WRC was also able to secure the reinstatement of four union supporters w
ho were, by all appearances, unjustly fired at the end of February. After the WRC brought the issue to the attention of the Fair Labor Association, the FLA played an active and effective role, along with the WRC, in securing these reinstatements. WRC and FLA representatives met jointly with BJ&B management on this issue in March.
While BJ&B did the right thing in reinstating fired union leaders in January, and reinstating the four union supporters in March, there remains very substantial concern about whether workers at BJ&B will be able to exercise their associational rights. We will continue to promote remedial action toward this goal and will address the issue in detail in our public report in May.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
WRC FUNDRAISING
I am pleased to be able to announce that the WRC has been awarded a grant of $415,000 by the U.S. State Department under the Department's Anti-Sweatshop Initiative. This substantial grant, which covers two years of work, will support WRC factory assessments and educational programs, with specific emphasis on our efforts in Indonesia, Thailand and Mexico. This grant will facilitate a substantial increase in the WRC's overall budget and, as a result, a significant increase in the scope of our work.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
UNIVERSITY AFFILIATIONS
The WRC now has 96 affiliate colleges and universities. Schools that have recently affiliated or announced their intention to do so include Colby College, Ithaca College, Vanderbilt University and Carnegie Mellon University.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
WRC UNIVERSITY CAUCUS MEETING
The annual meeting of the WRC University Caucus will take place Friday, May 10 at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Everyone should already have received several communications concerning the meeting. If you have not RSVPed, please do so as soon as is convenient, by e-mailing Erin McGrath at the WRC office: mcgrath@workersrights.org. Or call WRC office at (202) 387-4884.
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