SUPPRESSED REPORT DOCUMENTS SWEATSHOP ABUSES IN EL SALVADOR

     A suppressed govenment report on the El Salvodorian garment export industry was made  public by the New York City-based National Labor Committee in May. The report documents the systematic repression of human and worker rights in the free trade zones of El Salvador.

           Eighty-five thousand maquila workers, mostly young women, sewing garments for Nike, Jordan, Adidas, GAP, Ohio State, Duke, University of Michigan, Georgetown, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart and Elderwear school uniforms are systematically denied their rights and paid wages of “abject poverty.”

     This rare, truthful glimpse provided by the Salvadoran Ministry of Labor investigation into actual working conditions in the free trade zones in El Salvador survived just one day before managers of the maquila companies read it and began to “howl with rage.” With only 100 copies distributed in October, the Salvadoran government moved quickly to suppress the report, suspend printing, lay off the researchers involved, and demand the return of the 100 or so copies of the report that had been distributed. The Salvadoran Ministry of Labor then went on television to announce that the report was all a big “misunderstanding.”

       However, not all copies of the original USAID-funded Salvadoran government report were returned. The National Labor Committee held onto one copy so it could be released to the Salvadoran and American people, who have a right to know the truth.

       In El Salvador today, there are 85,000 workers in 229 maquila factories sewing 634 million garments valued at over $1 billion a year for export to the U.S. El Salvador is the eighth largest exporter worldwide of apparel to the U.S. There is not one single union functioning with a collective contract in any of these factories, despite mandatory pregnancy tests, forced overtime, below-subsistence wages, maltreatment, and unsafe working conditions. This is because every attempt to organize a union is immediately met with illegal mass firings and blacklisting. The Salvadoran government has provided the maquila factories and free trade zones with complete impunity to violate the most fundamental, internationally recognized worker rights.

     Among the findings of the report “During the visits made, it was possible to confirm that overtime is worked on a daily basis in the majority of maquila companies, in order to complete the production goals established by the company.” “It is also important to point out that in the majority of companies, it is an obligation of the personnel to work overtime under the threat of firing or some other kind of reprisal. This situation, in addition to threatening the health of the workers, causes family problems in that (the workers) are unable to properly fulfill obligations to their immediate family.” “On some occasions, because overtime is extended into the late hours of the night, the workers find themselves obligated to sleep in the factory facilities, which do not have conditions necessary for personal care.”

       Below-subsistence wages: “Despite all the forced overtime hours, Nevertheless, the majority of workers stated that in spite of receiving this additional remuneration, the wage was insufficient to satisfy their family needs with dignity, for which reason they affirmed the need in near trem for a review of the minimum wage.”

       Abusive working conditions: “The majority of workers interviewed mentioned that they are subjected to mistreatment by management personnel inside the companies, especially by supervisors who, according to the workers, when they are giving instructions, do so in an overbearing manner and make use of expressions that injure the dignity of the workers..…”

“The majority of workers interviewed mentioned the poor quality of water for human consumption, that it had a bad taste, appearance, color and odor.” “Nor are periodic studies conducted to determine the physiochemical and bacteriological conditions of the drinking water that comes from the companies’ own wells, and the equipment used for its purification is not submitted to constant maintenance and cleaning.”

       Denial of Health Care: “In the majority of cases, the workers have had to give up their regular medical care because of the bosses’ and supervisors’ refusal to allow them to attend their appointments, arguing that their presence is needed to cover production goals.”

       attention during the visits was the fact that the rate of unionization in the maquila is very low… on investigating the reasons for this phenomenon, it was found that there exists an anti-union policy in the maquilas, by which any attempt at organization is repressed.”

“According to union leaders interviewed, it is very common for supervisors and chiefs of personnel to threaten workers with firings if they belong to a union or attempt to form one.”

“The workers stated that one of the principle anti-union policies consists of the management of ‘blacklists’ of the names of workers who belong or at some point have belonged to a union organization. The workers affirm that the people who appear on these lists are not hired by the maquila companies, which constitutes a flagrant violation of freedom to unionize recognized in our judicial order, the constitution of the Republic, as well as secondary labor legislation.”

“It is also frequent that general and local boards of unions that do exist in the maquila are systematically fired. This can be easily verified by reviewing the complaints regarding freedom of organization received by both the Ministry of Labor’s General Directorship and the Inspection Office.”

       As a follow-up to the suppressed Ministry of Labor report, the National Labor Committee carried out in-depth investigations of working conditions at 11 maquila factories in El Salvador producing for Nike, Jordan, Adidas, GAP, Ohio State, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart and others.  The NLC noted that while U.S. companies defend their low-wages by saying that they pay the legal minimum wage, the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador has had to observe that “the minimum wage with benefits does not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family in El Salvador.” In fact, the legal minimum wage of 60 cents an hour meets as little as 26 percent of the cost of living. The Salvadoran Government itself calculates that the legal minimum wage it has set, at 60 cents an hour, is sufficient to meet only 49 percent of what it would cost for the average sized family to survive - even under conditions of “relative poverty”! According to the government, such a family would be unable to purchase even the minimum baskets of goods and services necessary to survive. In fact, the Salvadoran government defines the legal minimum wage of 60 cents an hour as one of “abject poverty,” which means that a family cannot even afford to purchase the basic food necessary to survive, let alone meet other expenses.

       The Tainan factory operates under very harsh disciplinary rules.  Despite El Salvador’s primitive transportaion system, if a woman arrives one minute late to work, she will be locked out and punished with the loss of two days’ wages - losing the day she is locked out, as well as the Seventh Day’s pay.

     At GAP contractor, Han Chang’s plant in El Salvador, the drinking water provided for the mostly young women workers contains human and animal fecal matter and surface run-off, including agricultural effluents. Bacteria levels 123 times European enforcement standards and 25 times greater than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards.

       At another factory.workers are paid just 29 cents for each $140 Nike NBA shirt they sew--which means their wages amount to only 2/10 th s of one percent of the garment’s retail price!

     These same workers are paid 30 cents for each $100 pair of NBA Nike shorts they sew. Here their wages amount to just 3/10 th s of one percent of the retail price of the NBA shorts. For each $55 Nike Ohio State basketball shirt they sew, the Hermosa workers are paid just 22 cents,or 4/10ths of one percent if the retail price.

     The Salvadoran worker earns just 25 cents for every $8.50 Old Navy T-shirt they sew. Workers were paid just 11.6 cents for each $12.99 GAP T-shirt they sew:

     Doall Enterprises, which manufactures clothes for Liz Claiborne, Perry Ellis and Leslie Fay is one of many factories with mandatory pregnancy tests: women testing positive are immediately fired.

 At Leader Garments factory in Ilopango, El Salvador, which produces clothes for Sears, Target, and Kohls, workers are workers paid less than 20 cents for each $14.99 Kohl’s child’s dress they sew.

           At the Chi Fung Factory in Apopa, workers paid just 38 cents for each Jordan/North Carolina T-shirt they sew, which then retails at Niketown for $45.

           In today's global economy, just what leverage do poor developing countries have over giant multinationals roaming the world in search of low wages, no taxes, no unions, no environmental or health and safety constraints, no red tape? Consider El Salvador whose Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - the country's entire economic output of all goods and services – was just $13.2 billion in 2000. This means that Wal-Mart, with annual sales of $193.3 billion in 2000, is more than 14 1/2 times larger than the entire country of El Salvador! The Salvadoran Government's entire general budget for 2000 was $2.08 billion. Gap’s sales in the most recent 12-month period (ending January 31, 2001) totaled $13.7 billion. This means that the Gap is 6 ½ times larger than the Government of El Salvador. In 2000, Nike's advertising budget was $978.2 million. In that same year, the total budget for the Salvadoran government's Ministry of Labor was just $6.86 million. So Nike's advertising budget is 143 times larger tan El Salvador's Ministry of Labor.