Lajat Workers Face Dire Situation
Support Needed to Visit Mexican Consulates and Pressure Levi Strauss, Mudd Jeans and Aeropostale
October 4, 2005
Desperate to stop a union election which they know the workers will win, Lajat has ratcheted up the pressure on its Gomez Palacio workers, cutting wages in half, canceling mandatory health coverage, using physical violence. Workers desperately need support, and CJM is appealing to all people of conscience in North America to pressure Lajat’s customer companies and the Mexican government for justice.
The Lajat workers have been trying for months to get a union election in which their independent union, the National Union of Garment and Clothing could take over representation and negotiation of the collective bargaining agreement. The Mexican government and its labor board have allied with Lajat and the CTM to deny the workers their rights.
Yesterday, Lajat finally succeeded in bribing the workers’ union leader Jesus Garcia. For a mere $3,000 and a promise not to blacklist him, Jesus bowed out of the struggle, saying his wife’s diabetes and the cancellation of the family’s medical coverage gave him no choice.
When Amalia Palomino, another leader, arrived at work today, she was sent home. Management then told the rest of the workers that Amalia had sold them out along with Jesus. The manager also said the company had closed the cafeteria, and he prevented the workers from entering the shop floor. When the workers learned this and that he was lying about Amalia, they became very angry. They demanded to know why wages had been cut from 850 pesos to 350 pesos (about $35 per week). As the manager retreated to his office he hit a woman worker and pushed her down, then he called the labor authorities.
There’s a hearing scheduled at the Labor Board (Conciliation and Arbitration Board) for Friday, October 7. The workers have been demanding an embargo on the equipment in the Lajat plant preventing the company from moving it until all workers are paid. They are still demanding that the plant be kept open and that they be allowed to vote for the union of their choice.
Despite Lajat’s claims that there’s no work, it’s clear that there’s plenty of work in other Lajat’s plants and that Lajat has subcontracted work from the Gomez plant to avoid the union election.
Meanwhile the official union has made a deal with CANICINTRA the Mexican Chamber of Commerce for Industry [The national businessman committee for commerce and industry] to oppose jointly the holding of a democratic election and to publicly claim that the Lajat workers are stooges for foreign (US) unions.
The Lajat workers have many allies in the Laguna Region, but winning against the combined opposition of company, official union and government will take more than local support and their valiant determination. It’s going to take unions, churches, consumers, and human rights advocates across North America to win justice. Worker organizations from Tijuana to Oaxaca in Mexico are mobilizing in demonstrations, holding press conferences, and, with the slogan, “No more isolated struggles” are pledged to bring the Lajat Workers Jeans with Justice Campaign to national and international attention. We ask, how long must Mexican workers sacrifice before their government finally acknowledges that they are human beings and not beasts to be used up in sweatshops and thrown away? How long will we let the multinational garment companies profiteer off the misery of these workers? The answer is as long as we let them.
You can help in the following ways:
1. If you live near a Mexican Consulate, organize a visit and/or a demonstration. Contact CJM’s Action Committee at jancel@igc.org or cjm_mojeda@igc.org. For consulate locations, see www.mexonline.com/consulate.htm.
2. Call or email Lajat’s customers. Tell them to insist that don “Cut and Run from Lajat Gomez Palacio and to honor workers’ right to organize and hold an election with secret ballot in a neutral place. See sample letter below. Send letters to the following:
Conrad Lung
Mudd Jeans
CLung335@aol.com
Phone: 212-730-0404
Fax: 212-730-2289
Michael Kobori*
Levi Strauss & Co
mkobari@levi.com
Phone : 415-
Fax: 415-501-7112
Edward M. Slezak
Aeropostale, Inc.
ESlezak@aeropostale.com
Phone: 646-452-1851
Fax: 646-619-4873
3. Volunteer to help us organize handbilling at stores where Levis, Mudd Jeans and Aeropostale are sold. Call 210-732-8957 (CJM) of email jancel@igc.org
4. Donate money for the Lajat workers by sending a check made out to The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras. In memo area put “Lajat Workers” and mail it to: The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras at 4207 Willow Brook San Antonio, TX 78228
5. Bring a Lajat worker to your city. CJM is organizing a tour to spread the word and raise funds. Contact us at 210-732-8957 or cjm_mojeda@igc.org
Sample letter to Lajat customers:
Dear [insert name of the contact and name of company]:
The situation at Lajat in Gomez Palacio is becoming dangerous for the workers as the company continues to violate their rights and your code of conduct for suppliers with impunity. We think that Lajat’s treatment of its workers in closing the plant, trying to starve them out, cutting off their access to healthcare [not paying the health care system], physically attacking them, and threatening them with the blacklist is unconscionable.
We wonder how your company can conduct business as usual with a supplier that blatantly violates contracts you have signed with them. Your company’s image is at risk by continuing to tolerate production of jeans in sweatshops like Lajat.
Please act before someone is killed, disappeared or seriously injured, before a child dies for lack of healthcare, before workers suffer the dire consequences and desperation of the blacklist.
Demand that Lajat reopen the Gomez Palacio plant with all the workers returned to work at full pay and that they stop their interference in the workers’ fundamental human right to freedom of association.
Sincerely,
________________________
*Levis is facing another labor issue in Mexico at the plant of Sigths Donin Systems in Morelos Coahuila where the owner has disappeared leaving the workers unpaid, workers occupied the plant and seized several truckloads of finished Levis jeans and are holding them until they are paid.