NPR attacks National Labor Committee!!! Part of a larger corporate counter-attack?

Labor Alerts/Labor News, 8 July 1997

July 8: A story this morning on National Public Radio's Morning Edition portrayed the National Labor Committee as scaring Disney and other U.S. manufacturers out of Haiti. According to the story, Disney contractor H.H. Cutler Co.(based in the U.S.) has notified its Haitian subcontractor Gillenex that, starting in September, Cutler will not be placing orders with Gillenex. Gillenex is one of a number of subcontractors for Disney in Haiti. The story suggests that cancellation of business with Gillenex is due to the National Labor Committee's Disney campaign.

The National Labor Committee has stated clearly from the very outset of its campaign that Disney should not pull out of Haiti. Disney has exploited these workers and now it has a responsibility to do right by them. Please write or phone the Walt Disney company and tell them that you want then to continue to produce in Haiti -- and to pay a living wage -- and to live up to their own code of conduct:

Michael Eisner, Chief Executive Officer Walt Disney Company 500 South Buena Vista Street Burbank, CA 91521 Tel: 818-560-1000 Fax: 818-560-1930

Campaign for Labor Rights believes that THE NPR STORY IS PART OF A LARGER CORPORATE COUNTERATTACK ON THE LABOR RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

Corporations which have moved much of their production overseas -- especially those in the shoe and apparel industry -- have felt enormous pressure due to public condemnation of their labor practices. For some time now, the industry has tried to convince the public that impoverished countries need more sweatshops, not less. Campaign for Labor Rights, the National Labor Committee and other responsible labor rights organizations have never disputed that people need jobs, no matter where they live in the world. However, POVERTY WAGES KEEP PEOPLE IN POVERTY.

When corporations pull production from a country -- or threaten to pull out -- as a response to labor rights campaigns, that is BLACKMAIL pure and simple. The NPR story is very likely the opening of a larger corporate counter-attack on the labor rights movement. An uproar of public condemnation is needed at this time to show Disney that cut-and-run tactics will not work. If Disney and its contractors can get away with this tactic, the rest of the industry will try to use this example to silence criticism.

In 1995, the Gap company responded to a previous campaign by pulling production from the Mandarin clothing factory in El Salvador. Public outcry forced the Gap to go back to the Mandarin and negotiate with the owners for cleaning up their act. Today, the Mandarin factory has a widely acclaimed independent monitoring system in place. This monitoring, done by an alliance of local human rights and religious groups, is widely acknowledged as having improved communications and working conditions in what had been a tense, hostile and oppressive working environment. Now, even the Mandarin management give the monitors high marks for improving relations in the factory.

YOU MADE IN HAPPEN IN EL SALVADOR!!! THE WORKERS IN HAITI ARE COUNTING ON YOU TO MAKE IT HAPPEN AGAIN!!!

This alert was written by Campaign for Labor Rights, in consultation with the National Labor Committee (NLC). The NLC is preparing a response to the NPR story. We will pass on any alerts from NLC as soon as we receive them.

In an accompanying item, we are forwarding a recent message from the Clean Clothes Campaign in The Netherlands (title: Disney/Haiti background info). That message, which discusses garment production in the Haitian export processing zones, is an excellent background piece to read if you are not fully conversant in the issues surrounding the Disney campaign. The Clean Clothes message also suggests a number of places to send messages. Due to the urgency of the NPR story, we ask you to give priority to contacting Disney directly (see contact information, above).