Date: Mon, 24 Aug 98 12:09:44 CDT
From: rich@pencil.math.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Organization: PACH
Subject: Weekly Americas News Update #447, 8/23/98
Article: 41775
To: undisclosed-recipients:;;@chumbly.math.missouri.edu
Message-ID: <bulk.24024.19980825181614@chumbly.math.missouri.edu>
/** reg.nicaragua: 51.0 **/
** Topic: Weekly News Update #447, 8/23/98 **
** Written 9:02 PM Aug 23, 1998 by wnu in cdp:reg.nicaragua **
Maquila Contract Signed in Nicaragua
Weekly News Update on the Americas, issue 447, 23 August 1998
Unionized workers at the Taiwanese-owned Chentex maquiladora (tariff-exempt assembly plant) in Nicaragua were scheduled to sign an agreement with management at the Labor Ministry on Aug. 19 following a year-long struggle to win recognition and a contract. The agreement was said to provide for a clinic at the workplace, a 30% subsidy on eyeglassses, a contribution in the event of a birth or a death in the family, free school supplies for the children of workers, and a credit fund. It also contains a clause to re-open in six months' time issues on which workers and management were unable to agree: transport allowance, meal allowance and wage review.
Chentex, part of the Chi Shing consortium, employs some 1,700 workers
stitching garments under contract for US retailers, including
Wal-Mart, Kmart, J.C. Penney and Gloria Vanderbilt; the plant was one
of several plants in Managua's Las Mercedes Free Trade Zone
investigated by the US-based National Labor Committee (NLC) and the US
television program Hard Copy
for an expose aired in the US in
November 1997. The Federation of Garment, Textile, Leather and Shoe
Workers—affiliated with the Sandinista Workers Federation (CST),
which is linked to the leftist opposition Sandinista National
Liberation Front (FSLN)—won recognition on Feb. 16 after a
six-month struggle. One month later, on Mar. 19, Chentex announced
that it was moving operations to Mexico because of the most recent
violent events by CST leaders
[see Updates #407, 408, 418, 421,
425].
The threat to move appears to have been a negotiating ploy, and management—which had received hundreds of letters of protest from international solidarity activists—agreed in May to negotiate in good faith. In early August, the company made public a decision to renew its contract in Nicaragua. Union sources say that over the next six months the Federation plans to consolidate its strength at Chentex and organize the other two plants in the Chi Shing consortium. [Labor Alerts/Campaign for Labor Rights 8/19/98; Federation letter 8/14/98]