November 14, 2012

In this issue of the Update, we highlight an announcement by Gap Inc. that it has pulled out of discussions with trade unions and NGOs about joining a comprehensive fire safety program in Bangladesh, where hundreds of garment workers have died in factory fires.

Gap’s decision was particularly disappointing because of the relatively constructive relationship MSN and other labour rights organizations have developed with the company over the past decade.

That decision has forced us to move from constructive engagement to campaigning on the fire safety issue while continuing to dialogue with the company on other issues.

In this issue we also profile a volatile situation – harassment and threats of violence against union supporters – at the Star factory in Honduras that was recently purchased by Canadian T-shirt manufacturer Gildan Activewear.

The factory was formerly owned by Anvil Knitwear, which must also share responsibility for the situation.

MSN has had a long, sometimes stormy, sometimes cooperative, relationship with Gildan. It was almost 10 years ago that Gildan threatened legal action against MSN if we published a study documenting the impacts of 11-hour workdays and multiple firings of union supporters at a Gildan factory in Honduras, a factory it later closed to avoid having to accept a union.

At that time, Gildan’s response to negative research findings was to deny, deny, deny. So, what, if anything, has changed in ten years of campaigning and engagement with Gildan?

On the negative side, the company seems unable to make fundamental changes in its management practices at the factory level. On the positive side, it usually accepts, rather than contests, the findings of independent investigations that document those abusive practices, and often pledges to take corrective action to eliminate them.

Meanwhile another T-shirt company in Honduras, Fruit of the Loom (owners of Russell Athletic), which has also had its share labour-management conflicts, has begun to develop a constructive working relationship with unions at two of its factories in that country, including negotiating a collective bargaining agreement at one of the factories that provides workers significant improvements in wages and working conditions.

In addition, Fruit of the Loom is cooperating with the CGT union federation and US labour rights expert Lance Compa on a training program on freedom of association for workers at its other factories in Honduras.

These achievements, which will be profiled in a future issue of the Update, did not come easy. It took a lengthy campaign (in 2008 and 2009) in the US and Canada, in which over 100 universities cut off or threatened to cut off lucrative licensing agreements with Russell, to achieve these commitments from the company.

For companies like Gap and Gildan that have a longer history of engaging with labour rights groups, public campaigning shouldn’t still be necessary to make them do the right thing. But if constructive engagement isn’t achieving concrete results, companies need to be reminded that labour rights organizations are prepared to mobilize public pressure  - which is what motivated them to engage in the first place.

Lynda Yanz
for the MSN team