WELCOME TO THE ARCHIVE (1994-2014) OF THE MAQUILA SOLIDARITY NETWORK. For current information on our ongoing work on the living wage, women's labour rights, freedom of association, corporate accountability and Bangladesh fire and safety, please visit our new website, launched in October, 2015: www.maquilasolidarity.org
October 31, 2006
Many of you will recall the international campaign in 2003 to support the Gina Relation Workers' Union (GRWU) at a Thai factory producing underwear for major international brands and retailers. In August 2002, management sent the entire union executive committee home on leave, at full pay. The company then proceeded to sign a three-year collective agreement with a new committee made up of supervisors and one disgruntled former member of the union executive. The workers were then ordered to sign blank pieces of paper; these in turn were submitted by the company to the Ministry of Labour as evidence that the new agreement had the backing of Gina Form Bra employees. The GRWU filed a complaint with the Ministry, which eventually ruled in the union's favour and refused to register the new agreement.
In early 2003, anti-sweatshop groups in the US, the UK, continental Europe, and Canada launched letter-writing campaigns aimed at the Thai prime minister's office, management at Gina Form Bra, and the major brands supplied by the Bangkok factory - including Victoria's Secret (owned by the US firm The Limited) and the Gap. In Canada, MSN focussed its efforts on pressuring the two Canadian buyers, Boutique Jacob and La Senza, to work with the larger US buyers to bring an end to the abuses at the factory.
La Senza and Boutique Jacob "cut and ran" by moving orders out of the Gina Form Bra factory. La Senza shifted orders to other factories owned by the Clover Group. However a concentrated international effort by Maquila Solidarity Network members, unions, NGOs and major US brands won the reinstatement of many of the union members and convinced management to negotiate a new collective agreement with the union. Conditions improved greatly and Gina became one of the few factories in Thailand providing decent wages and conditions. For the next three years the union considered Gina Form Bra to be "an exemplary factory in terms of quality, efficiency, and code of conduct compliance."
Gina Form Bra Co. Ltd. was part of the Clover Group. The Clover Group had factories in Thailand, Cambodia and China. Major Clover Group clients include Warnaco, Gap, The Limited (Victoria's Secret) and La Senza. Although La Senza is no longer in the Gina factory, they remain a Clover Group client.
The Clover Group began moving equipment out of the Gina Form Bra Factory in July of 2006. On August 29, the company announced plans to move 620 sewing machines from the Gina Bra factory to China. The Thai Ministry of Labour intervened and forbid the movement of further equipment until it was clear that workers would receive their legal severance pay and other benefits. On September 4, 2006, Gina Bra management announced it was planning to close the factory entirely on October 31. Management claimed that their international buyers were demanding that production be moved to China.
Workers feared that the closure of the factory was an attempt to get rid of their union. They also suspect that after the union is eliminated, Clover Group will reopen the factory and hire non-union workers. There were also differences between management and the union and Ministry of Labour about legal severance owed the workers.
The Maquila Solidarity Network and its allies were in regular communication with two of the three key buyers sourcing at Gina Form (the Limited and Warnaco) following a request from the GRWU. Communication was also undertaken with the third key buyer, US-based Charming Shoppes. The Gap, La Senza and Lindex, who source their production at Clover's factory in Cambodia, were contacted.
Gap, Warnaco and The Limited all made contact with Clover Group on this issue. La Senza refused to respond to enquiries and requests for action.
We asked all buyers to:
When The Limited, Warnaco and Gap contacted Clover Group, Clover Group claimed the Gina factory was operating at a loss. Despite repeated requests from both union and buyers, management failed to provide any evidence to support such a claim, either to the union or, to our knowledge, to any of the buyers.
In a letter to all the brands sourcing from Gina on September 23, 2006, the union expressed their surprise at management's claim of financial loss, since only the year before large increases in employees benefits were part of a renegotiated collective bargaining agreement in 2005. The company never informed the union that the factory was operating at a great financial loss. The GRWU also questioned the company's threat to close down operations in Thailand, given that they were reportedly subcontracting orders for Victoria's Secret and Calvin Klein to other facilities in Thailand, leaving Gina Form staff without any work to do.
The GRWU requested the following from Clover Group International Co. Ltd. and all brands sourcing from Clover Group International Ltd:
The union also requested that all brands sourcing from Clover Group International Ltd. disclose information about the price paid and order volume that they placed at Clover Group's subsidiaries in Thailand, Cambodia and China since 2003.
Faced with the continued unwillingness of management to negotiate directly with the Gina Relations Workers Union (GRWU) and discuss alternatives to closure of the Gina Form Bra factory, the GRWU sent a delegation to Hong Kong to push for a meeting with the parent company, Clover Group. Together with Hong Kong NGOs and trade unions, the GRWU demonstrated in front of Clover head office on October 20th, 2006. In response, senior Clover Group management agreed to a negotiation meeting for the following Monday, October 23rd.
On the 23rd Clover Group and representatives of the GWRU met, supported by representatives from various Hong Kong NGOs, the Hong Kong trade union federation and a number of affiliates. Clover Group once again failed to provide any credible information that would prove that the closure is due to legitimate business reasons. Rather Clover management openly blamed the union for costing the company too much and making the business uncompetitive. Clover Group refused to discuss any alternatives to closure with the union delegation.
Management maintained the factory has been operating at a loss for over five years, but even following requests from various buyers, notably Warnaco and the Limited, all management produced was a one-page statement from their lawyers alluding to accounts filed with the Thai Ministry of Labour. They failed to explain why they had not provided this information to the union.
Clover Group closed a unionized factory with a good compliance track record, in favor of a Cambodian supplier (where labor rights violations are ongoing) and a China supplier (non-unionized, and highly likely to also have a bad compliance record).
Due to the lack of real progress in the first meeting with Clover Group, the union called for a tripartite meeting between the Clover Group, the main buyer (the US company the Limited Brands) and the union, on Friday the 27th of October.
At 1:00 PM Bangkok time on the 19th of October, 2006, Gina management began calling workers into their office in groups of five and pressuring them to sign "voluntary" resignation letters. Gina management locked the factory gates and told workers that they should sign the resignation forms and then not come back tomorrow because the factory was closing and there would be no work. About an hour later, 10 police officers in uniform including the local chief showed up outside the factory. At the same time, approximately 20 soldiers arrived. At 4pm the police and some of the soldiers went inside the factory. There are two exit stairways in the factory, a main one and the emergency one.
The factory management blocked the main stairway and stationed soldiers and police along the emergency exit. The country manager announced one more time before closing that if anyone resigned that day they would get an extra 30 days pay as "bonus" on top of their severance and that this offer stood for anyone who signed the voluntary resignation form before Oct 31. None of the union members signed any of the forms.
It is highly illegal to lock workers inside factories and to block emergency exits. Moreover, it is extremely inappropriate to involve military personnel in civilian affairs such as this, especially when police are already present. The use of the military in this fashion is also almost certainly illegal under Thai and international law.
Adding insult to injury, Clover Group put out a press release the same day, stating that full severance had been offered, and that they would be donating the remains of useful materials from the factory such as plastic bags and paper boxes for the flood relief work in Thailand.
Though Clover Group claimed to have offered and/or paid severance according to the law, they were repeatedly offering union members approximately 10% less than the mandatory severance they were due. The union also requested an additional 6 months of salary as a hardship payment (as compensation for the fact that many of the employees were older and would likely not be able to find work again due to hiring preferences in the garment industry).
On the 25th September 2006, GRWU submitted a severance proposal to the tripartite task force formed by the Human Rights Commission particularly for the Gina Form case. The right of workers and the GRWU to bargain for higher level compensation which includes lost opportunity compensation for middle-aged women employees, maternity compensation for 100 pregnant female workers and other benefits under the Thai Labour Relation Act was simply ignored.
Two-hundred (200) non-union affiliated employees had signed resignation forms and received their severance (approx. 8 months pay per employee).
On October 8th, over 1000 workers from Gina held a public demonstration (the first since the coup, and forbidden according to several decrees) to the front of the US Embassy, where they held a rally, gave speeches condemning Clover Group and calling for the factory to be kept open, and finally handed over a letter the Labor Reporting Officer of the US Embassy.
The union and the workers staged a peaceful sit-in outside the factory on October 21st, and announced protests in front of the Ministry of Labour and other institutes.
Internationally, pickets occurred at Victoria's Secret stores in the US and Calvin Klein stores in the UK. In Canada, the three-million worker strong Canadian Labour Congress wrote to La Senza demanding that they take action on the issue. Articles in the Québec media highlighted La Senza's failure to address the situation at Gina.
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