Montreal-based manufacturer fires CA workers for organizing

Catholic New Times, Dec 14, 2003

TORONTO -- The Toronto--based Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) and its faith, labour and NGO coalition partners in the Ethical Trading Action Group (ETAG) are calling for an independent investigation of working conditions and labour practices in factories making Gildan Activewear products in Central America before the end of 2003.

On November 12, the Quebec Federation of Labour's Solidarity Fund announced it was selling off its shares in the Montreal-based T-shirt manufacturer because the company refused to reinstate 38 workers who were fired ten days after joining a union. The Fund's representative will also be resigning from Gildan's board of directors. The Fund, which manages Quebec union members' pension investments, currently owns 2.5 million shares worth approximately $90 million.

Gildan has denied allegations that workers were fired for union activity. In May 2003, the MSN released a 57-page report on working conditions in Gildan's wholly owned and contract factories in Central America and Mexico. Issues dealt with include excessively high production targets, health and child care issues related to long workdays and the intensive pace of production, workers' perceptions that urine and blood tests were used to weed out pregnant women, and harassment and firings of workers attempting to organize to improve conditions.

In July, Gildan threatened legal action against MSN if it continued to distribute the report or information from it. MSN has informed Gildan that it stands by the findings and recommendations in the report, and will continue to distribute the publication.

"Gildan has described the November 2002 firings 'as an isolated incident involving a small group of workers,' however, there certainly seems to be a pattern here," says MSN Coordinator Lynda Yanz. "If Gildan wants to win back the trust and respect of its investors and customers, it must deal seriously with repeated demands from the MSN, the Quebec Federation of Labour and many of its institutional buyers to reinstate workers fired for attempting to organize a union and to send a clear message to all its workers that Gildan will not interfere with rights guaranteed under Honduran labour law and the international conventions of the International Labour Organization."