Russell Athletic's factory in Honduras

Between March and September 2007, the Jerzees Choloma and Jerzees de
Honduras apparel assembly companies fired 118 employees who had tried
to form a union.  The largest number of dismissals at Jerzees Choloma
took place between June 7-14, immediately after the union submitted its
membership list to the company.  The dismissals at Jerzees de Honduras
took place between June 10-25, immediately after the workers at that
facility notified the company the union’s formation.

At first Russell Athletics (which is owned by Fruit of the Loom)
ignored the call to step in and provide back pay for all of the fired
workers in addition to them regaining their jobs.  Eventually Russell
Athletics came around and on November 5 a group of twenty-five workers
were
reinstated to the facility on November 5.  Each of the workers were
paid back pay on
this date.More reinstatements occurred on November 19, 21, and 24.  The
reinstatement process for the Jerzees Choloma workers was carried out
parallel
to an identical process for a group of unlawfully dismissed Jerzees de
Honduras
workers, as discussed below.  In total, of
the 118 fired workers between the two plants, 48 were successfully
reinstated,
62 declined reinstatement and were awarded back pay from their date of
dismissal through November 30, and 8 could not be located. The final
figure for back pay has not yet been
tabulated, but the estimate of total is in the area of $75,000 -
$100,000.

As in the case of Jerzees Choloma, after initially refusing to take action, Russell ultimately agreed to a comprehensive
corrective action plan. Since this time, roughly a
third of the fired workers have been reinstated to the factory and paid
back pay, with the rest opting to take back
pay and severance.

Other achievements for workers include:

• Russell agreed to issue a communication to the workforce at all
  Russell and Fruit of the Loom factories in all of its facilities
  globally, pledging to respect workers’ rights in the areas of freedom
  of association and collective bargaining.
• Russell reported that it was revising its corporate Code of Conduct to include respect for the rights of
  freedom of association and collective bargaining.
• Russell agreed to provide training to its supervisory and
  managerial staff on the company’s policy and expectations regarding
  respect for employees’ rights in the areas of freedom of association
  and collective bargaining.

Download the full WRC factory investigation report of Jerzees Choloma in Honduras (PDF)

PCCS Garments in Cambodia

PCCS Garment is a garment sewing facility and Beauty Silk Screening
is a textile screening facility. Both factories belong to PCCS Group
Berhad, a Malaysian garment manufacturing conglomerate. This factory
has produced for GAP, Puma, university apparel licensees, VF Imagewear,
Lee Sport, and VF Knitwear. There were worker complaints related to
occupational health and safety, as well as the excessive use of
short-term labor contracts. The factory had begun in 2003 to hire all
new employees but only for two or three month contracts. The misuse of
contract labor arrangements is a growing problem in many countries and
is of great concern to labor rights advocates because of its effect in
undermining employment security and protections from unfair
termination. Good news is that this factory agreed to change to
permanent contracts for all but a small number of employees. The
factory has also corrected problems of verbal harassment by supervisors
and health and safety violations.

Download the WRC Findings, Recommendations, and Status Report of PCCS Garments in Cambodia (PDF)

Thai Garment Export in Thailand

Thai Garment Export is a producer for Ashworth, Cutter & Buck, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger Golf, Louisville Golf, and Dodger. The factory employs roughly 3,000 workers.  In an effort to improve working conditions in the factory, workers tried to form a union but the factory terminated a group of workers in retaliation.  The workers complained to the Worker Rights Consortium which then investigated the factory.  As a result of the investigation, the factory reinstated the fired union
founders and began negotiations with worker
representatives over a variety of workplace issues. The factory has also taken
important steps in another area of concern identified by workers—the safety of
pregnant employees—by adopting procedures to ensure that pregnant women are
provided with proper accommodations to protect their health and safety at work.

Download
the report on Thai Garment Export in Thailand (PDF)