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Gildan Activewear is a Montreal-based manufacturer of t-shirts, socks and underwear. Starting in 2003, MSN led a campaign concerning a pattern of violations of freedom of association at Gildan Activewear's El Progreso factory in Honduras. Grassroots campaigns targeting Gildan Activewear in Canada and the United States succeeded in pressuring Gildan to agree to a corrective action plan and MSN suspended the Gildan campaign in January, 2005.
Shortly after a new union was formed last September in Haiti's growing apparel manufacturing sector, six of the seven workers who serve on the union's executive committee were fired or forced to resign by the factories where they worked. But we're pleased to report that thanks to concerted efforts by Haitian and international labour rights groups, all but one of the workers have now been reinstated and are back at work.
The apparel industry was widely hailed in some circles as a vital economic opportunity for Haiti, particularly after the devastating earthquake which hit the country in January 2010. Although the creation of approximately 26,000 jobs in the country is certainly welcome, the full benefits of those jobs will only be felt if the workers have access to their legal rights, including the right to form unions and bargain collectively, and are paid a living wage.
Apparel brands with production in Honduras, including adidas Group, Nike Inc. and Gap Inc., released a joint letter sent to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "calling for the restoration of democracy in Honduras" following the June 28th military coup. The brands urged "an immediate resolution to the crisis" and asked that "civil liberties, including freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association be fully respected."
A Needle in a Haystack examines Canadian investment and sourcing practices in the garment assembly-for-export industry in Mexico and Central America, and labour practices and working conditions in those factories. This report includes case studies on two Canadian manufacturers -- Nygard International and Gildan Activewear; country labour "vignettes" for Canadian homeworkers and maquila garment-for-export workers in Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico; and corporate profiles of prominent Canadian retailers and manufacturers.
When Gildan Activewear announced the closure of two of its factories in the State of Coahuila in northern Mexico last March, workers had reason to be worried. But after a series of discussions with MSN and the local labour rights organization SEDEPAC, Gildan has set a precedent for workers who are used to being denied even their legal entitlements.
Canadian t-shirt manufacturer Gildan Activewear is closing two factories in Mexico, two Montreal textile plants and a cutting operation in New York. An estimated 1,365 Mexican and 465 Canadian and U.S. workers will be laid off. Workers at the Mexican factories were particularly hard hit, as the region is already reeling from Hanesbrands' laying-off of 1,700 workers in December 2006. With MSN’s assistance, our local Mexican partner organization in Monclova, SEDEPAC, put forward a series of proposals to Gildan.
In December 2003, MSN, the Canadian Labour Congress and the Independent Federation of Honduran Workers (EMIH) filed a formal complaint with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) concerning the unjust firings of workers at a Gildan factory in Honduras. The next month, the same parties filed a complaint with the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC).
When Gildan subsequently announced it was closing the Honduran factory in the midst of the complaints process, grassroots campaigns targeting Gildan Activewear in Canada and the United States succeeded in pressuring Gildan to agree to a corrective action plan.
Campaigning against Gildan proceeded until 2006, when MSN, the WRC and EMIH released a joint final report showing that while Gildan hadn't fully complied with the agreement, it did make serious efforts to do so in later months of the process. MSN has since suspended its Gildan campaign.
In December 2006, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) published its final report on the Gildan El Progreso case, based on a verification audit conducted by the Guatemalan Commission for the Verification of Codes of Conduct (COVERCO). That report states that Gildan "has remediated most of the noncompliance issues" arising from the 2003 complaint in its remaining factories, but still needs to address some outstanding issues and "provide better and more effective trainings, particularly on freedom of association." Download the FLA's Final report on Gildan Activewear here.
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