However, although the Levi Strauss company has hailed these negotiations as evidence of Grupo M's willingness to find a settlement, the union federation representatives tell a completely different story. Rather than establishing a dialogue and opening up a collaborative process to bring about a resolution, Grupo M representatives have instead conducted themselves in an aggressive and dismissive manner. Grupo M CEO, Fernando Capellan, even stormed out of a meeting in Santiago, Dominican Republic, on Monday, 8 March, before it had concluded.

Since then, far from resolving the situation, Grupo M has prevaricated and reneged on a promise to issue a final decision on the status of the dismissed workers. This cynical tactic is clearly designed to pressure the dismissed workers to accept their severance pay, thereby accepting their status as fired workers, and, in so doing, ruin a planned legal action against the company for unfair dismissal. Without pay for five weeks, the living situation of the fired workers and their dependents is critical.

In order to help those workers carry on the fight for re-instatement and for recognition of their right to form a trade union, the British solidarity organisation, the Haiti Support Group, is appealing for donations to help keep the struggle going. Please help the fired Sokowa union members carry on with their fight to get their jobs back. It is not only their livelihoods at stake - if the Sokowa union is broken, it will be a massive setback for all Haitian workers across the country.

Meetings between the union's representatives and Grupo M managers have taken place.
Management remains intransigent and is refusing to re-instate fired workers.
Urgent need for solidarity campaign to continue.

Two meetings have so far taken place, both of them at Grupo M's headquarters at the Caribbean Industrial Park in Santiago, the Dominican Republic. Two delegates from the union federation and a lawyer represented the Sokowa union, while Grupo M was represented by the Ouanaminthe factory director, Limbert Cruz, and company CEO, Fernando Capellan. The World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) - which recently lent Grupo M US$20m to help it build the free trade zone (FTZ) at Ouanaminthe - was also represented.

At both meetings, Grupo M concentrated on discussing its goals, plans, general practice and role in developing the FTZ at Ouanaminthe in a thinly-veiled attempt to avoid the real issue of the day - the violent union-busting which had seen 34 members of the newly formed Sokowa union fired, and irregular paramilitaries called to the factory to attack other workers.

Eventually, Grupo M presented their version of events in the form of a powerpoint slide-show and video which, according to the company representatives, demonstrated that the union members had initiated the violence at the factory. This history was hotly disputed by the union representatives, and even the IFC representative remained unconvinced by the 'evidence' as presented. As this meeting failed to find any common ground, a second meeting was convened the following Monday, 8 March.

In both meetings, the Grupo M representatives displayed an arrogant and disrespectful attitude towards the union federation representatives, even so far as questioning their right to represent the union, and attempting to interrogate the union representatives about their motives. This aggressive and dismissive approach was denounced by Batay Ouvriye's lawyer, who concluded that if this was the way that Grupo M's senior management responded to the union federation's delegates, how very much worse relations must be with the workers in the factory.

During the second meeting Grupo M CEO, Fernando Capellan, walked out before any agreement had been reached. After he left, the remaining participants attempted, without success, to reach some conclusions. The IFC asked Batay Ouvriye to wait until the end of the week before initiating further action.

The Batay Ouvriye union federation delegates point out that the meetings revealed that, far from wanting a resolution of the dispute, the Grupo M management is using underhand tactics and blatant dishonesty to cement its success in breaking the Sokowa union. For example, Limbert Cruz, the factory manager, pretended that 27 of the 34 people were dismissed not because of involvement with the union but because the factory had insufficient work. However he himself later revealed that he had for some time been in possession of a full list of all 34 union members, and that these were the same 34 people who were dismissed on 1 March. Furthermore, his claim that 27 people had been 'let go' merely because a shortage of orders was exposed when the Levi Strauss Company - the main contractor for the Ouanaminthe factory - in response to inquiries from US labour organisations, categorically denied that it had reduced its orders in any way, shape, or form.

The Batay Ouvriye union federation is calling for continuing solidarity in support of the following demands:
the reversal of the illegal and arbitrary firing of the 34 Sokowa union members;
an end to both blatant and subtle anti-union practices;
an end to the presence of armed 'company security' within the factory precincts;
continued medical care for the injured union member, Ariel Jerome; and
respectful and meaningful relations with the reconstituted union in order to discuss improved pay and conditions.

The approval of the loan, which will help Grupo M develop a massive new free trade zone development in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, on the Dominican Republic border, follows investigations launched by the IFC into violations of workers' rights by Grupo M in its other factories in the Dominican Republic.

In August and September 2003, the ICFTU and the International Textile Garment and Leather Workers' Federation, released video evidence and documentation on anti-union actions by Grupo M, including threats, discrimination and violence against workers seeking to organise unions.

At this stage, the Haiti Support Group, which had been in close contact with workers' organisations and progressive NGOs in Haiti, launched an international campaign backing the ICFTU calls for the IFC to require that Grupo M cease violating workers' rights and respect the core labour standards of the International Labour Organisation before awarding the loan.

As a result of this campaign, many organisations and individuals from different countries wrote to the IFC and World Bank directors demanding respect for workers' right to unionise. In October, the IFC board made the loan contingent on the findings of an investigation into the allegations about Grupo M's mistreatment of workers in the Dominican Republic.

Last week, after determining that many of the allegations about Grupo M's anti-union practices were substantiated, the IFC decided to include the obligation to respect freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining as a loan condition. If these rights are not respected, then the company will be considered to have defaulted on the loan. The IFC has apparently also drafted a "remedial action plan" that includes several measures for monitoring observance of trade union rights at Grupo M facilities.

The jeans sewn in Ouanaminthe are transported to Santiago for washing and final packing before being shipped to the United States.

Currently, the plant produces about 8,000 pairs of black Levi's 505 and 550 jeans each week with about 260 employees, who earn an average of about $16 per week. That is almost twice as much as Haiti's minimum wage of less than $1.75 a day, but about 40 percent less than what Dominican employees earn at the facility in Santiago, said Fernando Capellán, Grupo M founder and president.

Plans call for hiring as many as 900 Haitian employees to churn out 100,000 pairs of pants a week by next summer.

Luis Gil, a supervisor at the Ouanaminthe plant, said weekly salaries will increase to about $24 per week with the rise in production. Employees say that while wages are good by Haitian standards, they are still not enough to live on comfortably.

"I'm working to support my mother, who is sick," said Carlos Dumone, 19. "The money I earn here helps, but it's only enough to pay for food. I want to go to school and make something of myself, but I can't afford that right now."

"The good thing about working here is that the employers respect us," Dumone added. "I just wish the pay was higher."

Joseph Egains, 27, left his job as a teacher in Ouanaminthe to sew pants.

"I like this job better, but life has gotten more expensive in Haiti," said Egains, whose salary doubled with the new job. "Maybe things will get better with time."

In addition to Levi Strauss & Co. products, the company also makes a long list of clothing for designer labels such as Tommy Hilfiger, Eddie Bauer, Polo and Hugo Boss.

In an apparent response to a vigorous international campaign in support of workers' rights in Haiti, the IFC Board approved the proposed loan subject to the company allowing all its employees the right to union representation and collective bargaining, and ensuring that all other companies leasing factory facilities in the zone follow the same requirement. According the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the IFC board adopted a confidential document on the Grupo M investment which includes the following statement: "All of the workers who will work in factories at the Haiti Project site will have the right to organise unions and to collective bargaining."

Haiti Support Group director, Charles Arthur, said, "Although it is disappointing that the IFC executive directors did not make respect for the two ILO core labour standards on union rights an intrinsic part of the loan agreement, it does seem as though they have taken note of the strong campaign in support of workers' rights in Haiti." A wide range of organisations and individuals responded to the Haiti Support Group's appeal to lobby some of the most influential executive directors on the IFC Board.

Arthur said that the Haiti Support Group will remain in close contact with non-governmental organisations and workers' organisations in Haiti and will monitor the situation in the new factories as more workers are employed to assemble jeans and other clothes for the North American market. "We must now wait to see to what extent the reality matches the rhetoric," he said. "We hope that representative and effective union organisations will be allowed to form, and that the management will participate in a fair and meaningful dialogue."

Issued by the Haiti Support Group - 30 September 2003

Campaigners' worst fears about workers' rights have been confirmed with the news that these employees have been forbidden to organise themselves or discuss politics while inside the zone.

The International Finance Corporation's optimism regarding Grupo M's respect for workers' rights is shown to be completely misplaced as, within weeks of the first factory opening, twenty workers are fired for daring to ask for improved conditions.

Concerns for workers' rights have increased following the July 16th report in the Haiti Progres newspaper that Grupo M's private security force for the new free zone is headed by a Haitian who is a renowned criminal in the northeast of Haiti.

Meanwhile, Villardouin Joseph, a member of the local peasant farmers association, the Pitobert Defence Committee, has finally been released from prison on September 4th. Joseph had been arrested by police on May 22nd on the pretext of involvement with active resistance to the seizure and clearance of peasants' farmland for the construction of the free zone.

On his release, which took place without him having been charged with any offence, Joseph spoke of how for the first few days after his arrest he was kept under close police surveillance, with a police officer even accompanying him to the toilet. A short time later he had been transferred from the local jail in Ouanaminthe to the prison in Fort Liberte where he was detained for months as a 'political prisoner''. Unlike other prisoners, he was prevented from listening to the radio. No paperwork relating to his arrest and detention was presented to him, and during his three and half months in prison he did not appear before any judge.

Sources: Batay Ouvriye, Haiti Progres, Groupe d'Appui aux Rapatries et Refugies - GARR

Issued by the Haiti Support Group - 8 September 2003

If the loan goes ahead, the Dominican garment assembly company, Grupo M, will use US$3 million specifically to build factories where Haitian workers will assemble clothes for companies such as Levi's and Tommy Hilfiger.

The Haiti Support Group is demanding that the Haitian workers have the right to form trade unions in these factories, and are able to carry out union activities without any repression or victimisation.

The IFC says Grupo M will allow unions to function because the US garment companies that it will supply acknowledge union rights in their codes of conduct. However, this is no guarantee whatsoever, as workers at the US-owned Tarrant Mexico-Ajalpan factory in Puebla, Mexico, have recently found out.

The Mexican Example

What's the connection? Two of the Tarrant Mexico-Ajalpan factory's main clients are Levi's and Tommy Hilfiger. These same two apparel companies will be main clients of Grupo M, and will be supplied by the factories at new free trade zone near Ouanaminthe in Haiti.

Clearly the existence of codes of conduct has not stopped the management of the Tarrant Mexico-Ajalpan factory from disregarding the right to unionise.

The Dominican Example

One worker at FM1, a Dominican factory owned by Grupo M, gave the ICFTU the following testimony about what happened when workers formed a union in 2002: "Union members were chased by the gang members at work, and physically attached with metal tubes, hammers, and machetes. These attacks were carried out inside and outside of the factory. When inside, they were carried out in full view of managers, and workers, and with the explicit support of company security." Of the 18 original members of the union committee, only one remains in the factory one year later.

Make sure that Haitian workers don't suffer the same fate!

SUPPORT THE RIGHTS OF WORKERS IN THE NEW FREE ZONE IN HAITI! SUPPORT THE NEW UNION MOVEMENT IN HAITI!

The first factory in Grupo M's new Free Trade Zone in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, has already opened, and 300 workers there are sewing together Levi's jeans. We must support these workers' right to unionise.

Press release - International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF) - 5th September 2003

The delegation is made up of trade union leaders from Belgium, Brazil, Peru and the United States, as well as representatives of the Global Union Federation representing workers in the textile, garment and footwear sector and the ICFTU, and is accompanied by Federations and Confederations from this country.

In addition to holding meetings with the Minister of Labour and the Employers’ Association Adozonas, the delegation will visit FTZ workers in Santiago and San Pedro de Macoris.

The delegation will also attempt to visit the Grupo M factory, which features in a new video which will be used in Cancun to direct the attention of Ministers to the worker rights’ abuses arising from unregulated globalisation and the expansion of Free Trade Zones.

Grupo M is alleged to have employed armed thugs to beat and intimidate workers who try to form independent trade unions in its factories.

Grupo M is poised to receive a US$23m loan from the World Bank. It is the biggest private sector employer in the Dominican Republic, and supplies major US labels such as Levi Strauss, Liz Claiborne, Tommy Hilfiger, Eddie Bauer and Ralph Lauren.

The company is seen by trade unions globally as the unacceptable face of globalisation and is one of the clearest examples of why trade unions want the WTO to establish a linkage between trade and worker rights.

Members of the delegation who travel on to Cancun will convey to Trade Ministers the unacceptability of the conditions faced by Dominican workers in EPZ, such as those of Grupo M.

Press release - Haiti Support Group - 4th September 2003

Since April 2002, when the presidents of Haiti and the Dominican Republic announced plans to construct a new industrial zone on 200 acres of agricultural land on the Maribahoux Plain in north-east Haiti, civil society organisations have been protesting against it. Their opposition has been based on an appreciation that the site of the industrial zone is not only one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the whole of Haiti, but is also adjacent to environmentally vulnerable border zones.

These objections have been ignored by the Haitian government, and now it appears that they are being ignored by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC). The IFC is preparing to lend the Dominican apparel company, Grupo M, US$3 million specifically to help it build garment assembly factories on the Maribahoux Plain.

In August the first factory opened, and villagers from the surrounding area have begun to arrive in the main town, Ouanaminthe, in search of employment. There is already talk of a housing shortage. With no regulation or planning, the growth of shanty-town developments is inevitable. The predictable result of this unregulated urban explosion will be:
- a further reduction in the amount of land available for food production;
- a massive increase in the felling of trees for charcoal production; and
- a destructive accumulation of untreated human and commercial waste.

In July, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that more than 3.8 million people are short of food in Haiti. The UNCCD has already flagged the Haiti/Dominican Republic border zone as an area vulnerable to desertification.

The Haiti Support Group echoes the protests from Haitian civil society organisations, and asks why the World Bank's IFC is promoting the Maribahoux Plain free zone when it will drastically reduce the country's capacity for food production and worsen the prospects of desertification in the area?