PHILLIPS VAN-HEUSEN AGREES TO NEGOTIATE WITH UNION IN GUATEMALA
(Corporate Crime Reporter - May 7 1997)
On March 17, Phillips-Van Heusen CEO Bruce Klatsky met with P-VH union leaders in Guatemala City to tell them of the company's decision to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement. It will be the only contract in Guatemala's clothing export sector, which primarily produces for brand-name U.S. companies. P-VH has agreed to use the union's contract proposal as a starting point for negotiations. Key contract demands for the union are a 20% increase in pay, establishment of a grievance procedure, ending discrimination against union members and for workers to be treated with respect.
Victory for the union came a day before official release of a long-awaited Human Rights Watch report.
Last month, Human Rights Watch released another in a stream of reports documenting human rights abuses. This one focused on Phillips Van Heusen corporation and how it mistreats workers in Guatemala.
But this report was notable because Bruce Klatsky, the CEO of the company, which makes name brand shirts such as Izod and Gant, sits on the board of directors of Human Rights Watch.
The report documents the "subtle but pernicious ways that workers' rights - particularly freedom of association - are undermined in the export assembly sector in Guatemala."
After seeing a draft of the report, Klatsky flew to Guatemala last month to deliver a personal message to PVH union members that the company will negotiate with the union. The union has been seeking contract negotiations for six years. There are currently no collective bargaining agreements in Guatemala's apparel-for-export industry known as the maquiladora sector.
Human Rights Watch launched its investigation only after another human rights group, the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project, threatened to picket Human Rights Watch's annual fundraiser last fall at New York's Museum of Natural History.
In response to the threat, a two-person Human Rights Watch delegation traveled to Guatemala in January 1997.
The investigators focused on reports of discriminatory treatment of trade unionists at the PVH assembly plants and allegations of obstacles posed by the company and the Guatemala labor ministry to the union's recognition for purposes of collective bargaining.
The report found that the Guatemalan Ministry of Labor failed to uphold its obligations to implement Guatemalan law concerning negotiations between the companies and the legally recognized union of its workforce.
The report also documents what it calls "a disturbing pattern" of measures by local managers to dissuade PVH employees from union membership, and to punish those on the union's rolls by cutting their earning power.
Many workers cited in the report described seeing their incomes reduced by one-half or one quarter after joining a union. Some workers were forced to leave to seek employment elsewhere.
"Human Rights Watch should be congratulated for its work," U.S. Guatemala Labor Education Project director Stephen Coats said. "It is a dimcult thing for any organization, let alone a human rights organization, to investigate allegations of abuses by a company whose CEO is on its board of directors."
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