LABOR COMMITTEE CHARGES COMPANIES WITH PROFITING FROM 12 CENTS AN HOUR WAGES IN HAITI
(Corporate Crime Reporter, n. 10 - 11 March 1996)
Haitian workers sewing Pocahontas and Mickey Mouse pajamas and other garments for export to the U.S. are forced to endure starvation wages, are robbed of benefits, and routinely face inhuman production speed-ups, forced overtime, filthy working conditions and gross sexual abuse, according to a report issued by the New York-based National Labor Committee.
On average, a Haitian maquila worker earns seven cents for every pair of Pocahontas pajamas she sews, which are then sold in the U.S. at Wal-Mart for $11.97.
"Haiti is yet another sad example that U.S. manufacturers and retailers cannot - and are totally failing to - monitor their offshore contractors", said Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee. "We need jndependent third party monitoring by human rights observers. We should ask J.C. Penny and Walt Disney - what happened to their so - called corporate codes of conduct? And why haven't their codes been translated into Creole and posted in their contractors' factories?"
The report found:
- More than half of the approximately 50 assembly firms now operating in Haiti are violating the minimum wage law. In an extensive investigation of 15 assembly firms now operating in Haiti, ten were paying less than the legally mandated minimum wage of $2.40 per day, which represents 30 cents an hour.
- Haitian contractors producing Mickey Mouse and Pocahontas pajamas for U.S. companies under license with the Walt Disney Company are in some cases paying workers as little as $1 per day - 12 cents per hour - in clear violation of Haitian law. The pajamas are sold at Wal-Mart, Sears and J.C. Penney.
- A Columbia University anthropologist who conducted intensive interviews in a poor neighborhood of Port-Au-Prince has found that 17 percent of the female factory workers in her survey have been coerced into having sex with their bosses on penalty of termination if they refused.
Workers at Classic Apparel told a National Labor Committee investigator that they have been sewing "Made in the USA" labels on sports team jerseys produced in Port-au-Prince. Identical garments are sold under the "League Leader" label at Wal-Mart. The jerseys are produced for the H.H. Cutler Co., a subsidiary of VF Corporation, maker of Wrangler and Lee jeans.
In December 1995, the National Labor Committee signed an agreement with the GAP, permitting independent human rights observers access to monitor working conditions at contractors' plants where GAP clothing is made.
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