News on Sweatshops in Latin America

Next month college campuses across the country will give students the chance to buy “sweatfree” collegiate apparel thanks to a breakthrough initiative in the Dominican Republic.   A unionized factory paying a living wage where workers face none of the abusive conditions typical in sweatshops across the globe is now producing apparel for the college market.  

Several leading U.S. universities have ended their licensing arrangement with a major U.S.

The last unionized maquiladora in Guatemala has closed but a handful of union activists are demanding justice, including full back pay and severance, relocation to other jobs, and an end to blacklisti

In a significant victory for maquila workers, workers won a collective bargaining agreement on August 12 at a large textile manufacturing facility in the Dominican Republic owned by Hanesbrands, Inc.

The Worker Rights Consortium released a new report in early July, showing that a PRI-affiliated organization, Anotorcha Campesina, carried out violence against the local union at the Mexmode factory i

In this season's review of maquila struggles in Central America, workers face more factory closings, continue to push for negotiations, and fight against economic hardship.

Despite being forced to cast their ballots in public in front of hostile managers and threats of closing the plant, a majority of workers voted for an independent union at the Vaqueros Navarra factor

Factory closings and worker rights violations have continued in Central America in recent months. The following summaries highlight a few of the key recent struggles.

Guatemala

The anti-sweatshop movement suffered another loss when the Just Garments factory was forced to closed in El Salvador in April 2007.