Workers Win String of Victories!

Workers producing brand-name apparel for U.S. consumers in maquila factories in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have recently achieved or are on the verge of achieving several major victories for worker justice and basic rights.
Perhaps the most significant is the March 25, 2003 signing of a collective bargaining agreement covering 1,500 workers at the BJ&B factory in the Dominican Republic, now the largest union the maquila sector in the region.

The most surprising was the July 9, 2003 signing of the only collective bargaining agreement in Guatemala, covering workers producing for Liz Claiborne and Talbots at the Choi & Shin's factories, two years after management-inspired mobs beat up union supporters in July 2001.

In early April of this year, workers at the Corazon factory in Honduras won legal recognition of their union after a nine month struggle and prepared to submit contract negotiations in mid-July. Meanwhile, the first maquila factory in El Salvador to have a collective bargaining agreement, Just Garments, moved closer towards commencing operations, a result of last year's international campaign against Gap-supplier Tainan Enterprises.

While it would be wildly premature to characterize these victories as representing the wave of the future, they give hope that apparel-for-export workers who are struggling to improve their conditions and obtain dignity and justice can break through the walls that have consistently blocked worker organizing in the region, especially in Guatemala and El Salvador.

Country Maquila Headlines:

The Guatemala Surprise
BJ&B: A Worker-Student Victory in the Dominican Republic
El Salvador's "Just Garments" Aptly Named
Honduran Workers Win Legal Recognition; Contract Next
Matamoros Garment Still Closed in Mexico
Maquilas