By Liz Allen
Asheville, North Carolina, Aug. 17 (AGR) -- In the Codevi free
trade zone located in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, the Grupo M factory has been
accused of giving workers contraceptive injections under the guise of
mandatory tetanus shots administered by Grupo M staff in March and April
of 2004. The company operates with loans from the World Bank’s
International Finance Corporation and is contracted to assemble clothing
for the US-based Levi Strauss & Co. Throughout 2004 the company
has been under scrutiny for its union-busting activities, including
bringing in armed thugs and Dominican soldiers during periods of firing
workers who formed the factory union, Sokowa.
A press release from the Haiti Support Group reports that workers meeting
with an independent observers group said they were experiencing medical
problems ranging from severe menstrual problems to still births and
miscarriages after receiving the “vaccinations.”
One Grupo M employee told the group that after she began menstruating
at her regular time she continued to bleed for 22 days. Instead of going
to the clinic in the free trade zone she said she went to State Hospital
in Ouanminthe, where the doctors asked her if she worked in the Codevi
free trade zone. The doctors then informed her that workers in Codevi
were undergoing a “family planning regimen.”
A report by three members of the Haitian Doctors’ Union (L’Union
des Medecins Haitiens) says that when visiting Ouanminthe in July they
saw seven cases of workers with serious medical complications –
the majority miscarriages — and around 20 workers with varying
complaints, mostly severe menstrual problems.
Catherine Stecher, campaign coordinator for the Campaign for Labor Rights,
said that organizations such as the Workers Rights Consortium and the
AFL-CIO have been meeting with heads of Levi Strauss and the World Bank.
The organizations reiterated demands that Grupo M negotiate with the
unions and to reemploy, without penalty, the over four hundred workers
they believe were fired in connection to the formation of the Sokowa
union. Stecher said the officials responded by telling Grupo M to behave
better.
According to Stecher there is a recent “history of management giving
female employees birth control” in the Dominican Republic and Central
America.
Free trade zones exist throughout the Western Hemisphere. They are areas
where the goods are exempt from the duties and taxes that are usually
placed on items coming in or leaving the area. “It saves a lot
of money for the buying company, like Levis,” Stecher explained.
She also reported that earlier this month in San Francisco there was
a protest at Levi’s headquarters.
Jeff Beckman, of the communications department for Levi Strauss and
Company, said that they were informed earlier this week of the allegations
and cannot comment on the vaccinations until the company investigates
further. He said that it is “typical in a factory setting for workers
to receive tetanus shots.”
“We have a fairly long standing relationship with Grupo M,”
which Beckman called a “significant manufacturing agency in the
Dominican Republic” that signed a “Terms of Engagement”
contract with Levi Straus. The contract sets ethical standards for the
company such as pay rate and freedom of association. Beckman reports
that Grupo M is now negotiating with workers. He also said believed
the workers were fired because of low productivity, not union organizing.
He said he was not aware of how much factory workers were paid on average,
but believed wages reported by “special interest groups” are
“inaccurate, significantly lower” than what the company believes
is being paid. The factory also offers “productivity incentives”
so that “the more jeans you make the more you get paid,” Beckman
explained.
