Meeting Garment and Textile Workers in Jordan’s Qualified Industrial Zones

Heba El Shazli, director of the Solidarity Center’s Middle East and North Africa Department, reports on the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s delegation to meet with garment workers in Jordan.

On March 27, the AFL-CIO Executive Council delegation visiting Jordan traveled to the northern Qualified Industrial Zone (QIZ), known as the al Hussein Industrial Estate, to meet with organizers and workers from the General Trade Union for Workers in the Garment, Textile and Apparel Sector. We toured QIZ factories and dormitories to observe the workers’ living and working conditions. QIZs are industrial parks that grant immediate tariff and quota-free access to the U.S. market to goods produced in the QIZ that meet specific rules of origin requirements.

As we traveled outside of Amman to the QIZ, the large mountains with fertile green valleys in northern Jordan amazed our group. After the one-hour drive toward the Syrian border, we entered the QIZ Al Hussein Industrial Estate. A maze of warehouses and dormitories, surrounded by tall fences and patrolled by Jordanian police, greeted us. In the QIZ, 35 textile factories produce clothing for the U.S. market for brands like Levi’s, Victoria’s Secret, Gloria Vanderbilt, The Gap and Wal-Mart.

More than half of garment workers in Jordan are migrant workers from as far away as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In the past year, the sweatshop conditions for these garment workers have caught the attention of the media in the United States and Jordan. Forced overtime, often more than 100 hours of overtime per month, low wages, verbal and physical abuse, involuntarily confiscation of workers’ passports and many other violations of fundamental worker rights are extremely common in these factories. We were determined to meet with workers and see for ourselves the conditions and learn about the Textile Workers Union’s effort to improve conditions.

In the QIZ, we first visited the union office, a refurbished space that previously housed the Ministry of Labor. Under Jordanian labor law, migrant workers are denied the fundamental right to organize and join a union. The lack of representation for the majority of QIZ workers violates fundamental workers’ rights and poses a real challenge to building an effective union—and puts these workers at risk of exploitation. With support of the Solidarity Center, the union challenges Jordanian labor law by actively organizing migrant workers.

At the union office, we met with three union organizers and six workers who described the sweatshop like conditions in their workplace. Mohye, a young Bangladeshi worker, tearfully described his dilemma.

In 2004, I arrived in Jordan with $2,000 in debt to a recruitment agent who promised me good wages and a good job. I support my widowed mother and young brothers and sisters on a salary of only 95 JDs [about $134 U.S. dollars] per month. I have been shuffled from one factory to another after my original workplace, a factory named Galas, closed without transferring my residency and work permits. Without a permit, I fear arrest and harsh treatment from my employer. I cannot go to the authorities to complain. I cannot return home until I save the $2,000 I borrowed to get this job.

After meeting with workers, we visited a Chinese-owned factory, United Pride. United Pride, as described by union organizers, is one of the better factories in Jordan and the only factory contacted that allowed the delegation to visit. United Pride employs some 2,000 workers from China, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as well as a small number from Jordan. The factory appeared under strict order, with a noticeable amount of dust and fabric particles in the air. Row after row of workers toiled over their sewing machines but looked up with smiles when we told them we were with the union. We toured the dormitory for foreign workers, which houses eight workers in small rooms with a relatively dirty toilet and shower facilities. The workers’ entertainment room, with a TV set, is only open on Fridays.

The next day, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney joined our delegation for meetings with union organizers and workers from a southern QIZ, in a town called Al Dhulayl. The workers told us of similar sweatshop-like conditions in their workplace. Workers, and especially migrant workers, who join the union or advocate for their rights are targeted for retaliation, they said.

Abdul, a young Bangladeshi worker, told us:

Tomorrow I face deportation because my employer made allegations against me because of my union activities.

The other worker, Hassena, a young woman, also faces deportation, along with 98 other Bangladeshi workers from another factory. In this factory, workers went on strike after learning their employer planned to increase the deduction for food and housing from 10 JDs to 45 JDs [about $14 to $63 U.S. dollars], in effect causing them a 35 percent pay reduction after a supposed increase in the minimum wage. After the Indian workers joined the strike, and with pressure from the union and the Solidarity Center, the factory owner reversed his decision but is insisting that he is unwilling to allow the Bangladeshi workers to return, thus forcing their deportation.

Hassena told us:

I cannot return to my home because my family will think I have done something wrong. I also will not be able to pay back the money I borrowed to find this job.

We left the meeting shaken by these stories but even more determined to support these workers. Our group spoke about how the stories we heard could be multiplied by thousands of workers who suffer similar abuse at the hands of unscrupulous factory operators. All of us who purchase garments made in Jordan must do all we can to help these workers achieve the rights they deserve. The AFL-CIO and the Solidarity Center renew our efforts to help their union develop the capacity to protect and advance their rights.

Participating in the tour were AFL-CIO Executive Council members Bill Lucy (AFSCME), Patricia Friend (Flight Attendants-CWA) and Greg Junemann (International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers); AFL-CIO International Affairs Director Barbara Shailor; Solidarity Center Executive Director Ellie Larson; Solidarity Center Director for the Middle East and North Africa Heba F. El Shazli; Rick Hal, country program director for Jordan; Lorraine Clewer, country program director for the Arab Maghreb; and in-country Program Officer Shira Qatarneh.

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