Student Anti-Sweatshop Activists Score Big Win for Honduran Workers

by Mike Hall, Nov 18, 2009

In what is being hailed as the biggest victory ever by student anti-sweatshop activists, Russell Athletic, the largest supplier of team uniforms and logo-wear, has agreed to reopen a Honduran factory shut down in January shortly after its workers formed a union and will rehire the 1,200 union members.

When Russell shut the factory and moved production to cheaper nonunion plants, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) mobilized on college and university campuses across the country. Their actions persuaded nearly 100 schools, including Harvard, Michigan, Miami, North Carolina and Stanford universities, to end their agreements with Russell for violating the workers’ rights.

In a statement on its website, USAS says the agreement between Russell and the workers’ union (SITRAJERZEESH),

…is one of the most significant campaign victories of the global justice movement. No one has ever forced a multinational corporation to reopen a facility it shut down in the global race to the bottom. This victory has also proven that together, we can successfully fight back when those in power take advantage of the economic crisis to attack working people.

During the past decade USAS actions protesting the sweatshop conditions in many of the apparel makers’ factories, especially those in Central and South America, forced universities to adopt codes of conduct protecting workers’ rights that clothing manufacturers had to meet before winning contracts for uniforms, T-shirts, sweatshirts, ball caps and other logo apparel.

Those codes of conduct were instrumental weapons in the fight against Russell’s anti-worker actions that included a two-year campaign of intimidation and harassment at the Jerzees de Honduras factory, according to reports by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC).

Over a two-year period, Russell managers carried out a campaign of retaliation and intimidation in order to stop workers at two of the company’s Honduran factories from exercising their right to organize and bargain collectively, a right explicitly protected by the codes of conduct of Russell’s university business partners.

This campaign began with 145 illegal firings of union supporters in 2007—which Russell ultimately admitted and was forced to reverse—and continued during 2008 with harassment of unionists and constant threats to close the Jerzees de Honduras factory in order to punish the union. The campaign culminated when Russell made good on these threats by closing the factory in January of this year.

Mike Powers, a Cornell University official, told The New York Times that Cornell canceled its contact with Russell because closing the Jerzees de Honduras factory was a major violation of the workers’ right to form a union, a cornerstone of the codes of conduct. Powers, a member of the WRC, told the Times:

This is a landmark event in the history of workers’ rights and the codes of conduct that we expect our licensees to follow.

Russell also agreed to a policy of non-interference and union neutrality in all Russell and Fruit of the Loom (Russell’s parent company) facilities in Honduras and will work with the Honduran union federation Centro General de Trabajadores to provide access to organizers and educate employees on their right to freedom of association. According to a joint statement from Russell and the union, the agreement is

intended to foster workers’ rights in Honduras and establish a harmonious and cooperative labor-management relationship. This agreement represents a significant achievement in the history of the apparel sector in Honduras and in Central America.

Says the USAS:

We should take strength and inspiration from the example of the workers of Jerzees de Honduras. We can fight back—and WIN—against policies that benefit a privileged few and hurt our communities.

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