Mr. Chen Shui-bian
President of the Republic of Taiwan
122 Chungking S. Rd., Sec. 1
Taipei, 100
Taiwan
Dear President Chen:
We want to again congratulate you and the people of Taiwan on your recent election, which spread the example and hope for democracy to every corner of the world. You know our record in the U.S. Congress as friends and supporters of your great country, and it is in that spirit that we write to you now.
A delegation of U.S. religious, labor, human rights and student leaders led by Congressman Sherrod Brown, just returned from Nicaragua where it investigated human and worker rights conditions in factories producing clothing for export to the United States. One of the factories they visited was Chentex which is owned by the Taiwanese Nien Hsing Textile Co., LTD., based in Taipei. One thousand eight hundred and fifty workers at Chentex sew 35,000 pairs of blue jeans a day for export to the U.S.
Since May of this year, in a labor dispute over wages, hundreds of workers have apparently been fired, including all 11 members of the CST Chentex union's Executive Board. Hundreds of other workers report being forced to sign prepared statements resigning from the CST Union, or face immediate firings. The delegation had the chance to speak with dozens of Chentex workers in safe locations away from the factory who repeatedly described the repression, threats, fear and anxiety that permeate the factory. Indeed, the Chentex factory in the Las Mercedes Free Trade Zone is surrounded by barbed wire, surveillance cameras, and private security guards. In recent weeks, the situation has deteriorated further, as Chentex management has filed a criminal suit against the union leaders while also attempting to strip the union of its legal status.
Congressman Brown had the opportunity to visit a poor neighborhood called Tipitapa where many of the factory workers live. He met a young mother named Cristina who lives with her husband and three year old daughter in a tiny dirt-floored hut put together with plastic and scrap metal. Cristina had worked for Chentex as a quality inspector for three years before she was fired in September of 1999 because management suspected her of being part of the independent union. She described how before she was fired she got up at 5:00 a.m. every day to prepare food and to wake and dress her daughter so they were ready to leave at 6:00 a.m. It took an hour and three buses to reach the factory by 7:00 a.m. Cristina's mother would meet her at the Free trade Zone in the morning so she could take the child home with her for the day. Cristina worked six days a week from 7:00 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., or to 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. There was frequent overtime and if you could not stay you would lose your entire day's pay. The second or third time this happened you would be fired. She told of being screamed and cursed at to work faster, of body searches, monitored bathroom visits, denial of social security health benefits, the extreme heat in the factory, even of being struck by Chentex managers. Often Cristina and her child would not arrive home until 9:30 or 10:00 p.m.
Cristina's husband works at the Chi Hsing factory, which is also owned by the Nien Hsing company. Four attempts to form an independent union at Chi Hsing have also been blocked through threats of immediate firings. Cristina's husband works seven days a week at the Chi Hsing factory, working a standard 12-hour shift, yet despite all the overtime hours the family lives in abject poverty, unable to afford even the most basic foods.
The workers at Chentex are not sharing in the wealth they are helping to create. They cannot afford to purchase the most basic necessities for their families' survival, let alone pay for the products they make. The conditions under which the Chentex workers are forced to live are both shocking and saddening.
The delegation was able to document that the Chentex workers earn approximately 20 cents for every $21 to $34 pair of jeans they sew, meaning their wages amount to less than one percent of the retail price of the garment. This labor management dispute centers on the CST union's request to negotiate a 40 to 60 percent increase in their piece rate, which would add just 8 to 12 cents to the direct labor cost to sew the jeans. It is not an unreasonable proposal, especially given that the U.S. retailers mark up their costs by over 400 percent, while Chentex marks up theirs by at least 200 percent. Nein Hsing is a successful company, posting a 29 percent operating profit in 1998.
President Chen, the situation at the Chentex factory is deteriorating rapidly and an immediate attempt at mediation is urgently needed. In reality, the CST union and Chentex management are not that far apart on substantive issues, and until recently there were decent labor management relations. However, for whatever reason, communications have completely broken down and the situation is spiraling out of control and heading toward an unfortunate conflict.
We realize the enormous weight of your responsibilities but it would be so important if someone from your staff could contact Nien Hsing headquarters, urging them to press Chentex management to sit down in good faith with the CST union to negotiate a resolution to this conflict, including the reinstatement of the fired union leaders and workers. Your intervention would have an immense impact toward peacefully resolving this crisis.
We want to be very clear that we support increased foreign investment in Nicaragua and the much needed jobs it creates. But these must be jobs with dignity, fair wages and respect for basic internationally recognized human and worker rights. This is an important issue for many people in the United States since we have just expanded free trade benefits to Nicaragua and other countries in Central America and the Caribbean. However, these benefits are conditioned upon respect for internationally recognized worker rights.
Thank you for the attention you can give this issue.
Sincerely,
Sherrod Brown (Ohio)
Robert Andrews (New Jersey)
Howard Bermen (California)
Peter Deutch (Florida)
Robert Wexler (Florida)
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