ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9601030010
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR
SOURCE: LETTA TAYLER NEWSDAY
Hunched over a sewing machine in a stadium-sized factory on the outskirts of this capital city, Maria Leonor Mejia earned 56 cents an hour stitching seams on up to 800 shirts a day for Gap Inc. and other U.S. apparel giants.
She said she and other workers at Mandarin International could use the restroom only twice a day, and that if they stayed in the stall for more than a minute, a man would drag them out.
Sometimes, she said, when she or other workers refused to work overtime or to forgo vacations, their supervisors would make them clean the toilets or send them into the scorching sun to sweep the pavement.
``They made us suffer, and if we fought back, they made us suffer even more,'' said Mejia, 34, who was among more than 300 workers fired from Mandarin last June after they formed a union. ``They thought they could get away with it because we were women who were poor and vulnerable.''
Stories like Mejia's are becoming increasingly common in the Central American republic of El Salvador, where more than 280 factories known as ``maquilas'' churn out clothes and other assembly-line products sold in the United States. Allegations of problems at the plants, where most employees are young women with little education or vocational training, have strained El Salvador's relations with the United States and generated an international debate over workers' and women's rights that is testing this nation's fragile postwar democracy.
The sweatshop issue is drawing increasing attention in the United States because of a public campaign waged by Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Reich is pressuring retailers such as Gap to use their clout to demand humane working conditions at the maquilas.
Maquila owners and officials in the Salvadoran government's ruling ARENA party say labor law violations are virtually nonexistent. They say reports of abuse are being disseminated by U.S. labor organizations seeking to return manufacturing jobs to the United States - an allegation labor groups deny.
``The problem is that groups like the AFL-CIO are creating pressure to try to prevent us from producing goods that they want their own workers to produce,'' said Mario Guerrero, a retired colonel who is president of the San Marcos free trade zone here. ``The working conditions here are good for us and good for the Salvadoran workers, but bad for those seeking to keep jobs in the United States.''
But numerous reports of maquila worker abuse issued over the past year by human rights groups, labor organizations and opposition leaders have prompted U.S. apparel companies including Gap, Liz Claiborne, Eddie Bauer, J. Crew and Casual Corner to not renew contracts with the Taiwanese-owned Mandarin plant.
The reports allege that, in the past two years, workers have been fired for joining unions or getting pregnant, forced to work overtime or denied paid vacations, health benefits and sick leave - all in violation of national labor law.
Gap Inc. officials said a separate investigation they conducted earlier this year did not reveal any worker violations at Mandarin, the plant that has been at the heart of the controversy. Nevertheless, the San Francisco-based retailer took the additional step in mid-December of announcing that it had arranged a meeting between Mandarin's management and fired union leaders to discuss labor issues. Mandarin did not rehire any fired workers after the meeting, but it did agree to give some of them severance pay.
Gap also said it will work with human rights officials throughout Central America to monitor independent contractors' compliance with labor law.
While labor and human rights leaders here lauded Gap's initiative, many said the company should have gone further by insisting on an independent investigation of working conditions at the maquilas and other measures to ensure that there are no future violations.
``There are many serious problems in these plants,'' said Maria Julia Hernandez, director of the human rights office of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of San Salvador. ``In many cases, even the most basic rights of workers are not being respected.''
The critics also chided U.S. companies for severing contracts rather than staying put while working with maquila owners on reforms. They said that by pulling out of El Salvador, U.S. companies were only exacerbating economic problems in this country, where 60 percent of the labor force is unemployed.
``It's very important that companies like Gap stay in El Salvador to insist on better working conditions,'' said Eugenio Chicas, chairman of the National Assembly's labor committee and a member of the FMLN, a party formed by former guerrillas who fought in El Salvador's 1979-92 civil war. ``Leaving the country is taking the easy way out.''
Maquilas, which assemble other companies' products under contract, employ about 75,000 workers in this nation of 6 million. They exported approximately $600 million worth of merchandise this year. Nearly one-third of the maquilas are owned by foreigners, primarily from Asia, yet about 90 percent of all products made by maquilas are sold in the United States.
The San Marcos free trade zone houses Mandarin and six other maquilas in a compound ringed by a high gate, barbed wire and guards sporting semiautomatic weapons.
During a visit inside Mandarin last week organized by plant managers, about 300 workers, nearly all of them young women, sat in long rows sewing Eddie Bauer T-shirts. Ernesto Lemus, a lawyer representing Mandarin and several other maquilas, said they were the last batch of shirts under a contract that Eddie Bauer has not renewed.
All the workers who were interviewed inside the factory said they had never had any problems over pay, benefits or other policies, although some looked furtively over their shoulders as they spoke. ``They treat us well,'' said Maria Isabel Hernandez, 26, as she whizzed through a pile of shirt seams. Workers who complained about conditions were ``lying,'' she said.
Lemus also issued a point-by-point denial of allegations of any labor problems. He said, for example, that Mandarin workers were laid off last summer because the company had less work, not because the employees had formed a union. And he said there were no restrictions on workers using restrooms.
The war of words over the maquilas has reached as high as President Armando Calderon Sol, who last month denounced Chicas, the FMLN party member, and others who have called for changes at the plants. The president called them ``malnacidos'' - people who were ``born evil.''
But all parties in the dispute appear to agree that the decision of many large U.S. companies not to renew contracts in El Salvador's maquilas is hurting both management and workers. Mandarin has had to slash its work force from 1,300 to 300, and might have to close, Lemus said, adding that 32 other maquilas already have shut down as a result of the U.S. pullouts.
And without jobs in the maquilas, ``Young women would have few other work options apart from prostitution or crime,'' said Guerrero, the San Marcos trade zone president.
Even many workers who believe they were fired for trying to unionize Mandarin said they would like to return.
``I'd take my job back,'' Mejia said, ``if I knew I'd be treated with respect.''
The union point of view
For years, unions have sought to put pressure on U.S. apparel makers for moving much of their production to low-wage countries. UNITE!, the former International Ladies Garment Workers Union, says such moves hurt American workers and provide windfall profits for the companies. The union offers this illustration:
Item: Two pairs of Wrangler jeans (a VF Corp. brand), regular fit, straight leg, black.
Cost: Both pairs sold for $21.99 at a retailer called Bradlees.
Production: One pair had ``Made In U.S.'' with label of United Garment Workers union. Other pair had label saying it was made in the Dominican Republic.
Wages: The wages and fringe benefits of U.S. garment production workers average $9.62 an hour, according to the U.S. Labor Department. The wages and fringe benefits of Dominican garment production workers average $1.52 an hour, according to Werner International Management Consultants.
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