Tell Wal-Mart: Require Chong Won to negotiate with independent union

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=222

Tell Wal-Mart: Require Chong Won to negotiate with independent union
The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) is calling for support for the workers at Chong Won Fashion, a Wal-Mart supply factory in the Philippines, who have been on strike since September 2006. Six months after receiving reports from the Philippine Workers' Assistance Center (WAC) of violent attacks by Export Processing Zone police on striking workers, as well the unjust firings of two union leaders and 117 strikers, Wal-Mart has still not taken sufficient action to rectify the situation. In addition to carrying out its own investigation, Wal-Mart has since received reports from two other investigations verifying that the workers' rights have been violated. The first report, based on an independent investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), was submitted to Wal-Mart in December 2006. The second report, from the US monitoring organization Verité, was released March 26. While Wal-Mart is telling its supplier to immediately reinstate the 117 unjustly-fired union members, it is not demanding that the company negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the independent union. Management's refusal to enter into negotiations with the union is the main reason behind the strike.

Send a letter to Wal-Mart today, urging the world's largest and most powerful retailer to use its considerable influence to put a stop to these blatant violations of the Chong Won workers' rights.

The E action letter can be individualized.

Mr. Rajan Kamalanathan
Director of Compliance, Global Procurement, Wal-Mart
cc: Atty Omar Francisco, Mr. Yong Ryul Kim, Secretary Arturo Brion, Director Lilia De Lima

Dear Mr. Kamalanathan:

I have received reports from the Maquila Solidarity Network and LabourStart that six months after receiving credible evidence of serious worker rights violations at your Chong Won supply factory (recently renamed 'C. Woo') in the Philippines, your company has not yet taken sufficient action to end the abuses.

I am writing to urge your company to take immediate action to rectify these blatant and persistent violations of workers' rights and your company's code of conduct.

Specifically, I would strongly urge Wal-Mart to use its considerable influence to ensure that Chong Won management fully complies with the Worker Rights Consortium's (WRC's) recommendations for corrective action, based on its independent investigation, including withdrawing the termination notices submitted to 117 strikers, reinstating the two union leaders terminated prior to the strike, and negotiating in good faith with the workers' union, the NMCW-Ind, for a first collective agreement.

I am pleased to hear that, based on recommendations from a second investigation carried out by Verité, Wal-Mart is now demanding the reinstatement of the 117 unjustly fired union members. However in order to correct the egregious violations of freedom of association at the Chong Won facility, Wal-Mart must also require Chong Won management to enter into negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement with the NMCW-Ind. Allowing the company to evade negotiations while it continues to attack and undermine the union rewards the company for violating Wal-Mart's own code of conduct.

Lastly, I would urge Wal-Mart to publicly convey to both the Philippine Export Process Zone Authority (PEZA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) that in order to continue sourcing from Chong Won and other factories in the Philippines, your company needs assurances that your code of conduct and Philippine labour law will be respected, that violent attacks on workers will cease, and that Philippine labour law will be consistently and impartially enforced.

Yours truly,