THE WAL-MARTIZATION
ALCOA OF
A MAJOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
ALCOA’S HIGH-TECH AUTO PARTS SWEATSHOPS IN HONDURAS ROCKED BY CORRUPTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS SCANDAL
BANNER: STOP THE ALCOA REPRESSION AGAINST THE WORKERS. POSTER: THE AFL UNION IS RECOGNIZED BY THE MINISTRY OF LABOR. UNITE AND FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS. SITAFLH
COVER: ALCOA workers protesting outside factory (left), Workers leave factory for lunch break (top), ALCOA working mother and union leader with children in front of home (right).
Table of Contents 3
Introduction
11
Alcoa-Honduras Profile
15
Systematic Pattern of Gross Human Rights Violations at Alcoa’s Plants
27
Starvation Wages at Alcoa
37
Workers Trapped in Poverty
45
Central American Human Rights Groups Accuse Alcoa of Union Busting
47
Hours: Forced Overtime and Constant Speed-ups
55
Chronology of Union Busting at Alcoa-Honduras
70
Alcoa Claims There Was No Union & that Union Activists Were Not Targeted
77
National Labor Committee & Community Communications Profiles
79
Alcoa Profile & Other NLC Resources on Alcoa
Introduction
The Wal-Martization of ALCOA By Charles Kernaghan September 2007 One thing is for certain: Alcoa has taken what were high-tech, good-paying auto parts manufacturing jobs and reduced them to the lowest rung sweatshop production, replete with gross human rights violations, starvation wages and total lack of respect for workers’ legal rights. At least this is the case at Alcoa’s four wire harness manufacturing plants in the El Porvenir Free Trade Zone in Honduras. Alcoa claims it pays the best wages anywhere in the world where its facilities are located. Alcoa also claims it is not anti-union and insists it is a very ethical company. The truth is, Alcoa did not arrive in Honduras under the best of circumstances. After years of worker unrest and blocked organizing attempts left hundreds of workers fired, Alcoa began pulling some of its wire harness production—removing machinery from entire assembly lines—from its plants in Acuña and Piedras Negras, Mexico, and relocating them to Honduras. In the process, local Alcoa managers told the workers, “we can hire two or three Hondurans for every Mexican.” In mid-2004, when Alcoa arrived in the city of El Progreso in rural Honduras, the workers had never even heard of the company. One of the first things prospective Alcoa “associates” were told during their training sessions was that quality production was critical since they were “no longer sewing cheap t-shirts,”—but rather would be manufacturing
Banner: STOP THE ABUSES BY ALCOA AGAINST THE WORKERS Protest in Front of Zip El Porvenir.
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
important auto parts for export to the U.S. What a shock it was for the wire harness workers when they found out that garment workers sewing cheap t-shirts and underpants in sweatshops adjacent to Alcoa were actually being paid wages 60 percent higher than they were!
One room apartments rented by Alcoa workers.
The base wage of 74 cents an hour at Alcoa’s plants meets just 37 percent of a small family’s most basic survival needs. In the last three years, real wages have actually fallen by 13 percent at Alcoa. Like Wal-Mart employees, Alcoa associates in Honduras have to rely upon charity to survive. The workers dress their children in clothing and shoes donated to the poor by local churches. Many Alcoa workers live in small one-room homes that were built by international aid organizations. Most Alcoa workers borrow money each week to survive. If an Alcoa worker buys a pair of shoes, they can only afford to do so on an installment plan, paying $2.65 a week. The workers refer to their small homes, which are constructed with cinderblock walls and corrugated metal roofs, as “microwaves,” because with the tropical sun beating down, the rooms quickly heat up like an oven, reaching temperatures of 100 degrees or more. Even if the wages are below subsistence levels, perhaps decent working conditions and benefits at Alcoa will make up for it? Unfortunately, it is quite
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
the contrary: Alcoa is actually lowering standards in Honduras, undercutting even the low end garment sweatshops.
Despertac are caffeine pills used by workers to stay awake.
At Alcoa, it is not uncommon for workers to have to urinate, or even defecate, in their clothing after repeatedly being denied permission to use the bathroom. The bathrooms are also dirty, lacking lights and toilet paper. Workers who take “too long” may be pulled from the toilet by guards. There have even been cases of women being made to disrobe and lower their underpants to prove they were having their period so they could use the bathroom more than twice a day. Workers arriving 15 minutes late can be punished with the loss of two-anda-half or three days’ wages. With as little as ten minutes notice, workers on the night shift can be ordered to remain working for another six hours, keeping them at the factory from 4:15 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.—nearly 14 hours. All overtime is obligatory and those who object can be fired. Many lines work this mandatory 13 ¾ hour shift five nights a week, putting them at the factory 68 ¾ hours a week. Especially in Plant III, where the air conditioning has been broken for nearly a year, fainting is common as factory temperatures often reach 104 degrees. Supervisors yell at the workers, “Hey, Donkey, move!” or “Work, you prisoners!” Security guards patrol the shop floor and if they see someone resting for even a few seconds, they will poke that person with their baton and order them to keep moving. Especially at night, workers take strong caffeine pills to stay awake and race to meet their high production goals, as well as pills for muscle pain, and later sleeping pills in order to sleep during the day. Production speed-ups are routine and arbitrarily set by management. In June, workers were told they had to increase their production from nine harnesses a day to 12. This was a 33 percent increase in production, with no wage increase. Under Honduras law, factories are required to provide free transportation to their workers, provide daycare and pay for break time. Alcoa refuses. Whereas low-end garment sweatshops in Choloma provide free daycare for their workers’ children, Alcoa does not. While Korean t-shirt sweatshops just a stone’s throw from Alcoa provide free trans-
Musflex is used by workers to ease muscle pain.
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
USW representative, Tim Waters, and Alcoa unionists celebrate international solidarity.
portation to their workers, Alcoa does not. Alcoa is even blocking access to healthcare for the children of its “associates,� despite the fact that these parents are paying for it. There are also strong unions at some of the garment plants, like the Korean-owned Han Soll factory, which produces for Reebok, and at the U.S.-owned SETISA factory, which produces for Sean Combs. But Alcoa will use slightly veiled death threats, mass illegal firings, blacklists and threats to close the plant to block workers daring to exercise their legal right to organize.
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
By early 2007, the Alcoa workers had suffered enough abuse and started a clandestine organizing drive, meeting in small groups of just 20 workers at a time in secret locations. By April, they had 74 members, and despite the constant fear of mass firings, they had reached 120 members by June. Then on June 2, 2007, the workers held their constitutional assembly, formed their union and elected their new leaders. Three days later, after receiving veiled death threats, the fiery woman union leader who had led the assembly was fired. On June 12, all of the newlyelected union leaders were fired and removed from the factory by armed guards. On June 15, the mass firings began and by July nearly 90 percent of the union’s founding members— the vast majority of whom had seniority—had been fired. Local Alcoa management told the workers they were completely unaware that there had ever been any attempt to organize a union at Alcoa, and therefore it was impossible for them to have targeted the union members for firing. Management said that these were just run-of-themill layoffs made necessary by fluctuations in production levels.
During a peaceful sit-in at the Ministry of Labor, Alcoa union members unfurl a banner that reads, “For the respect of worker rights.”
Alcoa thought it could get away with the firings without a word being raised. After all, as a Fortune 500 company with over $30 billion in annual revenue, Alcoa is 13 ½ times larger than the Government of Honduras and 1,565 times larger than the Honduran Ministry of Labor. With the stature of a giant transnational, Alcoa believed
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
it had the right to treat the Honduran government like a Banana Republic. For Alcoa, this was going to be a walk in the park. But this time Alcoa may have badly miscalculated. Alcoa was not counting on so many of the new union’s leaders and activists—especially the women—being so fiery, smart and determined. They were not going to be so easily rolled over. The fired unionists peacefully occupied the local Ministry of Labor offices for two days, chaining the gates shut. They held demonstrations blocking the front of the Free Trade Zone. The workers were able to get support from independent human, women’s and worker rights organizations from across Central America, who demanded that the fired unionists be immediately reinstated and who pledged solidarity for their just struggle. Alcoa was not counting on the fired union leaders organizing a joint press conference in San Pedro Sula, with the local worker rights organization COMUN, the National Labor Committee, the United Steelworkers Union (USW) and Central American Human Rights organizations—which was covered nationally on five television stations, radio and in two newspapers. Alcoa union members in front of the Labor Ministry regional Office. The banner reads: Stop the Abuses by Alcoa Against the Workers.
Nor did Alcoa count on a USW-NLC delegation traveling to Honduras in early August to meet with the illegally fired Alcoa unionists and visit their homes. Least of all did Alcoa expect that at the request of the United Steelworkers, 15 members of the U.S. Congress would write to Alain Belda, Alcoa’s CEO to urge him: “to reinstate the more than 50 Alcoa employees who were fired in June...days after organizing a labor union to protest low wages, compulsory overtime hours, substandard working conditions and frequent maltreatment... The dismissal of these workers infringes upon the rights established in Honduran labor law and in the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement. The right to organize a union is also protected by the labor standards upheld by the UN and the International Labor Organization. Alcoa’s employees should not fear dismissal for exercising
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
the rights that are promised by law and recognized by the international community.” Moreover, the USW and NLC are now providing solidarity and support to the fired Alcoa workers in their struggle for justice and to win their legal rights. And just last week, the Hispanic Caucus of the Teamsters passed a resolution in support of their Alcoa brothers and sisters in Honduras. The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center may also provide support. What is happening at Alcoa-Honduras is not how the global economy is supposed to work. We were told that when companies like Alcoa, with their higher tech jobs, enter the developing world, wages, benefits and working conditions would all improve, notching up standards across the country. Certainly this has not been the case with Alcoa’s auto parts production in Honduras, which is actually lowering standards and even undercutting low-end garment sweatshops. This is a critically important test case. If Alcoa—a Fortune 500 company—can step on Honduran law and treat the government like a Banana Republic, then the race to the bottom in the global sweatshop economy will have reached new lows. If Alcoa can so blatantly ignore the U.S.Central America Free Trade Agreement and ignore the treaty’s worker rights provisions as just so many words on useless pieces of paper—then we need to revisit and renegotiate CAFTA, for something is seriously wrong. Local Alcoa management in Honduras is threatening the workers that if they continue to struggle for their rights, Alcoa will “close the plant and relocate to Nicaragua where labor is cheaper and the workers don’t make so many demands or cause problems.” These brave Alcoa workers in Honduras need and deserve our solidarity.
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
U.S. Central America Free Trade Agreement Is Supposed to Protect Worker Rights Banner: WE DEMAN D THE REINSTATEMENT OF THOSE FIRED FROM ALCOA.
Excerpts from the agreement: “A party shall not fail to effectively enforce its labor laws…” “Each party shall strive to ensure that its laws provide for labor standards consistent with the internationally recognized labor rights… the right of association; the right to organize and bargain collectively; acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of work and occupational safety and health.”
Poster: The AFL Union is Recognized by the Ministry of Labor. Unite and Fight for Your Rights. SITAFLH
10
Alcoa Fujikura Limited
ZIP EL PORVENIR
AFL Honduras, S de R.L. (Alcoa Fujikura Limited) Zip El Porvenir Kilometer 7, Carretera a Tela El Progresso, Yoro Honduras Phone: (504) 648-1825 Fax: (504) 648-1829 [Note: Alcoa Fujikura Limited, a joint venture formed by the Alcoa Corporation and Fujikura Limited of Japan, was disbanded in 2005. Fujikura acquired the telecommunications unit, while Alcoa kept the automotive cable division, which is now called Alcoa Electronic and Electrical Solutions (ASEE).] Production: Automotive wire harnesses, or electrical systems, almost exclusively for Ford, especially the Ford Econovan. Number of workers: Approximately 1,700 workers—1,000 on the day shift and 700 or so on the night shift. Fifty percent of the workers are women. Alcoa operates four wire harness assembly plants in the El Porvenir Industrial Park, or Free Trade Zone. Alcoa also has another plant in the city of Choloma, called AFL Automotive Honduras, which manufactures the wire cable. Alcoa began initial operations in Progresso in July 2004, but production only reached full capacity in 2005.
11
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
ipping Record h S s m o st 00 u C . U. S ive, April , 2 t o m to u A L F t oA AFL Honduras Consignee OTIVE AFL AUTOM SUITE A102 6389 FM 3009 78154 USA SCHERTZ TX 3401AF NO.IRS 25-148
Shipper .L. DE C.V. RAS, S. DE R TERA AFL HONDU KM 7 CARRE 30 IR N E V O PR ZIP EL ES 29 Y IA TELA LOT SALIDA HAC ,YORO EL PROGRESO 25 648-1826 18 TEL.(504)648form ation P ackaging In 0 KG Weight: 1224 : ts M easur emen DL B Quantit y: 54 TEU's: 2.00 VICES ai l Ship ment Det N - CROWLEY LINER SER Ca rr ier : CAM EY SUN WL Vessel: CRO 25 Voyage: N75 006642 CAMNSPSN7M 00 B /L: 6. 93 8, lue: $4 Esti mated Va
dities AMS C ommo Con tainer 7 CMCU490171
Qty 54
URAS r igin : HOND O of y r nt ou C GULF : Coasta l Region GULFPORT US P or t: 1902 PTO CORTES 1 F or P or t: 2153 /03/2007 04 A rr iva l Date :
Descr iption HARNESS XES INER HC BO 1X40' CONTA
Alcoa pays no taxes—not one cent: Despite having profits of $2.25 billion in 2006, the Alcoa Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, does not pay any taxes whatsoever in Honduras. Under the Export Processing Zone Law Alcoa is 100 percent exempt from all import and export tariffs and duties, all corporate income tax, from state and municipal taxes, and even from the local sales tax, which the poorest workers have to pay. Alcoa is also free to repatriate 100 percent of the profits it earns in Honduras. Alcoa’s poorly paid Honduran workers often wonder about all the tax breaks the Alcoa Corporation receives: “You know this Alcoa company does not pay any taxes. They’re all duty free. Yet we have to pay our municipal taxes. But how is that fair? We pay taxes but they don’t.” Aloca’s revenues increased nearly 60 percent between 2002 and 2006, growing from $19.2 billion to over $30 billion. However, it was Alcoa’s profits which really surged, increasing five fold in the last four years, from $420 12
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
million to $2.25 billion by 2006. One would think that this Fortune 500 company could afford to pay a few taxes in Honduras. Alcoa pays its Honduran workers just 74 cents an hour.
Wire Harness Production Booming in Honduras With such lavish tax breaks, extremely low wages and very lax labor law enforcement, the wire harness auto parts industry is booming in Honduras. In April 2006, wire harness exports from Honduras were up 216 percent over the same month the year before. Honduras is now the second largest exporter in the world of wire harnesses to the U.S., behind Mexico and ahead of China and the Philippines. In one six-day period alone, in April 2007, the Alcoa AFL Honduras company in the El Porvenir Free Trade Zone shipped 227,189 pounds of wire harnesses to Alcoa’s Automotive Division in Schertz, Texas worth $459,958. To the left is U.S. Customs data summarizing one of those shipments.
Alcoa Versus Honduras—Who Has the Power? Alcoa, with its $30,379,000,000 in revenues in 2006, is actually 13.5 times larger than the government of Honduras, whose total budget is $2,612,893,000. Alcoa is also 1,565 times larger than the Honduran Ministry of Labor, whose budget is $19,413,589. In fact, it only takes about a minute for Alcoa’s revenues to equal the annual budget for the very important Ministry of Labor’s General Inspections of Labor Department, which is responsible for all plant and factory investigations across Honduras. The General Inspection of Labor’s budget—exclusive of salaries—is just $269,707. Obviously, the playing field is heavily tilted toward the transnational Alcoa.
(Top) Food vendors outside El Porvenir. (Bottom) Security Guard at El Porvenir Free Trade Zone.
13
Systematic Pattern of Gross Human Rights Violations At Alcoa’s Plants Many cases of workers forced to urinate, and even defecate, in their pants: At Alcoa there are many cases of workers who have been forced to urinate in their pants, and some have even defecated, after being denied permission to use the bathroom. Workers cannot leave their work stations without first asking permission from the team leader or a supervisor to use the toilet. Permission is never granted unless someone else is available to take that person’s place, as the revolving work table where the wire harnesses are assembled never stops. The problem becomes even more acute when someone from the production line is absent, leaving a single worker assigned to two or even three tasks. In April 2007 on Line 086 at around 8:00 p.m., a woman working on the night shift repeatedly asked for permission to go to the bathroom. Despite her pleas the supervisor, Reyna López, refused to let her go, saying there was no one to replace her. This is how a co-worker described what happened: “The woman asked permission to go to the bathroom because the food had upset her stomach, it had made her sick, and she had to use the toilet. She [the supervisor] didn’t give her permission and the women defecated right there on the line. She went to the
Workers inside El Porvenir Free Trade Zone.
15
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
bathroom later and washed out her pants as well as she could. But there was no electricity, no light in the bathroom. She had to use water from the toilet tank to wash her pants and then go back to work. They didn’t let her go home and she defecated again.” Worker after worker told us that, “Inside the factory, if a person must go to the bathroom, they [the supervisors] either say, ‘no, keep working’ or ‘stay here.’ They want you to pee at home.” Bathroom visits are limited to twice per shift. There are cases of women forced to disrobe to prove they are having their period in order to gain access to the bathroom more than once or twice in a day: As one woman described it, “The supervisors say the women are lying about their periods just to get into the bathroom. There have been cases when women supervisors took women to the office and made them disrobe and drop their underpants, to prove she was having her period.” Alcoa union leader has refused severance pay and is fighting for reinstatement.
16
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
Bathrooms are filthy, lacking toilet paper and light, and workers can be pulled from the stalls for taking “too long”: One Alcoa worker described the conditions in this way: “They never put a light in the bathroom because they say people will just go to entertain themselves in there....[at night to see], we have to have the door open and we hold the door open with one foot, and when we have our periods, it is difficult. Often I have complained that this is a violation of our rights.” The toilets the workers are referring to are several individual cubicles with a common sink outside. “They have always been dirty,” another worker explained. “They don’t use disinfectant and they don’t put paper [out]. They put one roll for the whole night for the whole plant.” (This would be 500 workers on average.) “They are big rolls, but they only last an hour. There are bathrooms that don’t have a door. Other ones where the locks are broken. There are cases when compañeras have gotten stuck, locked inside. There are 12 toilets for the women, but only three, sometimes four, are any good. We have to make a line to enter those bathrooms, and we only have five minutes. It is quite difficult, and if we delay very much, there is a security guard who has the keys to the bathrooms, who would open the door and pull us out. Even if people have their underpants down... [Last week,] the leader was knocking on the door and yelled, ‘Get out. You don’t have any more time!’ It seems incredible because pulling a person out of the bathroom seems like lack of respect. They knock on the door as if they are pulling a criminal out of their house, and they scream.” Two team leaders in particular, Mainol and Claudia Moreno often go into the bathrooms, shouting and yelling, to bring the workers back to their production line. In Plant #3, the largest Alcoa plant, for example, there are seven toilets for men, but only two toilets and two urinals are functioning. There are 12 toilets for the women, but only three are now working. Also, the workers 17
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
have started taking up collections to purchase Clorox and other disinfectants to clean their work areas and bathrooms. Some have chipped in to purchase brooms. Workers inside El Porvenir Free Trade Zone.
18
Workers who take “too long” in the toilet are also threatened with fines, which could cost the worker the loss of four-and-a-half days’ wages. The system works like this: If a worker is written up for taking too long in
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
the bathroom, when that worker eventually leaves the factory, 500 lempiras ($26.46) will be deducted from the final wages and severance pay due to the “offending” worker.
Fainting is “Normal”: The air conditioners in Alcoa’s Plant #3 have been broken for nearly the last year and have not been repaired. Plant #4, the warehouse, also lacks air conditioning. During the summer months, this means that the workers are toiling in temperatures that normally range between 97 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The factories are sweltering and fainting is normal. For example, in March 2007, it was so hot in Plant #3 that a woman worker fainted on Line 086 at about 6:00 p.m. She was carried to the clinic where they waited for her to come to and then sent her back to her post.
ZIP El Porvenir.
(In Honduras, which is near the equator, the hottest months are March and April, but even during winter—November, December and January—the average daytime temperature is 86 degrees.
Alcoa associates can be docked nearly three days’ wages for arriving just 15 minutes late to work: This happened to a woman worker we interviewed. She missed her bus and as a result arrived at work 15 minutes late. As punishment, her supervisor sent her home and docked her 300 lempiras ($15.87), a loss equivalent to nearly three days’ wages—which is illegal. The Alcoa “associates” earn just $5.94 a day. Workers also report that there have been a number of cases of sexual harassment in the Alcoa plants. Constant Harassment... “Work, you donkeys!” The workers say they face constant harassment and humiliation at the hands 19
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
of their supervisors, foremen and team leaders, who shout at the workers things like:
“Hey, stupid. Get moving!” “Hey, idiot, hurry up! You’re like garbage.” “Work, donkeys!” “Work, you prisoners!” One woman explained: “They harassed me and they transferred me to another post. The supervisor changed my post and passed me to another one. And then I couldn’t work with the speed that other people who had worked at that post had. Someone called Escobar came from human resources and she said that if she wanted, she could fire me with no rights [i.e. no severance pay]...She screamed at me, everything against me. She screamed as if I were an animal. It makes me ashamed. They call everybody ‘asshole.’
“Alcoa do es not tole rate any fo harassme rm of nt. Harass m e forms, all nt can tak of them u nacceptab e many insults, th le… reats,…un welcome advances sexual …verbal o r physical conduct t hat upset s another performa ’s work nce or cre ates a fea hostile wo rful or rk environ ment.” Alco a Guide to Business C onduct 20
When we asked a large group of Alcoa workers if others were also humiliated, the workers responded, “Yes. The majority.” When the workers approached Alcoa’s general manager for help to end the constant harassment, his response was, ‘I’m not going to cry if you leave. If you want to work, you have to work under the pressure that
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
exists in the factory. The gate is wide and many people outside want to work.” Alcoa uses the lack of jobs and very high unemployment in rural El Progreso where the plants are located, combined with a total distain for and repression of all legal worker rights, to hold the company’s “associates” in the position of “prisoners” or “donkeys.”
Honduran law requires factories to provide daycare, but Alcoa refuses to do so: Honduran law is very clear. According to Article 142 of the Labor Code: “Every employer who has more than 20 employees at their operation is obligated to set up a space to allow mothers to feed their children under three years of age without danger and to allow them to leave their children in a daycare center during working hours under the care of appropriate person(s) assigned and paid for by [the employer].” The Law for Opportunities for Women states that such employer daycare facilities should cover children up to seven years old. Treating Honduras as a Banana Republic, the multinational Alcoa corporation treats Honduran law as just so many pieces of useless paper. This has a huge negative impact on Alcoa’s approximately 1,700 workers, half of whom are women. Lacking the required daycare center at Alcoa, many workers have no choice but to pay up to 250 lempiras a week ($13.23) to place their children in informal daycare. Alcoa’s wages are so low that daycare alone, for a single child, can absorb 32 percent of a worker’s weekly wages. 21
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
Again, as improbable as it may sound, the presence of Alcoa—a giant Fortune 500 corporation—is actually lowering standards in Honduras by undercutting conditions in even the low-end garment sweatshop maquila factories. For example, while Alcoa illegally refuses to provide daycare for its workers’ children, in the nearby city of Choloma, the garment maquila factories are funding a large child care complex in the San Carlos neighborhood that can care for up to 500 of their workers’ children. Also in the Lopez Arellano neighborhood, other garment maquila companies are paying for another child care center for children of the maquila workers. Sooner or later, the garment sweatshop owners are going to look around and declare that what is good for the powerful Alcoa transnational should also be good for them, and hundreds more children will lose daycare.
Alcoa blocks healthcare for its workers’ children: By law, children under 11 must have access to healthcare under their parents’ Social Security plan for which fees are deducted from the Alcoa workers’ wages. Many workers shared the same frustration: “But in Alcoa, they never give us the documentation. They should have it, but the paperwork is not there. There are always excuses—that there are no forms, that the person in charge is not there right now. There is always an excuse. It’s always like that.” In practice—in what can only be a conscious effort—Alcoa is blocking access to Social Security healthcare for its workers’ children. Local Alcoa management never lifted a finger to help...“and they don’t even explain to the workers what it is necessary to do to be attended at Social Security.” In short, Alcoa not only doesn’t help the workers and their children to apply for the healthcare due them (and for which they have paid), company management has actively gone out of its way to block the process, by never having the necessary forms or the personnel available 22
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
to allow employees who are parents to inscribe their children. The workers say this happens to the majority of workers, leaving them no choice but to use the government-run hospitals set up for the poor, or to somehow come up with the money to go to a private doctor to care for their kids. The workers also say that it is standard practice at Alcoa to delay providing workers’ Social Security validation documents, which in effect creates long gaps when the workers themselves are without access to healthcare. Alcoa also signed its workers up for “company medical services,” meaning the workers can only use the small Social Security clinic in the free trade zone and not the larger and betterequipped Social Security hospital in the town of El Progreso. Workers report that treatment in the free zone clinic is often not good. For example, one woman on the night shift experiencing sharp pains in her chest was quite frightened that she might be having a heart attack. She asked the nurse on duty how they would be able to help her if it was serious. The nurse responded, “We just open your mouth and give you a pain killer, and if it’s your turn to die, it’s your turn and there is nothing we can do.” If a worker wants to use the hospital in El Progreso, she first has to travel to the free trade zone clinic, hoping to receive a referral and then turn around and trek back to town. The free trade zone clinic is not open on weekends, nor is a doctor available at night. So when hundreds of workers are toiling on the night shift—there is no doctor.
Alcoa worker’s son is sick, but they cannot afford the treatment or medicine he needs.
Social Security does not pay for medicines, which are another costly expense for the poorly paid workers. And when workers do go to Social Security, they are docked more than two days’ wages as punishment if they miss any time at work. 23
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
Video cameras to spy on the workers: The minute Alcoa found out that its workers were attempting to organize, they installed video cameras to spy on the workers. The workers explained: “They have a camera. They put a camera above the bathrooms to see how many times we go to the bathroom. To see if we are working. They say that this camera goes directly to the office. They are placed in all the plants. They said it was for security.” Having stripped the workers of their legal rights under Honduran law, internationally recognized worker rights standards and the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement, Alcoa now wants to spy on its workers to keep it like this.
Alcoa: The good corporate citizen? Alcoa executives like to describe their company as a very good corporate citizen, always ready to lend a helping hand to local communities in need. In Honduras, Alcoa refers to this effort as its “Project Bravo.” For example, in El Progreso, Alcoa supports a childcare center called Emmanuel, supposedly donating over $20,000 to the center. In such cases a plaque goes up on the wall recognizing Alcoa’s beneficence. But the real sacrifice falls on the shoulders of Alcoa’s “associates,” who are pressured to put in 50 hours of “voluntary” social work each year. Alcoa claims that participation in Project Bravo is strictly voluntary. But the workers report facing veiled threats to participate or face reprisals later on. One worker described it like this: “I worked in Project Bravo with some children who needed special education. I worked with those children and we had to train them to cut paper drawings, to draw figures. Training? I didn’t receive any training—they just took us from the factory and sent us to the project. They told us: ‘We have to go and work for the company’, and they started giving explanations. The supervisors got angry and threatened some workers saying they would punish them if they didn’t accept working on the project. Many workers questioned why Alcoa was making a show of supporting a daycare center in El Progreso while at the same time refusing to provide daycare for the children of its workers as legally required under Honduran 24
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
law. Shouldn’t Alcoa’s “Social Responsibility” begin with its own workers, or “associates”? The right thing to do would be for Alcoa to build a daycare center for its own workers’ children. One worker observed: “After I did all the work [on the Bravo project], I asked myself, why doesn’t Alcoa begin with their own workers? We don’t receive any benefits from the company—just the minimum according to the law, and even here it sometimes falls short. The extra benefits we receive are one plastic glass for May Day and a cup of coffee on Children’s Day. That’s it.” More workers wanted to comment: “I started to think further about the project and came to the conclusion that the money Alcoa gives to the projects comes from the pockets of the workers who are fired with just a small part of the severance due them. So this is the money they give for the projects. –They give our money and claim it is their money, their socially responsible charity.” Alcoa also loves trees. One worker described leaving the plant at 6:00 a.m. after being forced to work a 14-hour night shift beginning at 4:15 p.m. the night before, only to go directly out to plant trees all day in one of Alcoa’s reforestation projects. For all their “voluntary” efforts, the workers received only a small sandwich for lunch.
25
Starvation Wages at Alcoa Base wage of 74 cents an hour meets just 37 percent of a small family’s most basic needs; Alcoa’s wages have actually fallen 13 percent over the last three years; Like Wal-Mart “associates,” Alcoa workers are dependent upon charity from local churches and international aid organizations to build their small homes and dress their children; Amazing as it must sound, workers sewing cheap underwear in garment factories alongside Alcoa earn 27 to 60 percent more per hour than Alcoa’s high-tech auto parts workers; Alcoa cheats its workers at every turn: By law, Alcoa is supposed to pay for break time—it does not; it is supposed to pay for workers’ transportation—it does not; Alcoa refuses to pay double-time for work on Sundays or holidays; Alcoa shortchanges the workers on their legal bonuses, and when a worker misses time to attend a Social Security medical appointment, she can be docked up to 3 ½ days’ wages as punishment; Alcoa’s CEO, Alain Belda, paid himself $11,569,694 last year, which is more than three times the combined wages of all 1,700 wire harness workers at Alcoa’s plants in Honduras.
Scrap wood and metal home of an Alcoa worker.
selves r u o ll a c e w ; s ssociate “They call us a –Alcoa Worker
exploited.”
27
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
Alcoa workers can only afford the most meager of homes.
“They call us associates; we call ourselves exploited.” –Alcoa Worker Workers sewing cheap underwear earn 60 percent more than Alcoa’s high tech auto parts “associates.” One of the first things prospective Alcoa workers are told during their training sessions is that “quality is important, because it is not t-shirts that are being made. The lives of thousands of people who will drive the cars that carry these harnesses depend upon the quality of these harnesses. How odd it is, and how grossly unjust it appears to the Alcoa workers, that in low-end underwear factories adjacent to Alcoa’s plants, the underwear workers earn $26.92 more per week than the high-tech Alcoa associates do. The underwear factories pay wages nearly 60 percent higher. “I think the garment workers earn more because they work by production [piece rate] and they’re better paid than us. We know there are workers who earn 1,400 lempiras a week ($74.07) and with normal working hours, let’s say--but they do work like donkeys…They
28
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
work from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It’s not fair that garment workers earn more than harness ones. Remember that a car costs more than a t-shirt, and the harnesses we make cost $200 and a t-shirt only $8 or $10, and the auto parts go to the U.S. Those cars cost huge amounts of dollars and the t-shirts don’t cost much…So it’s not fair that they pay us so cheap and that we don’t get the right to a doctor, or to a meal, or to transport. The truth is that these people have come to exploit the poor from here.” –Woman Alcoa worker Workers in El Porvenir Free Trade Zone sewing t-shirts and underpants in factories right next to Alcoa are being paid 1,400 lempiras a week, or $74.07 for a 50 hour workweek (from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday) if we include paid break time as Honduran law demands. The underwear workers earn $1.48 per hour. On the other hand, the regular wage at Alcoa, including the “Seventh Day” attendance bonus, is just $41.60 a week. In Honduras, the regular week is 44 hours, but by law the workers are paid for 48 hours. If we add six hours of overtime, which is paid at 92.5 cents an hour, to bring the total hours worked to 50—equivalent to the hours worked by the underwear workers— the Alcoa workers would still earn just $47.15 for the week. The Alcoa workers would be earning an average of 94 cents an hour. This means that the underwear workers are indeed earning $26.92 more per week—57 percent more than the high-tech Alcoa auto parts workers. Astonishing as it may sound, the low-end garment workers are earning $1.48 per hour compared with Alcoa’s average wage of 94 cents, which includes the attendance bonus and the overtime premium. One of the temporary workers fired by Alcoa in late April went immediately to work in a t-shirt factory in the same industrial park. Even as a new worker, in her first week she earned 1,000 lempiras ($52.91), which is $11.31 more than she earned at Alcoa. Her wages sewing underwear were 27 percent higher than her wages at Alcoa. At Alcoa she earned 94.5 cents an hour, while at the t-shirt plant, she earned $1.20. As we will show, again and again, Alcoa is actually lowering standards in Honduras. Alcoa is undercutting the garment sweatshops.
29
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
The Wage at Alcoa is 74 Cents an Hour: Under Honduran law, the regular work week is 44 hours, but workers should be paid for 48 hours. Moreover, in Central America, it is traditional to pay what is called the Seventh Day’s pay, which functions as a sort of attendance bonus. If a worker does not miss a day or arrive late, he or she will be paid for seven days. But, if a worker misses time at work, they will take that day’s wage along with the Seventh Day’s pay and possibly—at Alcoa—even additional illegal fines. Including the Seventh Day’s pay, the hourly wages is 95 cents.
a
B
Alco t a e ag ase W ur o s an h
t
74 cen
$5.94
ours)
(8 h a day
s 48 paid a
hours 4 4 ( k ee th 4aw a mon $35.6 2 3 . 4 $15
)
hours
Overtime during daytime hours is paid at a 25 percent premium above the base wage, or 93 cents per hour. By law, the day shift is any time between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., and everything beyond that is a night shift. Night shift workers must be paid a 25 percent differential, or 93 cents per hour. Overtime at night is paid at a 75 percent premium above the base wage, or $1.30 per hour.
Includ
Wa ing Se venth ge Day A ttenda 95
$41.60
$7.56 a week
cents a
a day (
n hour
nus
8 hour
(44 ho
s)
urs pai
$178.3
nce Bo
0 a mo
d as 48
nth
hours)
The base wage paid by Alcoa of 112.33 lempiras a day ($5.94) and 74 cents an hour has actually declined, in terms of real purchasing power, by 13 percent over the last three years. In 2005, when Alcoa plants reached full production capacity, the base wage was 68 cents an hour. As we have seen, the current base wage of 74 cents an hour—which will remain in place at least through 2007—represents a nominal wage increase, six cents per hour over a three year period. But it
30
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
is even more dismal that it appears, as the compounded inflation rate in Honduras from 2005 to date is 21 percent, meaning that the Alcoa workers’ real wages have actually fallen by nine cents an hour or 13 percent. As bad as it has been for the Alcoa workers, it is getting worse by the day. The Honduran government has recently actually lowered the country’s legal minimum wage in the country’s Southern departments from 74 cents an hour to just 57 cents—a 30 percent decline. In nominal terms, this will drop the minimum wage back to the level of five years ago, but in real terms it will represent a much larger wage cut for the already very poor workers. Alcoa and the Honduran government are buying into the race to the bottom hook line and sinker, giving corporations a license to pit workers around the world against each other, competing over who will accept the lowest wages, least benefits, and most miserable living and working conditions, just to be lucky enough to have a job.
Be It Does Not Have to
This Way
ent es rise almost 60 perc nu ve re al nu an its en . However, 0 company, has se on to over $30 billion lli Alcoa, a Fortune 50 bi 2 9. $1 m fro g ars, 06, growin se in the last four ye ea cr in d ol between 2002 and 20 ef fiv a in llion ally soared, raking Two and a quarter bi . 06 Alcoa’s net income re 20 in on lli bi 5 ire harness 2002 to $2.2 reason why Alcoa’s w od from $420 million in go no is e er th n so , of money especially as productio e, in cl de dollars profit is a lot es ag w al re s should see their workers in Hondura e. speed-ups are routin s workers? 7 Honduran harnes 40 5, th or w ly al re worth more CEO of Alcoa gle individual, to be Is Alain Belda, the sin a as , le ab lu va d rtant an ain Belda paid Is he really that impo mbined? In 2006, Al co rs ke or w n es of all ra du on es the combined wag tim e than thousands of H re th an th e or m 4, which is himself $11,569,69 Honduras! rs Alcoa employs in 1,700 harness worke at least a onduran workers with H e th at tre to re he an enough um wage—rather th im in m l Surely there is money ga le e th t, as and to pay, at le . modicum of respect ely does, at every turn in ut ro a co Al as , rs cheating the worke
31
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
Some examples of Alcoa workers’ wages: On Shift A, the day shift, a review of pay stubs shows the workers earning the minimum wage of just $41.60 a week. With eight or ten hours of mandatory overtime included, an Alcoa worker can earn $49.74 a week. On the night shift, due to the night differential of 25 percent, a worker can earn $50.52 a week. Someone on the night shift, putting in a 60 hour week—including 13 to 18 hours of overtime—which exceeds the legal limit in Honduras by over 30 percent or more—can earn up to $84.48, meaning the worker is earning between $1.41 and $1.54 per hour. (Note that according to Article 231 of the Honduran Labor Code: “The maximum hours for a night shift are 7 hours a night and 42 hours a week.”) In April, when the night shift was on a four day schedule from 6:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., the workers earned $64.38 a week. In May, when the workers returned to a five-day schedule—4:15 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. four nights a week and 4:15 to 11:15 p.m. one night—they earned $93.85 for 62 ¼ at the factory. Working the night shift from 4:15 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., 13 ¾ hours a night for four nights, and from 4:30 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. on Fridays, this worker earned $90.26 for the week, including 25 hours of overtime, the special night differential, and theattendancebonus.Thisworker was at the factory 62 ¼ hours and earnedanaverageof$1.45perhour.
32
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
33
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
Alcoa: Cheating the Workers at Every Turn: We have already seen, in clear violation of the Honduran Law, that Alcoa does not provide daycare for its workers’ children, and even goes out of its way to obstruct these same children’s access to Social Security health care, despite the fact that the parents are paying for it. Unfortunately, many more examples exist of Alcoa shortchanging its ‘associates.’
The right to transportation: Article 42 of the Honduras Labor Code, mandates that companies provide free transportation to workers living more than 1.2 miles from the workplace. Alcoa blatantly violates this law as well, leaving the workers to pay between 15 to 20 lempiras a day ($0.79 to $1.06) depending on the distance, for round trip bus fare. Each day this costs the workers an average of 93 cents, which might not seem like much, but it actually means the loss of one and one quarter hours of base pay. This is just another example of Alcoa actually lowering standards in Honduras. In contrast to Alcoa, even the Korean-owned garment sweatshops in the nearby Continental Free Trade Zone either provide free busses for their workers or pay stipends to cover bus fare.
The right to paid breaks: Here too, the Labor Code is quite clear. Article 323 states: “Effective work time is that during which the worker remains at the orders of the employer or cannot leave the place where he/she gives service during hours of rest or meal times.” By refusing to pay for break time, as the law demands, Alcoa is cheating the workers of another hour of wages per day. This adds up, as more than two hours base wages a day are already gone due to Alcoa’s failure to provide free transportation or pay for breaks.
Refusing to pay double time: In March and April 2007, when the night shift was on a four-day schedule, Tuesday through Friday, working from 6:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., it was also common for at least 100 workers to be obligated to work on Saturday and Sunday as well, and in some occasions even on Monday. When these 34
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
workers were forced to toil on Sunday, Alcoa never paid the double-time premium demanded by law. Similarly, on Line 405 of the night shift, some 60 people were forced to work on May 1, the Labor Day holiday. Management said they would receive double pay, but it never showed up in their pay, and in fact, they were not even paid straight time. It was more or less the same on Holy Thursday, which is a national holiday in Honduras. Workers obligated to work were again promised double pay, as required by law, which they did not receive, but at least this time they were paid straight time.
Workers shortchanged on their bonus:
“Do What’s
Right”
nduct was o c s s e in s u b ee oa guide to lc A e h tinued to s t n e o c c e v “Sin a h I igh 1992, After they have worked at least one full ining the h a t released in in t a s r m fi … e year, workers have the right in June to ction lcoa gain th A values in a d ’s e a lp o th e lc h A s d what is called a 14 Month bonus. By ha holders an egrity that e t r a in f h s o r l e u v o law, the bonus should be calculated as f le to ld and respec n io t t…We shou a n ir an average of the last six weeks’ wages e m m n ad o ir v global en st ethical earned by the worker. But Alcoa does e h ig h e success in a h t ased upon not operate like that, and they pay just ur values… o g in is lways act b m a o the month’s minimum wage of $178.30. er compr elf… ‘Am I s r u o ciples, nev y k in s r a p nd d Particularly on the night shift, where an ubt, stop a ctions stan o a d y in m l n il e h ‘W W ’… additional 13 to 18 hours of overtime d truthful? n a ir a f g in a week would not be uncommon, the be losure?’” bonus—if it was calculated according to public disc Alain Belda law—should have been at least $365, and a CEO of Alco not the $178.30 minimum. In this case the workers were cheated of $187.50, meaning they earned less than half of what was legally owed to them.
In a similar vein, many workers also complain that when they leave Alcoa, or are fired, they do not receive their proper legal severance pay. For example, someone who has worked at Alcoa for two years is due two months’ salary in lieu of notification of the firing, plus one month’s pay for each month worked, and a proportion of the vacation pay and of the 13th and 14th month’s bonus. Former workers we spoke with said they were rarely, if ever, paid correctly. 35
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
Illegal deductions: If a worker misses a day, by law the company can deduct two days’ wages— the day missed and Seventh Day’s pay. This apparently is not enough for Alcoa. One worker we spoke with had recently suffered from a badly infected tooth. His jaw was swollen and he was in a lot of pain, but when he asked for time off to go to the clinic, his supervisor refused. When he could no longer bear the pain, he left for the clinic. As we said, by law, for missing work Alcoa could take away two day’s base wages, or $11.88. However, in the case of the man with the infected tooth, as punishment for leaving, Alcoa illegally docked his wages by $21.95, or nearly twice the amount permitted by law. Alcoa management clearly wanted to send a strong message to its workers discouraging sick days. Now, someone must deliver a strong message to Alcoa that even a Fortune 500 transnational is not above the law.
36
Workers Trapped in Poverty § Like Wal-Mart employees, Alcoa
“associates” must turn to charity to survive;
§ With their children dressed
in clothing donated by local churches and many of their one-room homes built by international aid organizations;
§ Base wages meet only 37
percent of a small family’s most basic survival needs;
§ Alcoa workers borrow money from informal neighborhood lenders each week to survive.
“We are worried that when our daughter grows up the expenses will increase. When she starts school, I don’t know how we are going to do it. She’s dressed with donations from the church, but she’s growing and we have to start buying her clothes, paying for school, transport, uniforms, gym outfits, pencils—I’m anxious already, that we will have to take out more loans or go wet to the U.S.A. – A male worker at Alcoa. “You see,” another worker told us, gesturing to his neighborhood, “that people here live more or less okay, in houses. But it is because of the donations from the Netherlands and Sweden after Hurricane Mitch. No one has built a house with the skinny wages of Alcoa. And others live with their parents, who were peasants and who with their sweat purchased plots of land and now their sons live with them. In Alcoa, you can work like a donkey, suffering and you sweat, but you can’t afford to even build a wall. 37
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
Visiting Workers’ Homes We spoke with a mother whose son was “kicked out of the factory because he belonged to the union.” Discussing how far the regular Alcoa wage of $41.60 a week would go, she told us that her family of three “can only afford to eat beans, rice and tortillas...and you would be eating poorly just to half live.” We asked her about her cinderblock home and she told us it was donated by the
38
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
local church, “otherwise we could not have afforded it on Alcoa’s wages.” A big treat for the three of them is to buy a half a chicken on Saturdays. The family cooks outside on a makeshift stove using wood to save money. But still, each stick of wood costs about eight cents. To make matters worse for the Alcoa workers, the costs of the basic staples making up the workers’ diet are skyrocketing. The mother told us that the price of beans was up 100 percent in just the last three months, to 53 cents a pound. Rice was up 20 percent, to 32 cents a pound. The cornmeal use to make tortillas jumped 30 percent in a single week, to $1.16 for a four pound bag. Vegetable oil was up 50 percent in the last two weeks, now costing $1.22 for 1 kilo (2.2 lbs.). The family had stopped buying eggs because they could no longer afford them since they now cost $2.65 for a carton of 30 eggs. But to get them at even that price you had to spend money on bus fare to get to one of the big discount stores. Her son had worked the night shift on Line 405 in Plant 3. He worked, she told us, “from 4:15 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. every day, Monday through Friday.” Her son called it the “killer shift,” since he was on his feet all night following the revolving work table. All he did was work and sleep. Still, working 68 ¾ hours a week, the family still needed to rely on charity to survive. She said her son was “excited about the union...and he never missed a meeting. But he was on the list, so he was fired.” Alcoa management continues to insist—and lie—that they were not aware of any union being formed, and that the firing of nearly 90 percent of the union’s founding members was just another ordinary, run-of-the-mill layoff.
39
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
Base Wage at Alcoa Meets just 40 Percent Of a Small Family’s Most Basic Survival Needs We asked a small family—a father and mother with a young daughter—to walk us through their daily expenses. The father works at Alcoa. We have broken down their most basic living expenses by week and day, based on what a worker must earn in 5 days to meet the week’s expenses.
Expense Item
Per Week
Per Weekday
(A one-room 15-by-17-foot house with makeshift wooden divider to create separate spaces for eating & sleeping, and an outhouse. Sink with running water works only sporadically, but even this was built through a community project)
$ 9.78
$ 1.96
Electricity
$ 4.37 $ 7.94
$ 0.87 $ 1.59
$ 7.94
$ 1.59
$ 26.46
$ 5.29
$ 3.17
$ 0.63
$ 13.23
$ 2.65
(Including soap, shampoo, detergent, toilet paper, toothpaste, candles—for when there is no electricity, sanitary napkins, clean drinking water, etc.)
$ 4.23
$ 0.85
Wood and gas for cooking
$ 1.59
$ 0.32
$ 2.38
$ 0.48
$81.09
$16.23
Rent
Transport to/from work Meal at factory
(Lunch or supper depending upon shift. Small portions of rice and cabbage, tiny portion of chicken)
Food at home
(Typical purchases for the week include: 2 lbs. rice, 2 lbs. beans, 15 eggs, tortillas, 2 lbs. chicken, 1 lb. cheese, 1 bottle oil, milk—1 liter once a week, 2 onions, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, 3 lbs. bananas, 25 oranges, 1 watermelon. As milk is too expensive, children usually drink “atol”—a mix of milk and cornmeal with artificial flavoring. If each family member is taking 2 meals a day at home, they are spending 88 cents each per meal.)
Transport to the local market
(One parent must make two trips each week to the cheapest popular market to purchase food.)
Daycare for one child (Including one meal)
Household articles
Medicines
(Average monthly cost of prescriptions for child from Social Security clinic, aspirin, pepto bismol, etc.)
TOTAL 40
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
Since the base wage at Alcoa is just $5.94 a day, we can see that the wage meets just 37 percent of a small family’s most basic survival needs. And these expenses do not even begin to include education; purchasing an inexpensive bike or TV, or smaller expenses such as buying a newspaper or taking the family out on Sunday, or a phone call. In fact many Alcoa workers told us they have to borrow money each week from neighborhood lenders in order to survive. Usually they would borrow 200 lempiras ($10.58) each week, on Friday, and have to pay it off the following Friday at 10 percent interest. If they cannot pay the whole loan, then they have to at least pay the week’s interest of $1.06.
Alcoa workers try to dress their children with clothing and shoes donated to the poor by a local church. To dress themselves, they purchase used clothing from the U.S. If they have to buy a new pair of pants—men’s or women’s—it will cost about $7.94. A blouse or skirt will cost at least $2.38. New shoes go for $29.10 for men and $23.80 for women. Alcoa workers can only afford to purchase shoes on an installment plan, paying $2.65 a week. 41
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
The Lucky Ones:
Alcoa worker’s son is sick, but they cannot afford the treatment or medicine he needs.
We visited another Alcoa worker’s family. Both parents worked at Alcoa and they had two children. Their 12-by-16-foot one-room home was not built with charity, but it was built with a lot of help from the husband’s aged parents, who gave them the land and shared construction costs. The house had a concrete floor, cinderblock walls and a corrugated metal roof. The workers refer to such homes as “microwaves,” because in the afternoon with the sun beating down, the homes quickly heat up like an oven with temperatures often reaching 100 degrees or more. Everyone is constantly sweating. The home had one overhead light, a double bed, a hammock, a small TV and a radio, four plastic chairs, two small homemade wooden tables and a small tabletop gas stove with four burners. Flies were everywhere. There were window openings but no windows. They had an outhouse and also often cooked with wood to save money. The grandmother told us that to eat fairly well, including milk for the children and chicken two or three times a week, her son’s family of four would need to spend 2,000 lempiras a week ($105.82). But even with both parents working full time at Alcoa, their regular
42
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
combined wages total just $83.21 per week, which means their wages meet just 79 percent of their food costs, let alone any other expenses. This family was among the lucky ones. The husband’s parent’s owned an acre or two of land, raised chickens and grew beans and other vegetables. We asked the grandmother about the regular weekly wage of $41.60 a week at Alcoa and she responded, “It’s not real money.”
43
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA Turned over refridgerators are used as water storage containers.
At the other extreme was a single mother we visited, who had worked at Alcoa for over a year and a half before being fired for belonging to a union. She had two beautiful young children. Together they lived in a broken down hut with a dirt floor, put together with any available scraps of wood, cardboard, rusted scrap metal, plastic, newspapers—whatever they could get their hands on. They had no electricity and relied upon candles. Of course there was no radio or TV. Their home leaked terribly and when it rained hard, it was like a river running over the dirt floor, which turned into mud. Mosquitoes swarmed everywhere. The family had only intermittent access to water, which was also via a community project. For tanks to store the water, the family used two old refrigerators lying on their backs in the dirt with the doors off. They cooked with wood. This was a very proud woman and we were all struck by her dignity. She was one of the activists, who has refused to accept severance pay and continues to fight for the union at Alcoa. And finally, the Popeye’s fast food chain is like the Waldorf-Astoria to the Alcoa workers. We asked several workers if they often ate at the local Popeye’s and they responded, “Oh, no. This would cost one full day’s wages.”
44
Central American Human Rights Groups Accuse Alcoa of Union Busting The Alliance for Social Responsibility and Dignified Work (IRSTD) made up of six independent human, women’s and worker rights organizations in Central America and the Dominican Republic issued the following statement calling for the immediate reinstatement of the illegally fired Alcoa unionists and ongoing support for their just struggle: We consider that in the case of the men and women workers fired by ALCOA’s management, there exists a clear violation of the economic, social and cultural rights of the persons fired, [a violation] of the Constitution of the Republic, the Labor Code and other international conventions ratified by the Honduran State. That in addition, actions have been taken that go against the principles promoted around the world with regard to social responsibility and, what is even more serious, the right of a state has been violated—in this case the Honduran state—to enforce the laws and procedures established for the protection of its working population, as is evidence by the rejection to which the Commission was subjected. IRSTD puts forward that in the measure that the Honduran State does not enforce the right to state protection that these people enjoy, it will be confirming once again the accelerated weakening of nation states, which continues as a function of the interests of capital and free trade. In this way, those who govern lose their perspective and forget the urgency of defending the dignity of their People, as a guarantee of a dignified future for future generations. IRSTD stands in solidarity with the men and women workers of AFL and calls upon the Honduran authorities to guarantee the Alcoa Fujikura Limited (AFL) workers’ access to justice in the terms established in national and international legislation. In the same way, we call upon the companies and businesses that invest in the Central American region beginning with proposition of business social responsibility to declare your repudiation of actions of this nature that put these very propositions in question. An energetic stance in facing these violations, in accordance with the law and the principles of human rights, will contribute in great measure to strengthening the Central American states and the wellbeing of its citizenry. The firings at AFL is not the problem of the workers alone, it is an issue that for all Central American citizens committed to development and democracy. San Pedro Sula, June 29, 2007 IRSTD Coordination Member Organizations: -- CIPAF / Center for Research and Action on Women -- GMIES / Independent Monitoring Group of El Salvador -- COVERCO / Commission for Verification of Codes of Conduct -- PASE / Social Auditing Professionals Team -- ASEPROLA / Association for Labor Promotion and Consulting -- EMIH / Independent Monitoring Team of Honduras
45
Hours: Forced Overtime & Constant Speed-Ups § Workers fired for refusing overtime; § Workers attending night school are told: “It’s either school or work”—and must drop out; § With as little as 10 minutes notice workers are told that their night shift is being extended another six hours, meaning they will be working a 14-hour shift from 4:15 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.; § Many workers are forced to do these all-night, 14hour shifts five nights a week, putting them at the factory 69 hours; § Security guards patrol the shop floor and will poke workers with their batons if they see any worker resting for even a few seconds; § Workers report being exhausted. Many take caffeine pills to keep up with excessive production goals and stay awake, pills for sore muscles, and pills to be able to sleep; § Workers face constant speed-ups. Recently, production goals were arbitrarily raised 33 percent with no increase in wages.
“The Family Doesn’t Exist” One of the first things that happen when new workers enter Alcoa is that their team leaders or supervisors…“bring us together in a meeting to give us a warning. He says that anybody who doesn’t want to work should leave and that outside there are many waiting, and he also always says that in the factory, the family doesn’t exist, that when you pass through the gates, you should leave your problems hung up at the door.” Day Shift: Shift A, the day shift at Alcoa, is 9 hours, from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and from 7:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Fridays. This puts the workers at the factory 45 ¼ hours a week. In Honduras, the legal workweek is 44 hours. It is routine that at least several production lines will be kept for two 47
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hours of overtime each day to 6:00 p.m. It is mandatory that some lines also work overtime on Saturday, from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Workers report being routinely forced to work 10 hours or more of overtime each week. Night shift: The contract the workers sign on the night shift—Shift B—states that their hours will be as follows: from 4:15 p.m. to 11:45 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and from 4:30 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. on Fridays. This schedule would put the workers at the factory 37 ¼ hours each week. In Honduras, the legal night shift is limited to seven hours per night. However, at Alcoa, the standard contract hours are more the exception than the rule. The demand for excessive mandatory overtime hours dates back to early 2005 when, for months on end, the night shift was required to toil from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., 12 hours a night, five nights a week, for a total of 60 hours. Forced overtime was also common in 2006 when, for example, the night shift was kept for six months straight—July through December— working 12 hours a night, from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. five nights a week. In 2007, for most of January and February, the night shift was again forced to work from 6:00 or 6:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. On the dayshift, the workers receive a 15-minute morning break and 30 minutes for lunch. At night, the workers had two 15-minute breaks, one between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. and the other at 3:00 a.m. plus a half-hour break for supper at 12:00 midnight. But when the night shift was working four nights a week, from 6:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., management took away the free supper and also one of the 15-minute breaks Honduran labor law requires that breaks be treated as working hours, but Alcoa ignores this. Shift ‘C’—1,200 temporary workers join Alcoa in late February: “There was a period when they opened another shift. They hired people temporarily to do work they needed. These people, they promised them that if they produced more than we did that they were going to fire us and they were going to pass them to our shift. These people, to produce, they didn’t even go to the bathroom with the illusion that they would be free to stay working. And then they fired them and didn’t give them anything.”—Alcoa worker 48
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
Alcoa brought in 1200 temporary workers at the end of February 2007, and set up a special ‘C’ Shift for them. The temps worked a four day week, three days (Friday, Saturday, and Sundays) from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and one night (Monday) from 6:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. This put the temporary workers at the factory 44 ½ hours a week. With the temps working, the night shift of permanent employees was changed to four nights (Tuesday through Friday) from 6:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., or 46 hours, which include 10 or more hours of overtime. Moreover, it was common for at least 100 workers to be forced to work on both Saturday and Sunday, and occasionally on Monday—putting the workers at the factory seven nights a week, toiling anywhere from 36 to 44 hours of overtime. When the temps were hired in June, the night shift returned to its standard hours of 4:15 p.m. to 11:45 p.m., five nights a week. However, at least two lines were again required almost every night to stay until 6:00 a.m. For example, Lines 200 and 525, with a combined 200 workers, were repeatedly forced to toil from 4:15 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., putting in a 14 hour shift.
Workers Describe forced overtime, constant speed-ups and exhaustion: Every Alcoa worker we spoke with told us the same thing—all overtime was strictly mandatory. One worker explained: “The people cannot go [leave work at the end of the regular shift], they could charge you with abandonment or threaten you with abandonment of your job.” If we can’t stay in overtime” another worker said, “they take reprisals against the workers. It would be that they could fire the person.” One young woman was told by her supervisor: “You can’t go to eat because I need you here.” But she was hungry and it was her half-hour lunch break, so she left. When she returned the supervisor tried to force her to sign an official warning that she had abandoned her work post. When she refused to sign, the team leader yelled at her, “why didn’t you sign?” and turned to her supervisor saying: “If she continues like this, you have to kick her out.” For one young man on Line 3 in Plant II, the message was clear—“Either your work, or your studies,” as you cannot do both. The man was attending night school, but his supervisor was ordering him to work 49
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overtime every night. “I lost courses in school,” he told us, “and had to drop out because if not, I’d lose my job. So I dropped out of school and stayed doing overtime hours.” Many workers on the night shift told us they were forced to work 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., “almost always—ten months up to a year.” It was the same with overtime or Saturdays. It was mandatory—“If they want you, they tell you you have to attend.” All demands of overtime, the others told us, are arbitrarily decided by management. “If work needed to be done, the workers had to stay— period.” One woman in Line 712 explained to us the hardship it imposes upon the workers when management keeps arbitrarily shifting their hours around. “I was going to resign when they made us do the shift till 6:00 in the morning because I had to go to Colonia Primavera [over six miles from the Alcoa factory], go to my aunt’s house where I left my four-year-old son sleeping, take him home, feed him, and change his clothes to let him go to kindergarten at 7:30 a.m.” On the night shift, “maybe an hour before or even ten minutes before, they tell us we have to stay working to 6:00 a.m.” The workers’ shift starts at 4:15 p.m. and is supposed to end at 11:45 p.m. But with as little as ten minutes notice, management can arbitrarily extend the shift by another six hours, forcing the workers to toil to 6:00 a.m. If any workers try to leave at 11:45 p.m., after their seven and half hour shift is over: “They accuse them of abandoning their work and fire them without even a cent.” The night shift workers are really in a trap. Even if they could somehow avoid management and leave the factory at 11:45 p.m., there is no way they could get home as the Alcoa factory is located in a somewhat isolated area, and there is no public transportation available at that time. It is Alcoa management which contacts the private minivan drivers and tells them what time to show up at the factory. If they are keeping the workers to 6:00 a.m., that is when they schedule the van to arrive. “The company decides when you leave” workers told us, “as they schedule when the buses depart.” On the night shift, just about everyone spoke about being exhausted due to the long hours and excessive production goals. “I feel the work is very heavy” another worker explained, “one ends exhausted, very tired, because 50
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
sometimes I had to make about 200 series per hour and you can’t sit, you can’t go to the bathroom, because everything goes very fast, and the lines can’t be stopped if you stop, and the team leader pressures you to make the product fast because the process can’t be stopped.” The workers are on their feet all night walking alongside a revolving work table where they assemble the wire harnesses, and of course, management controls the speed at which the work station revolves. There are constant speed-ups at Alcoa. This happened in late June 2007. “Now we’re in a situation where every person is making nine harnesses per hour. So when we’re on a table and there are two people, there are 18 we have to do. Now they want to take away the person that they put in to help and they want to demand more production. Not to lose the production of the person that they take away. Also, now they want to increase it at three more harnesses per person, meaning twelve. We can make these nine harnesses, but that does not cover going to the bathroom, taking breaks…They want you to be at work and not even drinking water…On Thursday, a gentleman came. I didn’t know his name. He spoke with a leader. I was there close, and I heard. He said that he was going to take people out of the line and he wanted the 12 pieces. He was going to distribute the people into other lines. That happens with frequency.” Another worker added to this: “When people are either fired or they leave their job, the companeros, the operations that this person did are given to those who continue working. There are some who have to do two, three, or four, or even five operations.” So in June, Alcoa arbitrarily increased the production goal by 33 percent, from 9 to 12 harnesses an hour, without, of course, increasing the wages. Alcoa security guards, patrolling the shop floor, make sure the workers do not rest, even for a few seconds. One worker had this experience: “I remember once I was very tired at 3:00 a.m., and I leaned against the wall because I had a pain in my feet. Suddenly a guard came and nudged me with his stick telling me ‘Go to work, get off the wall, it’s prohibited.’” Another worker tried to rest during his half-hour supper break. “When we worked from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., I didn’t take any half hour for dinner. Rather I laid down on some cardboard I placed on the ground. But the guard told me it is prohibited to lie down and threw away the cardboard.” 51
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The majority of Alcoa workers on the night shift take strong caffeine pills—Cafiaspirina and Despertac—to stay awake and to meet the high production goals. A prescription sleeping pill— Diazepam—is taken the following morning in order to sleep. Another pill—Musflex—is used to relieve muscle pains after the long night shifts, which can stretch 12 to 14 hours. “If you lean against the wall like this,” a worker demonstrated, “many workers would fall asleep standing up. Others consume pills so as not to fall asleep. And then in the day they would take pills to go to sleep and be able to work at night. To sleep here in Honduras during the day is more difficult than in the U.S. because of the heat and people live in small places and there are a lot of dogs. So they would take pills with caffeine at night and then sleeping pills.” Another worker added: “Those pills are so as not to fall asleep during the night, but they have a secondary reaction, next day you’re with your nerves disturbed. I used those pills during three months and one can’t sleep during the day, because of the nerves, the heat, the children because I live in a ‘cuartería’ (rented room) and the reaction is that you can’t sleep. Then to sleep I use Diazepam—it’s only sold with a medical prescription, but the drug stores sell it to us because they know the working situation we’re living. The majority of workers on the night shift take those pills, but they affect you. I’ve been three months very nervous. I had tremors in my hands and with a small noise you think it’s a bomb and you jump from your seat.” It is almost impossible to sleep in Honduras during the daytime. First, most workers live in single rooms—often called ‘microwaves’—made of cinder block walls and a corrugated metal roof, which in the daytime sun can heat up to the high nineties or even to over 100 degrees. Of course the workers have no air conditioning. Three, four, even five people share one room. Children play during the day and dogs are everywhere as are flies. Nor are there windows to keep out the sound. The workers cannot afford them. All they have are wire mesh screens.
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“There are things we want to change in the factory,” said one woman. “The obligation to work overtime, the maltreatment from the bosses, the bad food. We can’t go before 6:00 a.m. Why, if our homes are so far? And they always threaten us—that if we go we would be punished with warnings. You cannot study at Alcoa—they fill their mouth saying that they give permission to study. Those are just lies, and there are no opportunities to improve. The warnings are placed in your file and you’re considered a bad worker if you don’t want to work overtime.” Indeed, it was on the night shift, due to all the abuses, that the union was first formed.
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Chronology of Union Busting at Alcoa-Honduras “Alcoa honors and respects all people who choose to work for the company… Alcoa respects the freedom of individual employees to join, or refrain from joining, legal authorized associations or organizations.” - Alcoa Guide to Business Conduct April 2007:
Early in 2007, small groups of Alcoa workers—usually about 20 at a time—began a series of meetings in secret locations to organize a union. The union organizing drive was launched in April.
May:
Despite fear of mass firings, by May 74 workers had joined the union.
June:
The clandestine organizing continued, and by June the number of unionists had climbed to 120.
June 2:
At an assembly on June 2, the Union of Workers of the AFL Company, SITAFLH, was officially formed. The founding assembly was chaired by the fiery union leader Mr. Lorna Redell Jackson Garcia. The provisional board of union leaders was elected:
President: Lucas Quintanilla Ramos
Alcoa union leader.
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Vice President: Maria Suyapa González Velis Secretary: Rigoberto Ponce Orellana Secretary of Acts: German Edgardo López Garcia Treasurer: Oscar Armando Vasquez Cruz Fiscal Secretary: Sayda Dayana Herrera Salgado
June 5:
After receiving a series of threats—some of them veiled death threats—Ms. Lorna Redell Jackson Garcia, the principal union organizer and chair of the assembly was fired. Lorna was called by Alcoa’s assistant human resource manager, Yolany Contreras, and told that she was being fired because the company was “cutting personnel.” At 9:00 p.m., armed security guards escorted Lorna from the factory, leaving her outside the gate of the free trade zone.
From Model Employee to Despised Unionist Lorna’s firing graphically illustrates Alcoa’s union busting tactics. Before Lorna was involved in organizing a legal union at Alcoa, she had no problems. In fact, it was quite the opposite in that she was recognized as a model employee. “I had been elected Employee of the Month. I had collaborated greatly with the company. I’m one of the people who has done the most overtime hours in the company and I have the pay stubs that prove it.” Once Alcoa management learned of her union involvement, the tables quickly turned. From that moment on… “it was every day that they harassed me like that.” At first the threats were petty. Her supervisor accused Lorna of selling products inside the factory, which is prohibited by Alcoa rules. She was not, but the attacks continued. As we have seen above, the threats soon became more serious, including veiled death threats. Her children were also frightened. They told their mother that strangers had come to their home looking for her. If it ever happens again, she told her children, “don’t say who lives here.” Now, they lock their doors and make certain that the curtains are drawn tightly closed. 56
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June 12-night:
Before the firing, Lorna had been threatened by various Alcoa supervisors and engineers saying: “…Doesn’t it make you afraid to be involved in what you are involved in?”… “Don’t you know AFL-Alcoa is a transnational…and don’t you know many people have appeared dead for this?” … “We all know that you are still in the struggle…you know that martyrs are left to decorate the walls, but there children are left alone.” Lorna Redell Jackson Garcia had over a year and a half seniority at Alcoa, having started working there in October 2005. (Alcoa’s wire harness operation in the El Porvenir FTZ began only in mid-2004, but was not at full production until 2005.)
Alcoa union members at a meeting with NLC and USW representatives.
The entire union leadership was fired from the president on down, in the order that they were listed in the union’s founding documents. The six union leaders were called by Yolany Contreras, assistant human resource manager, and told they were being let go because Alcoa was “cutting personnel.” The firings took place between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. Again, the union leaders were taken out by armed guards and left on the highway in front of the free trade zone. The guards did not allow the workers to go to their lockers to collect their personal belongings. 57
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One of the women union leaders described her firing as follows: “She [Yolany Contreras] called me at 10:00 p.m. to fire me…and she ordered the security guards to take me out of the factory like a dog. I stood there in the heavy rain until the buses came at 11:30 p.m.”
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All of the fired union leaders had seniority. Four had begun working for Alcoa in 2005, and two began in January 2006. The union leaders had 1.3 to 2.5 years seniority. (Since the workers were fired late at night, officially their firings would be recorded as taking place on the next business day, June 13.)
(Note: The union leaders were all fired within two or three days of the last mass layoff of the approximately 1,200 temporary workers Alcoa hired in February. Management hoped this would provide cover, claiming that the firing of the union leaders was just part of a larger layoff. Moreover, at the same time at least 20 of the temporary workers were being hired as permanent full-time “associates,” while the union leaders—all with seniority—were being fired.)
June 13:
All the necessary documents for the founding of an official union at Alcoa are submitted to the Ministry of Labor in Tegucigalpa. Ministry of Labor official José Alonso Turcios Fernandez signs a letter confirming that the Ministry has received the documents requesting legal recognition of the union.
(Note: Forming a union in Honduras: On June 2, Alcoa workers held a constitutional assembly to form their union—the Union of Workers of the AFL Company (SITAFLH)—and to elect the provisional board of union leaders. Following the assembly, it takes a considerable amount of time to collect all the documentation necessary for the union to apply to
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
The AFL union is recognized by the Ministry of Labor. Unite and Fight for Your Rights. SITAFLH
the Ministry of Labor for official recognition or legal status. Among the documents required by the new union are: the official act (resolution) founding the union; documentation of the union leaders’ election; the approval of the union rules; multiple copies of the workers’ identity cards to certify they work at Alcoa; a criminal background check of the union leaders must be carried out at the General Office of 59
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Criminal Investigation; and the General Inspector of Labor must certify that there is no parallel union existing in the plant—which would be a violation of Honduran labor law, which permits just one union to operate. Working quickly, it took the Alcoa union eleven days to pull together all the necessary documentation, which they delivered to the Ministry of Labor on June 13, 2007.) Mass firings of union members begin. Twenty union activists and members were fired. June 14:
The fired union leaders meet with Alcoa management in the El Porvenir free trade zone. The fired union leaders, accompanied by their lawyer, Ms. Priscila Alvarado, Ministry of Labor inspector Maria del Carmen Cruz Morales, and El Progreso municipal regent Mr. Bartolo Fuentes meet with Alcoa’s assistant human resource manager. Alcoa’s representative was informed—and provided a copy—of the certificate from the Ministry of Labor confirming that legal recognition of their union was in process. The Labor inspector also noted that it was a violation of the constitution of Honduras to fire union leaders and organizers.
The fired union leaders and members also organized a demonstration in front of the El Porvenir Free Trade Zone, handing out leaflets exposing the fact that they were illegally fired by Alcoa for having organized a union. Auditors from Ford were actually inside the
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A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
Stop the Alcoa Repression Against the Workers.
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Alcoa plants on June 14, conducting an inspection, but security guards prevented the workers from speaking with the auditors about the ongoing illegal firings of the union members. June 15: At least 26 more unionists are fired by Alcoa. June 18: The Regional Ministry of Labor director orders Alcoa’s lawyer, Ms. Maria Elena Ulloa, to appear at the Ministry offices on June 18. Despite the fact that her presence was legally obligatory, she did not show up. June 19: Alcoa’s lawyer is again summoned to the Regional Ministry of Labor office in El Progreso, but for a second time fails to appear.
On June 18 and 19, the fired union leaders and members peacefully occupied the local Ministry of Labor office in El Progreso, chaining the gate shut and demanding immediate reinstatement, recognition of the union, respect for their legal rights, and an end to the violations and abusive treatment at Alcoa. Demonstrations continued in subsequent days in front of the El Porvenir Free Trade Zone as well as in the public square in El Progreso.
Workers peacefully occupy the Labor Ministry in El Progresso.
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June 20: The demonstrations had an impact. On June 20, a group of 25 of the fired unionists went to the Free Trade Zone to meet with Alcoa to demand reinstatement. This time the workers were accompanied by two Ministry of Labor inspectors, José Antonio Zuniga and Lesvia Arely Andino, as well as a representative of the Human Rights Ombudsman’s office, Santos Sierra Castillo.
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
However, the chief of security at the free trade zone, Carlos Argueta—backed up by armed guards—told the official delegation, “none of Alcoa’s managers are in the plant to attend you”—so it would be impossible for him to let them enter.
June 21:
On June 21, Regional Chief of Labor, José Antonio Zuniga, intervened, demanding Alcoa meet with the delegation. Labor inspector Maria del Carmen Cruz returned to the Free Trade Zone with Human Rights Commissioner for El Progreso, Santos Sierra, and the fired union leaders. This time, wisely, they were accompanied by the police who forced the security guards to unlock
A police escort was necessary for a labor inspector and a human rights commissioner to gain access to the El Porvenir Free Trade Zone.
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the gates so the delegation could enter.
The delegation met with Vidal Flores Balsaldua, Alcoa’s human resource manager, and Alcoa’s lawyer Maria Elena Ulloa. Two other lawyers from the company joined the meeting.
Alcoa’s representatives were again officially notified that a union had been formed at Alcoa and a demand was made to reinstate the fired union workers. The human resource manager responded saying, “We don’t have any possibility to reinstate the fired workers due to fluctuations in production cycles.” The lawyer also explained that Alcoa’s official legal representatives were out of the country.
July 2:
The fired union leaders traveled to Tegucigalpa to meet with the Minister of Labor, Ms. Ricci Moncada, who confirmed that the company could not fire them for organizing a union.
July 15:
As of July 15, 65 of the 74 founding members of the union—nearly 90 percent—had been fired. Ninety-four percent of the unionists fired had seniority, having begun working at Alcoa in 2005 and 2006. (See attached list of union members.)
Alcoa Workers Threatened with Mass Firings, “Blacklist,” and Plant Closing Alcoa management acted quickly—and illegally—to suppress and crush the workers lawful right to organize. Within weeks, nearly 90 percent of the union’s founding members had been fired. Threats continued as supervisors spread fear, telling the workers that if they continued with their union Alcoa would close its Honduran plants and “relocate to Nicaragua where labor is cheaper and workers don’t make so many demands or cause problems.” “Another thing they tell us,” one worker explained, “is that if you get into a union, you won’t be able to work in any factory. That’s what they’ve said to us. ‘Nowhere. In no place!’ For example, we who have initiated the union, at the [Free Trade Zone] gates, they have our photographs.” 64
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
Another worker jumped in to explain: “The guards have the photos, and when we enter, you have to show your card with your picture, and they are looking at that and at the photos.” Even one of the temporary workers who had been laid off in June told us she also had heard that “a blacklist had been set up of the unionists from Alcoa and, at least in the Free Trade Zone, they will never work again.” July 30:
The Ministry of Labor Chief Inspector for Progreso sends a “Legal Summons” to Alcoa officials: “Mr. Gustavo Ordaz and Mr. Ariel Longoria in their capacities as Production Manager and external consultant to Alcoa-AFL, Honduras, to appear at this Regional Labor Office on Friday, August 3, 2007, at 9:00 a.m., with the objective of resolving the labor problems presented [by the fired union leaders]…” “You are warned,” the Certificate of Summons states, “that your appearance is obligatory. If the contrary occurs, judicial proceedings will be initiated.”
The Alcoa representatives chose not to attend the conciliation meeting. Instead, they had their lawyer, Jose Manuel Pienda Paz, respond in writing: “It is the case that Mr. Gustavo Ordaz and Mr. Ariel Longoria in their fore-mentioned capacities do not hold legal representation of the mentioned company, for which reason, my client has not been summoned in legal and due form.”
With regard to Mr. Gustavo Ordaz’s legal standing, there may be some truth to the lawyer’s claim since he was among the managers caught in the corruption scandal who was either sacked or abruptly quit. The legal status of Mr. Ariel Longoria, however, would be quite the contrary: He has just been appointed general manager overseeing Alcoa’s operations in El Progreso, replacing the fired Eleazar Arzola. Surely, as Alcoa’s highest management representative in El Progreso, he had legal standing.
Regarding the illegal firing of the union leaders and activists, Alcoa’s lawyer facilely responded: “…My client is in the process of a restructuring of personnel…for which reason, the company is not in a position to accede to the request for reinstatement put forward by the claimants.” 65
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(On August 3, another summons was sent demanding that Alcoa’s representatives appear at the Ministry of Labor office on Tuesday, August 14 at 9:00 a.m.)
The workers’ lawyer, Priscila Alvarado, reports that this is exactly the kind of stall tactics the fired unionists—and for that matter, the Ministry of Labor—face when they request a meeting with Alcoa management. “Every time we try to meet, Alcoa’s legal representative, Ms. Maria Elena Ulloa, says the representatives of the company are outside the country. This has blocked us from carrying out a number of administrative hearings. We can’t keep waiting for these people to show up.”
This is another example of how Alcoa plays Honduran law like a violin when it suits them, and when it does not, simply stomps on the law, treating Honduras like a Banana Republic.
July 31-August 2: Alcoa management continues to threaten the workers. Representatives from the Ministry of Labor headquarters in Tegucigalpa informed Alcoa that they intended to carry out a three-day inspection of Alcoa facilities from Tuesday, July 31 to Thursday, August 2. Beforehand, supervisors threatened the workers not to say anything negative about factory conditions because if they spoke badly about the company, the factory would close. If things went badly, they said, the plant would be sold to Toyota and everyone would be fired and have to be recontracted. On the plus side, in preparation for the Ministry of Labor visit, the bathrooms were cleaned and toilet paper, soap and paper towels were finally present in abundance.
Honduran Law Prohibits Alcoa from Firing The Union Leaders and Founding Members Honduran Labor Code; Article 516: “The workers who are members of the Executive Board of a union organization, from their election until six months after the end of their functions, cannot be fired from their jobs without proving before a Labor or Civil Court judge that in their misconduct there exists just cause to terminate the contract.”
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Article 517: “The formal notification by thirty workers made in writing to the employer, communicated to the General Directorship of Labor or Labor Ombuds Office of the jurisdiction, of their intention to organize a union, puts the signers of said notification under special state protection. As a consequence, from the date of the notification until receiving legal recognition, none of those workers can be fired, transferred or demoted in their working conditions without just cause previously qualified by the respective authorities.
August:
Despite firings and threats, organizing continues:
“People know,” the workers told us, “that the union exists to defend their rights. But they don’t affiliate because they are afraid of losing their jobs, because they have necessity—[to support their families].”
When we asked a large group of Alcoa workers how many people in the factory would join the union if the repression were lifted, they shouted, “Everybody. Everybody. The majority.” One of the fired union leaders continued, “Well, with your [USW/NLC delegation] visit, that really gives us strength to continue. To continue in the struggle. I think starting today, there will be a lot of people who want to affiliate, because they will see that the company is violent.” “In fact,” one of the workers explained, “there are still a lot of people who are in the union and who are working. But they don’t tell anybody they are in the union, because if we tell somebody, they could immediately report it and they would get kicked out.” So even more than before, following the mass firings, the organizing must be done in a clandestine manner.
USW representative, Tim Waters, with Alcoa union leaders in front of El Porvenir.
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Nearly 90 Percent of the Union Members Fired But Alcoa Claims This Is Just a Coincidence As of July 15, 2007, Sixty-five of 74 founding members of the union have been fired
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No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Nombre Alex Xiomar Ortiz Mejìa Alvaro Luís Amaya Alvarado Ana Joaquina Castillo Ana Julissa Chinchilla Rivera Antonio Villalobos Martínez Bernabé Godinez Blanca Nelly Garay Rodríguez Castulo Cruz Murillo Dennis Alexander Cruz Montes Digna Emerita Sandoval Ortez Edgar Antonio Vásquez Edwin Alfonzo Fugon Medina Elmer Said Mejia Vásquez Elvin Pineda Chávez Emilio Montes Erika Leticia Ramos Torres Fany Yackeline Orellana Mejia Francisco Haudeli Duarte German Edgardo López García Guillermo Alemán Pineda Guillermo Carlos Cárdenas Hector Roman Sandoval Escobar Ingrid Verónica Rodríguez Mercado Jenny Carolina Pineda Jessenia Velásquez Alvarado Joel Gómez José Alexander Cruz Reyes José Jiménez José Rigoberto Hernández Amaya Juana Espinosa Mateo
Identidad 1804 1979 04239 1804 1986 02276 1804 1966 01238 1804 1986 02220 1804 1958 01251 1707 1979 00292 1806 1973 00722 1809 1989 00461 1801 1982 00032 1804 1978 02096 1804 1981 00044 1801 1985 02120 1804 1986 02535 1707 1983 01052 1801 1955 00247 0107 1978 01822 1804 1980 01679 0209 0984 01855 1804 1976 01231 1804 1972 02758 0501 1977 02122 1804 1985 01152 1606 1984 00251 1804 1982 03364 1808 1975 00323 1804 1984 05582 1801 1984 01046 1804 1984 00360 1804 1980 03230 1804 1972 02591
31 32 33 34 35 36 37
Juana Leticia Maldonado Karina Jackeline Domínguez Ledys Samuel Urbina Portillo Lorna Redell Jackson García Lucas Quintanilla Ramos Luis Amilcar Enamorado Castellanos Luis Araus
0512 1986 00875 1806 1986 00875 1801 1974 00589 0506 1959 00997 0107 1960 01382 1601 1981 00086 1804 1988 03829
Ingreso 19 03 05 03 02 05 13 01 06 18 10 05 17 02 05 21 02 05 12 09 05 23 01 06 30 01 06 12 09 05 30 09 05 03 02 05 11 01 07 25 01 06 23 01 06 19 05 05 13 01 06 09 01 07 13 05 05 03 02 05 21 02 05
13 07 05 26 10 05 20 02 06 08 02 06
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74
Manuel Jesús Escobar Saravia Maria Celina Alfaro González Maria Magdaly Maldonado Maria Suyapa González Veliz Marina Regina Romero Aleman Mario Antonio Gamez Mendoza Mario Vidal Elvir Canales Martín Montoya Erazo Marvin Omar Hernández Castro Marvin Yovany Alberto Maryuri Lizeth Hernandez Ruiz Maynor Geovany Bueso Medrano Melvin Alexis Zuniga García Melvin Córdova Miguel Ángel Tome Gutiérrez Mirian Elizabeth Andrade Alfaro Mirian Yamileth Contreras Salgado Mixael Cruz Fuentes Nancy Yadira Caceres Peralta Noemí Vásquez Licona Nolvi Araceli Espinal Norma Iris Mejia Oscar Armando Vásquez Cruz Osman Roberto Sarmiento Alberto Patricia Elizabeth Romero Umanzor Práxedes Escobar García Raúl Felipe Reyes Rodríguez Rigoberto Ponce Orellana Rosa Torres Zelaya Sandra Guevara Sayda Dayana Herrera Salgado Teresa Carolina Maldonado Tomas Guzmán Pineda Valerio Alberto López Wilfredo Arias Wilmer Antonio Bonilla Alvarenga Zoila Suazo
1804 1977 02927 1804 1986 00767 1601 1979 00863 1804 1982 00563 1804 1970 01428 1804 1981 00308 0611 1977 00832 0318 1971 01378 0103 1980 00640 1804 1968 03273 1804 1986 00344 0107 1984 00661 1809 1980 01999 1801 1985 03689 1809 1982 00292 1804 1973 01237 0601 1982 03148 0107 1986 00847 1804 1981 03729 0501 1972 03015 1804 1969 02262 1801 1980 01384 1804 1975 00699 1804 1982 00054 1804 1968 02990 1707 1969 00583 1804 1986 03159 1804 1969 00696 1804 1960 01271 0107 1972 00831 0501 1982 04045 1804 1987 00941 1804 1970 0071 1804 1945 00532 1804 1975 01985 1804 1981 03499 0306 1983 00104
26 05 05 28 04 05 31 08 05 28 09 05 12 09 05 17 01 05 04 10 05 03 02 05 04 01 07 04 10 05 28 04 05 17 01 05 16 09 05 10 06 06 23 01 06 25 01 05 06 11 06 21 09 05 13 07 05 29 12 06 03 09 05 12 09 05 17 01 05 06 10 05 31 01 05 06 10 05 31 08 05 17 01 05 19 09 05 11 10 05 25 07 05
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THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
Alcoa Claims There was No Union. Union Leaders & Activists Were Not Targeted For Firing. The Workers Say Alcoa is Lying. Who Do You Believe? According to the workers, local Alcoa management has insisted all along that no unionists were fired, and that as far as they are concerned, no union ever existed as Alcoa management was never officially notified of such. Alcoa does admit to mass firings, but says these were run-ofthe-mill lay-offs required by fluctuations in production demands. Some background facts:
1.) Alcoa claims that some 1,800 workers were laid off between April and July 2007: Alcoa hired 1,200 temporary workers with a contract beginning February 28 and ending on April 29, 2007. However, not all the temps were let go on April 29, with some 200 or so working into June. Moreover, the workers estimate that at least 20 of the temps have been hired as permanent workers. Alcoa also treated the temporary workers with typical distain—they had zero legal rights—and at the same time lied to them. Essentially Alcoa told the temps that if they could outwork the permanent workers, then the permanent workers would be let 70
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
go and the temporary workers would take their places. One full-time worker described it like this: “They told them, ‘Listen, we are going to hire you permanently, but only if you are good workers.’ And those people worked like donkeys in the plants. One day when we were doing an activity in the park and collecting funds to support our struggle, we met some of them and they told us they were fired with their hands empty.” However, it is important to note that when the temps were fired, they were instructed to leave their addresses as they might very well be called back soon. It would certainly appear that the majority of full-time workers fired in June and July were founding members of the union. This is an important point, as Alcoa is claiming that approximately 1,800 workers were fired between April and July 2007—1,200 temps and more than 500 permanent full-time “associates.” Alcoa management is anxious to bury the illegal union firings in what appears to be mass layoffs due to production cuts. But according to the workers, only 100, or at most 200, full-time workers were fired and nowhere near the over-500 figure that Alcoa is claiming. These are the best calculations of the workers, and it is possible that their numbers would be slightly off, as management never shares such data with the workers. However it appears more likely that Alcoa is wildly exaggerating the number of layoffs in an attempt to cover their illegal firing of the union leaders and activists. Another important point is that the style of Alcoa’s firings fits precisely the pattern used for years by the maquila factories to block the workers’ legal right to organize. Those union members and suspected sympathizers with the greatest seniority are always targeted first for firing, as they are seen as more outspoken and motivated to struggle for improvements. In the eyes of the management, workers with the least seniority present less of a risk—since the newer workers are less secure and often too afraid to press demands.
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THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA In April 2007, there were approximately 2,890 workers in the four Alcoa wire harness plants in El Progreso, including both shifts and the 1,200 temporary workers who were employed at that time. Plant I – Cutting:
About 50 workers Line 405 –3 lines(85 workers on one line, 65 on the other two) Line 334: 85 workers Line 525: 85 workers Processing: 20 workers
Plant II – Assembly:
About 475 workers
Material suppliers: 20 workers Shipping: 6 workers Cleaners: 4 workers Mechanics: 4 workers Supervisors and leaders: 15 plus office personnel Line 006: 2 workers Line 014: 20 workers Line 086: 100 workers Line 078: 20 workers Line 079: 24 workers Line 712: 15 workers Line 630: 13 workers Line 518: 18 workers Line 631: 12 workers
Plant III – Assembly:
About 900 workers
Line 401-Big: 100 workers Line 401-Small: 15 workers Line 405: 100 workers Line 409-Big: 100 workers Line 409-Small: 50 workers Line 200: 2 lines of 100 each Line 525: 25 workers Wire braiding: 16 workers Soldering: 25 workers Material suppliers: 18 workers Cleaning: 5 workers
Plant IV – Warehouse:
About 20 workers per shift
Total: 1,445 per shift x 2 shifts = 2,890 workers Including 1,690 permanent workers and 1,200 temporary workers.
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A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
By August 2007, after the 1,200 temporary workers were fired, the remaining workers, including both shifts, stood at approximately 1,590 –or approximately 100 fewer full time workers than in April. Plant I – Cutting:
About 50 workers
Plant II – Assembly:
About 475 workers (or perhaps a few more since some workers from Plant III have been transferred to Plant II).
Plant III - Assembly:
About 250 workers
Plant IV – Warehouse:
About 20 people
Total: About 1,590 permanent full time workers remaining—or, 100 fewer than in April 2007.
2.) Contrary to what local Alcoa management is claiming, they were in fact duly notified—at least twice—that a union had been formed at their Honduras wire harness operation. Furthermore, Ministry of Labor representatives, along with the illegally fired union leaders, were blocked at gunpoint on numerous occasions from entering the El Porvenir Free Trade Zone and prevented from meeting with Alcoa management. 3.) Alcoa Rocked by Corruption Scandal: There is another major problem with Alcoa’s official line regarding the union firings. Something went terribly wrong at Alcoa’s wire harness operation in Honduras. Alcoa has been forced to admit that its general manager in Honduras, Eleazar Arzola, was fired—along with several other managers—for “violating Alcoa’s proper practices policy.” The new general manager in El Progreso is Ariel Longoria, who was formerly a consultant with Alcoa. Gustavo Ordaz, production manager, was also let go. The human resource manager, Vidal Flores Basaldua, also abruptly departed, saying his assignment was over and he was returning to Peru. The assistant human resources manager Yolany Contreras—the person who directly fired the union workers—also abruptly quit. Her background is not pretty. Before being hired by Alcoa, Ms. Contreras worked in another nearby maquila called Sun Style Garments, which was shut down without warning leaving 300 workers without their severance or any rights to back wages owed them.
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THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
Vinyl tape used to cover the harnesses.
Also currently missing from Alcoa’s Honduran management team are production manager Roberto Travitas; import/export manager Jessica Argueta; plant manager Joel Vaquera and engineering manager Jaime Campa. One way or another, they are out of the country—either on business, or they have been fired or forced to quit. Alcoa is remaining tight-lipped, but it is becoming clearer that some local Alcoa managers may have been dipping into the cookie jar while at the same time skirting proper production and safety standards in order to cut costs. 4.) More on Alcoa Corruption/Cutting corners to save time and money: According to the workers, Ford had many “issues”—(the management’s term)—with the wire harnesses being produced by Alcoa. “Sometimes the harnesses would arrive without testing tickets. Ford has complained many times to the company.” Another workers explained: “But in the factory they don’t respect the quality policy they taughtus, because when there’s no vinyl tape, they 74
A MA JOR CHALLENGE TO CAFTA
only cover the harnesses with polyken, so they aren’t respecting the quality criteria.” In their trainings, workers are instructed to always put the vinyl tape on the wire harness first and only then wrap it with the polyken tape. “When we are taught quality policies, they explain to us that if we don’t correctly use the tapes, it is possible a car could even catch fire.” But, when there is no vinyl tape available, management instructs the workers to forget it and use just the polyken tape. “What they tell us is: ‘We need the production, because if we don’t give production, the assembly plant is going to stop and we are going to receive a fine, so if we don’t have vinyl, we use the polyken.” Another worker said that it was the same with the wire harness circuits: “When there is no circuit, they substitute another one. If there isn’t that color circuit, they paint it. For example, if they are missing a green circuit, and there’s a black one, and it has the same terminals, then they paint it the color they need. The workers also report that several of the materials suppliers have suffered broken legs and feet as they are forced to pull extremely heavy pallets of supplies. Further, in the cutting department, it is not uncommon for workers to slash and cut their fingers. Many workers faint in the extreme factory heat, while others are bruised when they are struck by the revolving work tables. “We also use a fiberglass tape. It looks like aluminum foil and it causes a lot of hand rashes. They give us gloves, but the problem is that the gloves only last two or three days and they tear. The tape is used to protect the harness from the heat of the vehicle motor. The gloves are very weak, they are made of cloth, like socks.” Many workers feel that their health and safety is being shortchanged. “There is a department in the company called EHS—Health and Safety— and it is prohibited by this department for compañeros to carry such heavy loads, but in Alcoa it is permitted. Because that department exists, but it doesn’t do anything.”
Tape to identify a Ford harness.
Alcoa’s 1-800 Hotline is also a joke: Supposedly the Hotline is always there so the workers can report violations or seek help in emergencies. However, one worker told us, “I’ve called on various occasions, different days, different hours. I only get a message in English. An answering machine in English.” It is the same with the corporate audits which Alcoa receives every two to three months. In the days leading up to the audit, the plants are 75
THE WAL-MAR TIZATION OF ALCOA
thoroughly cleaned. Management organizes what they call “Round Table discussions” with selected workers, instructing them on how to respond to any questions the auditors may pose—to say that everything is fine, that overtime is voluntary, that they are treated with respect and happy to be working at AFL-Alcoa.
SITAFLH provides emergency food basket to fired unionist.
76
The workers speculate that some managers may have participated in a ghost worker scam, where workers who quit may have been maintained on the payroll to the benefit of some of these managers, but in the end only Alcoa can clarify why there was a mass firing and reshuffling of its management team in Honduras.
Senator B ernie San ders: [The leading th NLC] is is country in exposin sweatsho g p labor th child and roughout the world
NLC
National Labor Committee New York, New York, USA
The National Labor Committee (NLC) is an independent, nonprofit human rights organization focused on the protection of worker rights in the global economy—especially those of the mostly-young-women workers held under harsh sweatshop conditions assembling goods for export to the U.S. in factories throughout China, Bangladesh, Central America, Jordan and must of the developing world. The NLC has played, and continues to play, a leading role in bringing the issues of sweatshop abuse, child labor, starvation wages and human trafficking of workers before the American people and keeping it squarely on the national agenda. The NLC has done this through a number of high profile and widely publicized national campaigns including those focused on Kathie Lee Gifford, Wal-Mart, GAP, NBA, Disney, Alcoa and P. Diddy Combs. Recent National Labor Committee campaigns have focused on: • • • •
Exposing the descent of the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement into human trafficking and involuntary servi tude. Serious injuries and maiming of scores of young workers in China, forced to work 14 ½ hours a day, seven days a week in the production of furniture parts for export to U.S. companies. Use of child labor in Guatemala in the harvest and processing of broccoli and other frozen vegetables and fruits for export to the U.S.—where it was consumed by American school children. Factories in Bangladesh that hired children as young as 11 to sew clothing for Wal-Mart and Hanes, paying them just six cents an hour.
The NLC believes that the only way to end the current race to the bottom in the global economy—in which workers are pitted against each other based on who will accept the lowest wages, least benefits and most miserable working and living conditions—is to hold corporations legally accountable to respect local labor laws and the United Nations/International Labor Organization’s internationally recognized worker rights standards. To this end, the NLC is working with the United Steelworkers and many other labor, religious and human rights organizations, along with members of Congress, to promote legislation, The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act—which will finally extend the same legal protections currently afforded to corporate trademarks and products to the human beings who made them. If we can protect the label, we should certainly be able to protect the fundamental rights of the sixteen-year-old girl who sewed the garment. If you want to learn more about any of these campaigns, including the anti-sweatshop legislation before Congress, or to join the NLC, please contact us. National Labor Committee 75 Varick St., Suite 1500 New York, NY 10013
Tel.: 212-242-3002 Fax: 212-242-3821 nlc@nlcnet.org www.nlcnet.org
77
COMUN
Community Communications El Progreso, Honduras
COMUN—Community Communications—is a small but very important worker rights organization based in the city of El Progreso, Honduras. COMUN actually began out of a radio program produced by the Jesuit-run radio station in Progreso. This was in the 1990s, when the explosion of free trade zones across Honduras led to the harsh exploitation of tens of thousands of mostly young women workers—many of them just children. “Las Golondrinas” was a weekly program dealing with the human, women’s and worker rights violations in the maquila factories. Maquila workers would call into the program to talk about working conditions and the abuses they suffered. Of course, they did not give their names for the certainty that if they did they would be fired. But anonymously, they would discuss the violations, applicable Honduran labor laws and what actions the workers could take. COMUN and its publication “Vida Laboral” grew out of a sense that the workers needed their own publication. Today, COMUN has developed into a full-fledged alternative press organization with the mission of “seeing conditions of respect for human and worker rights established in Honduras, as part of a participative democracy where all sectors of the public—including workers—have the capacity to communicate and express themselves. COMUN also provides leadership education programs in human and worker rights, Honduran labor law and computer literacy. COMUN—Comunicación Comunitaria (Community Communication) Apdo. Postal #392 El Progreso, Yoro, Honduras vidalaboral@gmail.com www.honduraslaboral.org
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Alcoa Inc. Alcoa Inc. 390 Park Ave. New York, NY 10022-4608 www.alcoa.com Phone: (212) 836-2674 Fax: (412) 553-4498 E-mail: aice.communications@alcoa.com Alain J. P. Belda, Chairman and CEO Total Revenue in 2006: Net Income in 2006: Mr. Belda’s 2006 Income:
$30.379 billion $2.248 billion $11,569,694
With over 122,000 employees in 44 countries, Alcoa is one of largest aluminum producers in the world and 71 in the Fortune 500. Aloca boasts ‘Integrity,’ ‘Accountability,’ and ‘People’ as three of the company’s core values, claiming: “We are open, honest and trustworthy in dealing with customers, suppliers, coworkers, shareholders and the communities where we have an impact… We are accountable – individually and in teams – for our behaviors, actions and results… We work in an inclusive environment that embraces change, new ideas, respect for the individual and equal opportunity to succeed.”
Other NLC Resources on Alcoa 2002 Alcoa’s High Tech Sweatshop in Mexico; http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=237 2005 Alcoa’s High Tech Sweatshops in Mexico and Honduras; http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=261 Alcoa Sweatshops in Honduras: CAFTA Accelerates the Race to the Bottom; http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=277 Alcoa Joint Venture with Chinese General; http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=279 July 2005-TV Transcript CNN/Lou Dobbs Tonight, July 22, 2005: http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=278 June 21, 2007-Alert Mass Firings of Alcoa Auto Parts Workers in Honduras to Block Union Organizing Drive; http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=404
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LABOR MINISTRY SIT-IN (BELOW): FOR THE RESPECT OF WORKER’S RIGHTS. SITAFLH
ALCOA working mother, child, and grandmother in one room home.
Comunicaci贸n Comunitaria (COMUN) Edificio Plaza La Amistad Apdo. Postal #392 El Progresso, Yoro, Honduras Tel茅fono/ Fax (504) 647-3247 www.honduraslaboral.org
National Labor Committee 75 Varick St., Suite 1500 New York, NY 10013 Tel.: 212-242-3002 Fax: 212-242-3821 nlc@nlcnet.org www.nlcnet.org