Wal-Mart Cited for Supplier's Violence Against Workers

Worker Rights Consortium: Wal-Mart Cited for Overseas Supplier's Violence Against Workers & Other Sweatshop Abuses

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 Wal-Mart has been cited for a supplier's collusion with government agents in violence against workers and other serious sweatshop abuses. The supplier is Chong Won,
Inc., a clothing factory located in the Philippines.
A report released today by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), a labor rights watchdog organization with 167 U.S. college and university affiliates, identified the following additional violations of Filipino law and Wal-Mart's own "Standards for Suppliers:"
-- Failure to pay the legal minimum wage;
-- Forced and excessive overtime;
-- A two year campaign to deny workers their right to unionize and bargain collectively.
The WRC's Executive Director, Scott Nova, called the violent attacks on workers at Chong Won engaged in a lawful strike, "some of the worst abuses of fundamental worker rights we have witnessed anywhere in the world."
The WRC conducted an on-site investigation from October 28 to November 2, 2006, after received a complaint from workers at the factory, which is located in the Cavite Export Processing Zone in Southern Tagalog Province, near Manila. Chong Won has produced casual apparel for university licensees and a Wal-Mart supplier known as One Step Up, which is the factory's major customer.
The Washington, DC-based International Labor Rights Fund had contacted Wal-Mart earlier about problems at the Chong Won plant and was dissatisfied with the company's response.
Wal-Mart's local compliance staff admitted to WRC investigators that the retailer's own audits of the factory support the WRC's findings in several areas, but Wal-Mart has failed to act to stop the abuses. The WRC notified Wal-Mart of its findings in November of 2006 and recommended urgent intervention. Wal-Mart has taken no action, claiming that further investigation is needed.
The events at Chong Won are taking place against a backdrop of rampant political violence in the Philippines, much of it targeting union leaders and worker rights advocates. A clergyman who is the founder of the nation's leading workers rights group was assassinated in October.
Said Nova, "Wal-Mart is well aware of the campaign of terror and murder directed at worker rights advocates in the Philippines, and knows this climate creates serious risks for the Chong Won workers and their allies.
It is unconscionable that Wal-Mart has failed to stand up for these workers, who are only seeking to exercise rights guaranteed them by Wal-Mart's code of conduct. Wal-Mart could have placed an arm of protection around the workers at Chong Won -- instead, they turned a cold shoulder."
Full report available at: http://www.workersrights.org