Fighting for Our Rights in Managua

Reported from Mil Colores Factory by United Students Against Sweatshops

Managua, Nicaragua -- "We work like slaves and don't receive a decent wage. All that they pay us is misery." Ivone Jiron sits with me in the small, dusty office of La Mesa Laboral de Sindicatos de la Maquila, an organizing and legal center for garment workers in Nicaragua's free trade zones. Ivone, a 33 year-old woman and mother of four with a stoic face and solemn eyes, describes to me the situation at the Chaprich-Mil Colores factory where she assembles pants six days a week. She takes her position as Secretary General of the factory's only independent union very seriously. On Sundays, her day off, she gives workshops to other workers about their labor and human rights in Nicaragua.

Ivone's somber disposition breaks into a laugh as she tells me, "Here in Nicaragua, we study to go to work in the maquilas." Though she went to school to become a nurse, there was not enough work for her to sustain herself and her family. With no other options, she sought work in the free trade zone. Her story is familiar. Just last week, I met a young man, Felipe Esteban*, who had gone to work in a maquila after quitting his fourth year of medical school. The cost of living was too high and he could no longer afford tuition.

With limited options, workers of varying backgrounds find work in factories like Chaprich-Mil Colores, where conditions are less-than-savory. Ivone recounts for me the factory's sordid history. Owned by U.S. investor Craig Miller, it was subject to an international campaign a few years back. Since then, it has changed location and changed names, but has continued to engage in blatant labor and human rights violations.

Pictured in the photo is Ivone Jiron and two other workers (faces obscured) at Chaprich-Mil Colores.

In December 2004 when the factory relocated, it refused to pay severance to the several hundred workers who were unable to transfer. Since the move, those who were able to transfer have not been paid on time, and occasionally, have been denied their bi-monthly payments altogether. Furthermore, when they are paid, the factory deducts too much Social Security from their paychecks and then keeps that money for itself without depositing it to the government. Workers are also forced to meet unrealistically high production quotas, and are denied their vacation time.

In Nicaragua, employers are required to give their employees colillas, or proof that the employer has paid into Social Security, at the end of each month. Without these colillas, workers are denied access to factory heath care clinics. They lack access to basic medical exams, medicine, prenatal and postnatal care, and the six-month supply of milk for newborns that Social Security covers. Chaprich-Mil Colores’s provision of colillas has been haphazard for years, but the colillas disappeared altogether in October 2004 when the company stopped paying into Social Security -- although it continued to deduct it from workers' pay.

The result has been that workers who fall ill, even from work-related incidents, cannot obtain basic medical care. Workers with serious injuries and illnesses have been forced to wait months before the factory has paid their medical costs, or else have been forced to pay out of their own slim pockets.

Ivone recalls the day she gave birth to her baby daughter at the factory clinic last November. Because she had no colilla, the factory refused to let her leave until a representative from the factory showed up to pay. The representative finally arrived at midnight so that she could go home. Her daughter, now six months old, has been sick. Not only has Ivone had to pay out of pocket for the milk for her child, but she has had to pay for her daughter’s visits to the doctor and prescriptions. While the factory has reimbursed her for three months’ payments, it still owes her for the other three.

In April, Ivone went on a tour of the U.S. with Witness for Peace to expose the violations at Chaprich. "When I saw what they charge for jeans in the U.S., I was shocked! There, jeans cost $40 while they pay us only 200 cordobas [about $15] a week." (Workers produce nearly 10,000 pairs of pants in a week). Ivone's efforts to publicize conditions at Chaprich did not go unnoticed. When she returned from her trip, she was demoted and her pay nearly cut in half. "They are not losing anything," she asserts. "We are the ones who are losing."

By early June, workers decided they had had enough, and decided to do a work stoppage. The first day, all 560 workers in the factory participated. But when management threatened to fire those workers who did not accept only partial payment of their salaries and to return to work, workers fearing for their jobs returned. Only 67 workers, all members of the independent union, continued to protest outside the factory demanding the entirety of the pay and benefits owed to them. The factory retaliated and promptly fired 48 of the workers, including several pregnant women. Ivone and another union leader, Juan Carlos Gonzales, were suspended.

Since the firings and suspensions, workers have been meeting weekly to strategize and keep morale high. Thirteen workers have decided to sue for their reinstatement, while the rest have gone on to find new work. The choice to fight for their rights or move on was not easy. Taking their case to court means remaining unemployed because most factories will not let them take work leave to attend court hearings of this kind. The union, meanwhile, has no funds to help fired workers. Thus workers thus have to resort to other, alternative means to survive while continuing to protest for their right to be reinstated, to be paid according to their contract, and to receive basic benefits such as healthcare.

Today, repression is increasing within the factory. There is a strong police presence around the factory and the entrance to the free trade zone in order to ensure Chaprich’s fired workers don't enter. If workers are seen talking to members of the union who were fired, they, too, will be fired. They are also being forced to sign letters promising not to join the union. Ivone has won her reinstatement at the Labor Ministry, but Craig Miller refuses to comply with the order.

When I ask Ivone what she had to say to consumers in the United States and Europe, Ivone responds, "You always have to consider the people who are producing the clothing and take into account that the workers are exploited – robbed of their youth, their health, their education, and their children, whom they don't have time to see."

The union is asking for international support as they continue to wage a local campaign for their right to work with dignity at Chaprich-Mil Colores.

*Pseudonym was used to protect the identity of the worker.

Please check www.clrlabor.org and our Labor Alerts for updates and ways you can take action!

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