Canada’s Gildan Activewear must accommodate their injured workers!
Support CoDev’s partner, the Honduran Women’s Collective (CODEMUH), and join us in urging Gildan Activewear to transfer the over 300 injured workers from the closing Gildan San Miguel factory to other Gildan factories in Honduras.
On June 21, 2023, Gildan Activewear Inc., a Canadian company, announced the closure of its San Miguel garment factory (maquila) in Honduras. The closure, scheduled for July, will leave over 2,700 direct workers without livelihoods. The announcement of Gildan San Miguel's closure comes only months after the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras issued a ruling in favour of the five injured workers from the San Miguel maquila whom Gildan had dismissed in 2017. The ruling orders the workers' immediate reinstatement under better labour conditions than they had previously worked.
The Honduran Women’s Collective (CODEMUH) calls on Gildan to not abandon the over 300 injured workers of the San Miguel factory, as these workers will only encounter heightened barriers to securing employment elsewhere in the assembly-for-export sector due to their workplace injuries. Without employment, these vulnerable workers will lose access to medical and rehabilitation services and will be unable to apply for disability pensions, make loan payments, and sustain themselves and their households.
These workers who were injured on the job deserve better!
CODEMUH is a solidarity partner of the BC General Employees’ Union, CUPE BC, CUPE National, Hospital Employees’ Union, and the Health Sciences Association of BC.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE LAST STATEMENT WRITTEN BY THE HONDURAN WOMEN’S COLLECTIVE TO GILDAN activewear inc. and canadian unions and civil society.
HONDURAN SWEATSHOP WORKERS NEED YOUR SUPPORT IN CALLING ON GILDAN ACTIVEWEAR INC. TO ACCOMMODATE AND TRANSFER THE OVER 300 INJURED WORKERS FROM THE SAN MIGUEL MAQUILA TO OTHER GILDAN MAQUILAS IN HONDURAS.
Post on social media to express your solidarity with the Gildan San Miguel workers and call on Gildan Activewear Inc. to accommodate and transfer the over 300 injured workers from the San Miguel maquila to Gildan maquilas in Choloma, San Pedro Zula, or Villanueva, Honduras.
CoDevelopment Canada Team, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, June 30, 2023
BCGEU President Stephanie Smith and BCGEU International Solidarity Committee, B.C., Canada, June 2023. BCGEU is a solidarity partner to the Honduran Women’s Collective (CODEMUH), whose members and leaders include workers from the Gildan San Miguel, S.A. factory. Photo credit: BC General Employees’ union
HEU Provincial Executive in B.C., July 6, 2023. HEU is a solidarity partner to the Honduran Women’s Collective (CODEMUH), whose members and leaders include workers from the Gildan San Miguel, S.A. factory. Photo credit: Hospital Employees’ Union
HSA solidarity picture for Gildan San Miguel workers on July 31, 2023. The picture includes HSA Committee for Equality and Social Action representatives, as well as HSA Board of Director members, and HSA President Kane Tse
Please like and share CoDev's posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or post your own social media messages. Use the hashtag #Workyesbutwithdignity #empleosiperocondignidad and tag @gildan , @codemuh, and @codevcanada
Write to Gildan to express your solidarity with the Gildan San Miguel workers and call on Gildan to accommodate and transfer the over 300 injured workers from the San Miguel maquila to Gildan maquilas in Choloma, San Pedro Zula, or Villanueva, Honduras.
TO:
Glenn J. Chamandy
President and CEO, Gildan Activewear Inc.
CC:
Arun Bajaj
Executive Vice-President, Chief Human Resources Officer & Legal Affairs, Gildan Activewear Inc.
Edgardo Mejia
Production Manager, Gildan Activewear San Miguel
Ambassador Elizabeth Williams
Ambassador of Canada to Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua
Elizabeth.Williams@international.gc.ca
The Honourable Minister Mary Ng
Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development
Honduran Women’s Collective
Backgrounder
Gildan Activewear Inc. is a Canadian manufacturer of apparel with numerous factories in the global south, including Honduras. Gildan has been operating assembly-for-export plants (maquilas) in Honduras since 1997.
Gildan’s brands include Under Armour and American Apparel. Gildan supplies post-secondary institutions in Canada with branded apparel sold on post-secondary campuses.
In 2017, Gildan illegally fired Santa Yadira González Amador, Rosa Dalila López Corea, Paola Vanessa Castillo López, Aracely Sagastume Perdomo, and Maria Norma Cartagena García from Gildan’s San Miguel maquila after these workers sustained occupational musculoskeletal damage that affected their ability to sew garments for export to the U.S. and Canada.
The workers, members of CODEMUH, challenged their dismissal, winning the support of the Honduran Social Security Institute, which certified their disabilities as work-related and recommended their transfer to different duties at the factory.
Gildan refused to comply with the Honduran Social Security Institute’s determination, and the workers challenged Gildan in court.
An Honduran sectional court ruled in June 2021 that Gildan must reinstate and reintegrate the five workers in equal or better conditions in accordance with the specifications of the Labour Relocation Report, and to pay the wages that the workers had lost since their illegal dismissal.
Despite the June 2021 court ruling, Gildan refused to comply and, instead, appealed this court decision at the Court of Appeals, which upheld the initial decision.
Gildan refused to accept this Court of Appeals ruling and appealed to the Labour Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice of Honduras.
April 2023, The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the five women workers from the five San Miguel maquila whom Gildan had dismissed, and ordered their immediate integration under better labour conditions.
Speaking about the ruling, CODEMUH’s coordinator, Maria Luisa Regalado, called the ruling "a small triumph" in the struggle for women’s labour rights and stated that, “Thanks to the fact that there was a bit of justice, the workers will be able to count on job stability.”
Gildan refused to fully comply with the Supreme Court order to reinstate the five San Miguel workers at better conditions, as some of the workers returned to their original posts under the same conditions as those that led to their injuries. Gildan, moreover, refused to issue retroactive pay to all the workers who had missed years of wages due to their injuries and dismissals.
June 21, 2023, Gildan announced the closure of its San Miguel maquila in Honduras. The closure, scheduled for July, will leave over 2,700 direct workers without livelihoods.
CODEMUH has worked closely with workers at the San Miguel maquila to organize in defense of workers’ health and safety, women’s rights, and other labour rights. Workers see the targeted closure of the San Miguel maquila as retaliation for the workers’ successful organizing and activism and as part of the Employers’ strategy to evade their occupational health and safety responsibilities.
On Saturday, June 24, 2023, four union leaders from Gildan's San Miguel factory were among nine individuals assassinated: Xiomara Cocas (President), Delmer Garcia (Ex-President), Lester Almendarez (union representative), and Jose Rufino Ortiz (union representative). To date, there is no evidence of any direct connection between this massacre and recent developments concerning Gildan's San Miguel maquila.