WUNRN
Business, corporate, and related
donor operations throughout the world may lead to questions on human
rights especially for women. Follow the POWER, Follow the MONEY - Look for the
rights of women, often poor, who comprise the majority of workers in the most
vulnerable sectors, and may not have the support of legal justice, watchdog and
labor rights programs, human rights defenders.
Gender Action
HAITI - CARACOL INDUSTRIAL PLANT -
PROMISES DELIVERED?? WATCHDOG FOR WOMEN
Gender
Action' s field research provided the first detailed view of life inside
Haiti's new Caracol garment assembly plant financed by the Inter-American
Development Bank and the US Agency for International Development. These
donors promised that Caracol conditions would outshine those at other Haitian
industries notorious for not paying the below $5 per day minimum sweatshop
wage. Gender Action called the donors' bluff by revealing that Caracol
employees, almost all women, reported working in constant fear of being
fired. We exposed how plant managers' intimidation and work pressure are
taking their toll: women are falling asleep at work and in bathrooms. In
such an oppressive atmosphere no employee that Gender Action interviewed
intended to remain at the plant for more than a few months - even those with
several children to support. One women reported, "The salary isn't
enough and I can't buy almost anything I need", including housing,
healthcare, school fees, clothing, and food. We also found that the 365
farmers displaced from their homes to build the plant three years ago have not
received donors' promised compensatory housing. Today Gender Action is
leading advocacy to ensure that the donors meet their promises to provide
housing to the displaced farmers, and better conditions and adequate pay to
workers to cover their households' education, health, food and shelter.
Direct Link to Full 46-Page Report:
