British union protests at London Levi's store
British union activists will stage a protest outside a UK flagship store of jeans giant Levi’s today over the sacking of hundreds of workers making clothing for the firm at a factory in Haiti.
The protest, in London’s Regent Street, is aimed at drawing attention to the dismissal of 350 workers in Northern Haiti after they went on strike over being threatened by supervisors and attacked by soldiers.
Geoff Martin of the Battersea and Wandsworth TUC, which was helping to organise today’s demonstration, said: “Who wants to wear jeans made by workers denied the basic human right to form a union?”
Levi’s said it had taken a number of steps to make sure that its terms of engagement, including freedom of association, were upheld at the factory.
“When we became aware of factory management allegedly discharging a group of workers on the basis of their involvement in attempting to form a union, we immediately investigated and worked with factory management and Non-Governmental Organisations, such as the Worker Rights Consortium, to reinstate the workers with back pay, benefits, and full status,” said a statement.
“We are hopeful that the Haiti facility will become an efficient factory that continues to provide good jobs and benefits to employees and the community in a region where there had been an 85% unemployment rate.”
