From: Sweatshop Watch (sweatinfo@sweatshopwatch.org)
Date: Tue Jul 02 2002 - 13:52:12 EDT
Exposed for Sweatshops, Union-Busting, Gucci Parent Tries to Cut-and-Run:
Tell PPR To Take Responsibility for Worker Rights Violations at Suppliers,
Subsidiaries
TAKE ACTION: Exposed around the world for union-busting and sweatshop
conditions, PPR, the French retailer that owns brands like Gucci, Brylane,
FNAC, Yves Saint-Laurent, and Ellos, now is trying to run away from its
responsibility to the workers who make its products.
Act now to tell PPR: "From Indiana to Indonesia - Stop Sweatshops, Stop
Union-Busting, Donıt Cut-and Run!" Demand that PPR respect workers rights
at Brylane and around the world. To send a message to Brylane/PPR executives
go to: http://www.unionvoice.org//campaign/brylaneppr
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, the French multinational company that is also
known for major brands like Gucci, Brylane, FNAC, Yves Saint-Laurent, and
Ellos, is also becoming known for union-busting and sweatshop conditions at
its subsidiary operations and supplier factories around the world.
At PPRıs Brylane distribution center in Indianapolis, USA, managers are
waging a campaign of intimidation, discrimination and harassment aimed at
preventing workers from exercising their right to choose a union. Brylane
workers are coming together with the union, UNITE, to win a voice at work
and end unsafe conditions in their jobs, including an ergonomic injury rate
more than 18 times the industry average.
But PPRıs mistreatment of workers extends beyond its own operations. A
recent report has revealed that poverty wages, excessive hours and unsafe
conditions can be found at PPR supplier factories all across Asia. At a
factory supplying PPR in the Philippines, workers earn the equivalent of
about $3.25 US a day -- less than that countryıs legal minimum wage.
Moreover, the company cheats the workers of wages and benefits, by keeping
them on temporary status for well beyond the six month maximum allowed under
Philippine law.
At another PPR supplier in Tirupur, India, some workers earn barely 10 cents
per hour hardly a fifth of what is considered necessary to support a
family. Some workers have to work 13 hours per day, six days per week for a
total of nearly 80 hours per week, just to make ends meet.
Despite explicit appeals that PPR not cancel orders from these factories,
but instead work with suppliers to remedy these conditions, after a report
by CFIE (Le Centre Français d'Information sur les Entreprises) revealed
these abuses, PPR tried to run away from the bad publicity by cutting
orders.
In June, Retail Week magazine reported PPR CEO Serge Weinberg having said
that, ³following the allegations, PPR had re-contacted the companies and
ceased to trade with them.² Rather than helping end to the illegal and
abusive conditions faced by the workers who made its products, PPR is now
trying to punish workers who told the truth about their working conditions!
Trade unions and worker rights activists around the world are demanding that
PPR take responsibility for ending union-busting and sweatshop abuses at its
suppliers and subsidiaries.
Instead of running away from its problems, PPR needs to recognize engage in
good faith dialogue with trade unions and other labor rights advocates to
fix the violations that have been reported and to adopt effective global
standards and mechanisms to ensure basic rights and decent conditions for
its workers worldwide.
Act now to tell PPR: Stop Sweatshops, Stop Union-Busting, Donıt Cut-and Run!
Demand that PPR respect workers rights at Brylane and around the world. To
send a message to Brylane/PPR executives go to:
http://www.unionvoice.org//campaign/brylaneppr
For more information: http://www.aflcio.org/voiceatwork/month_actions.htm
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