Tell Hanes: Clean Up Your Dirty Laundry!

In April of this year, the management at the TOS Dominicana Factory in the Dominican Republic carried out a targeted mass firing of union members - part of an ongoing campaign to terrorize workers into abandoning their right to organize. This campaign has also included aggressive harassment and intimidation, spying on workers outside of the factory, and refusing to recognize and bargain in good faith with the union. Workers are organizing in order to correct serious worker rights violations, including forced and unpaid overtime, verbal harassment, and the coercion of workers to sign documents giving up employment benefits and their right to complain about illegal practices. Despite these abuses, Hanesbrands has done nothing meaningful to correct the situation. Tell Hanes representatives to clean up their dirty laundry at TOS Dominicana and respect workers' rights!

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Clean up your dirty laundry!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing regarding worker rights violations at the TOS Dominicana factory in the Dominican Republic, which is owned by and produces for Hanesbrands, Inc. Despite overwhelming evidence that serious abuses have taken place, I am outraged to learn that Hanes has failed to take any meaningful action to address the situation.

A recent report by the Worker Rights Consortium documented a series of labor rights violations at your factory - practices which constitute clear violations of Dominican labor law, university codes of conduct, and Hanesbrands' own Global Business Standards. On the issue of freedom of association, factory management has conducted a mass firing of union members (29 of 31 workers fired between April 12-16 were union members), threatened workers with the loss their jobs if they continue to organize, and spied on workers outside of the workplace (for example, in October, 2006, members of factory management forcibly broke into a union meeting outside of factory in an attempt to identify union members). Supervisors have screamed at and used derogatory language towards members of the workforce. And workers are required to work overtime beyond a normal legal work schedule and do not receive compensation in accordance with the law for their overtime work. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence of these unconscionable practices, Hanes has taken no meaningful action to address the situation.

I am deeply concerned by your lack of action. Hanes has an obligation both to its university customers and other buyers to ensure that its garments are produced in accordance with applicable codes of conduct and Dominican labor law. I urge you to change your position immediately and take steps to correct the climate of fear that has been created in the factory and respect workers' legal rights by taking the following actions:

1) Rehire the 29 fired union members at their previous positions, with back pay and no reduction in seniority

2) Negotiate in good faith with the union formed at the factory on a collective bargaining agreement

3) Train all managers and supervisors on appropriate behavior and take disciplinary action against those who continue to engage in harassment and abuse

4) End the use of forced overtime and compensate workers properly for all overtime work.

I hope that Hanes will make the right decision and act immediately to remedy the violations at TOS Dominicana. If you are unwilling to do so, we as anti-sweatshop activists will have no choice but to tell the world and all of Hanes' busines partners that Hanes shirts are sweatshop-made.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
July 02, 2007

Background Information

TOS Dominicana is a factory in the Dominican Republic that is owned and controlled by Hanesbrands, Inc. The factory produces fabric for t-shirts, which are then sold to large retailers such as Wal-Mart, as well as a number of university licensees. There are approximately 1,100 workers at the factory.

Worker rights volations at the plant include aggressive verbal harassment and abuse, forced and unpaid overtime, and the coercion of workers - under threat of being fired - to sign new work contracts reducing benefits and eliminating their right to complain about illegal practices.

Workers have worked tirelessly to obtain a majority in the workforce in order to negotiate a union contract and correct these abuses, but they have been met by a vicious and unrelenting anti-union campaign. During the course of five days in April of this year, management fired 31 workers, 29 of whom were union members, in an obvious attempt to undermine the union's majority standing. The company has employed a number of other anti-union tactics, including spying on union members outside of the factory, threatening workers that joining a union will mean losing their job, and intimidating worker leaders.

TOS Dominicana is a unique factory, because it is owned directly by Hanesbrands. This gives Hanes unquestinoable power to correct the abuses, if it only had the will and integrity to do so.