Tell Hanes: Clean Up Your Dirty Laundry!

Serious worker rights abuses have been exposed at TOS Dominicana, a major textile factory in the Dominican Republic which produces fabric for Wal-Mart and is owned by Hanesbrands. These violations include forced and undercompensated overtime, verbal harassment, the coercion of workers to sign documents giving up employment rights and benefits, and eggregious violations of worker's rights of freedom of association. In April of this year, the management at the TOS Dominicana Factory in the Dominican Republic carried out a targeted mass firing of workers who have participated in an effort to organize a union at the factory - part of an ongoing campaign to terrorize workers into abandoning their right to organize. Despite these abuses, neither Wal-Mart nor Hanesbrands have done anything meaningful to correct the situation. Tell these companies to clean up their dirty laundry at TOS Dominicana and respect workers' rights!

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Respect workers' rights at TOS!

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing regarding worker rights violations at the TOS Dominicana factory in the Dominican Republic, which produces fabric used to make Wal-Mart products and is owned and operated by Hanesbrands. Despite overwhelming evidence that serious abuses have taken place, I am outraged to learn that neither Wal-Mart nor Hanes have taken meaingful action to address the situation.

Serious abuses have been exposed at the factory - including practices which constitute clear violations of Dominican labor law and Wal-Marts' and Hanesbrands' own standards for business ethics. On the issue of freedom of association, factory management 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). The company has refused to recognize or bargain with the union despite workers having demonstrated that a clear majority want union representation. 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. These practices are documented in detail in a recently released report by the Worker Rights Consortium. Yet despite the overwhelming evidence of these unconscionable practices, neither Wal-Mart nor Hanes have taken any serious action to address the situation.

I am deeply concerned by your lack of action. Wal-Mart and Hanes have an obligation to ensure that their garments are produced in accordance with their own codes of conduct and Dominican law. I urge you to change your position immediately and take the following steps to address the situation:

1) Recognize and negotiate in good faith with the union formed at the factory on a collective bargaining agreement

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

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 Wal-Mart and Hanes will make the right decision and act immediately to stop the violations at TOS Dominicana. The situation is unconscionable. If Wal-Mart and Hanes wants the public to take your bold statements about social responsibility seriously, now is the time to put your words to action.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
August 02, 2007

Background Information

Tell Hanes: Clean Up Your Dirty Laundry!

TOS Dominicana is a textile factory in the Dominican Republic that is owned and controlled by Hanesbrands, Inc. Its largest client is Wal-Mart. There are approximately 1,100 workers at the factory.

Worker rights volations at the plant include aggressive verbal harassment and abuse, forced and undercompensated 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 brutal 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 and because its single largest customer is Wal-Mart. This gives Hanes and Wal-Mart unquestinoable power to correct the abuses, if they only had the will and integrity to do so.