The factory workers of Jerzees de Honduras and their union SITRAJERZEESH reached an unprecedented settlement with Russell Athletic after United Students Against Sweatshops waged the largest boycott in the history of modern student activism. Details include:
- The factory will be reopened in Choloma and be renamed Jerzees Nuevo Dia (New Day).
- Russell will immediately recognize the union of Jerzees de Honduras workers, SITRAJERZEESH, and has committed to collectively bargaining in good faith.
- Russell will rehire all 1200 former Jerzees de Honduras workers, either at Jerzees Nuevo Dia or other Russell facilities.
- The company has also agreed to a policy of non-interference and union neutrality in all Russell and Fruit of the Loom facilities in Honduras and will work with the Honduran union federation the Centro General de Trabajadores to provide access to organizers and educate employees on their right to freedom of association.
You can read the announcement by the union and the company here.
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Excellent! It is a first, and very important victory for the people of Honduras, whose fates have been dictated for far too long, by foreign corporations, many of whom fly the US flag.
As an American, US variety, I am pleased to learn of this.
Now…if we can put the heat on retailers to make sincere moves to market only those goods certifiably “union-made in Honduras” or to that effect, another step will have been made.
Locally, that could be a challenge for the likes of Academy Sports and Outdoors, which outfit would practically have to fold up without rows and rows of sewn articles “hecho en Honduras”.
Carry on!
Congratulations! I am so inspired by the long, tenacious effort of students – through sit-ins that got their colleges to agree to standards, to establishing the Workers’Rights consorium – to the development of leaders at each of the colleges, university or school – to those leaders who inspired other students to aid in the efforts and that you left a legacy in your school so that when you graduated there were others who took up the cause.
Each time a person stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others…
he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,
and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring,
those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
Robert F. Kennedy (1925 – 1968)
I am so glad to know that college students still take an interest in the problems and plights of others. Congratulations on your achievement!
Hi Enku,
I will forward your request for rideshare to our USAS chapter, SLAC’s, listserve. They are having a meeting tonight where they are discussing the trip to the conference.
Eric
Thanks Eric!
let them know they can reach me at email hidden; JavaScript is required.
Much appreciated.
In solidarity,
Enku