NOTE: The following legislative/human rights alert is being distributed throughout Central America and the Caribbean, though it also has significance for the rest of Latin America. If you know of human rights, labor, religious, women's or research organizations that would be interested in receiving this information, please bring it to their attention.

— National Labor Committee in Support of Worker and Human Rights. For more information, call the National Labor Committee: tel: 212-242-0700, ext 575

______________________________________________________________

April 5, 1995

TO: CENTRAL AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN CONTACTS/

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE.

FROM: Charles Kernaghan, Executive Director

National Labor Committee

RE: Crane Bill Strips Worker Rights Protections from CBI

— Don't Be Fooled by the Maquiladoras—

The Crane Bill / H.R. 553

"Caribbean Basin Trade Security Act"

SUMMARY: CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN ABOUT TO LOSE ALL WORKER RIGHTS PROTECTIONS

The Crane Bill, H.R. 553 (so-called Caribbean Basin Initiative parity with the NAFTA) has been introduced in Congress.

• The Crane Bill was written by and for the multinational corporations and their maquiladora partners in Central America and the Caribbean, who will pocket at least $240 million a year in increased tariff breaks on their exports to the U.S. — $1.2 billion over the next five years.
• While the Crane Bill provides "security" to the maquiladoras, the bill effectively strips away all worker rights protections now conditioning U.S. trade with Central America and the Caribbean.
• Something you should know about Republican Congressman Philip Crane who introduced H.R. 553: In the 1994 Congress, Crane voted against worker protections 100 percent of the time; against women's rights issues 100 percent of the time; and against environmental protections 96 percent of the time. Congressman Crane's sympathies are 100 percent owned by big business. In fact, for over 25 years in the U.S. Congress, Crane has opposed labor and sided with big business 95 percent of the time!
• The maquiladora companies are in Washington, D.C. right now spending money to lobby the U.S. Congress behind closed doors to support the Crane Bill, which the corporations wrote.
• If the Crane Bill is enacted into law as it now stands, it will make the maquila companies themselves the monitors, police and final authorities controlling worker rights violations in their own plants!
• The Crane Bill is the first step in destroying worker rights protections for all of Latin America.
• However, there is still time to defend worker rights protections and get them into the Crane Bill. A vote on the bill is not scheduled in the House until this June at the earliest. These are very critical months.
• The U.S. people and the U.S. Congress must hear not only from the maquiladoras—it is critical that the truth about working conditions, wages and respect for labor rights in the assembly plants be heard directly from the people of Central American and the Caribbean.
• This is the most vulnerable period for the maquila companies: in order to grab the $240 million in tariff breaks, they must suppress all evidence of worker rights violations at their plants. This puts the maquiladora workers across Central America and the Caribbean in the best position they have ever been in to defend their basic rights.
• Now is the time. If you want a union and a contract, go for it. If you want to end worker rights violations, go for it!
• The National Labor Committee does not oppose increased tariff breaks for the maquiladoras, but we do demand worker rights protections for the peoples of Central America, the Caribbean, and the U.S.

WHY THE MAQUILADORAS WANT THE CRANE BILL

CORPORATIONS AND MAQUILA OWNERS WRITE THE CRANE BILL:

In December 1994, at a private sector meeting following the Latin America Summit held in Miami, Congressman Crane told representatives of the multinational corporations and maquiladoras, "You write the Caribbean trade bill. I'll submit to the Congress whatever you want. My door is always open to you."

In fact, the Crane Bill was indeed written by the U.S. apparel industry — the American Apparel Manufacturers Association (AAMA) — with the help of the Caribbean/Latin America Action (C/LAA) — the largest business lobby shaping U.S. policy on Central America and the Caribbean.

It is no coincidence then that a full 60 to 70 percent of all the tariff breaks available in the Crane Bill are meant for the U.S. apparel companies and their maquiladora partners.

LOSING WORKER RIGHTS PROTECTIONS:

The Crane Bill was written and introduced as an amendment to the larger Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act — popularly known as the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) — which became law in 1984. Over President Reagan's opposition at the time, Democrats in the U.S. Congress were able to attach respect for worker rights as one of the conditions a country must meet in order to qualify or be eligible to receive duty free trade benefits under CBI. Those supporting worker rights protections saw this as fundamental to assure that the benefits of CBI also reached the people of the region, and not just the tiny elite who controlled all the businesses.

So, on paper, the Caribbean Basin Initiative — as well as the recent Crane Bill — do contain language meant to help protect and guarantee respect for worker rights.

The problem is that Reagan and Bush simply decided to ignore and violate the law. CBI worker rights protections have never been used. No country has ever been seriously questioned or denied access to CBI because of an ongoing pattern of gross worker rights violations. For example Haiti, under the vicious "Baby Doc" Duvalier dictatorship, was swiftly granted CBI status, despite obvious repression of labor rights.

In 1990, the Caribbean Basin Initiative was amended to mandate a review by the President every three years to monitor whether or not CBI beneficiary countries were continuing to meet the eligibility standard the law required, including labor rights.

Once again, nothing happened. Under the Bush Administration, there was no CBI review, and no country was challenged for violating basic worker rights.

However, there was another avenue available to those trying to protect labor rights and help raise living standards and working conditions in Central America, the Caribbean and elsewhere.

The key to real worker rights protections was won under a separate U.S. trade benefit program called the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). Under the GSP, on an annual basis, concerned individuals and organizations — labor, religious, human rights, women's groups, etc. — have the right to petition, testify at public hearings and present written documentation to the U.S. government to challenge a beneficiary country's continued GSP status if worker rights are being systematically violated.

This was the missing link, the handle to effect real change. Where the Caribbean Basin Initiative had workers' rights protections on paper only, the GSP allowed public access to the annual review process so as to directly challenge the U.S. government with documented cases of labor rights abuses. CBI was only words, while GSP was action.

Under Administration policy, an unfavorable judgment against a GSP beneficiary country for continued worker rights violations could lead not only to suspension of GSP privileges, but to suspension of CBI and other benefits as well.

The maquiladora companies hate and loathe the GSP process. They hate it because it has worked effectively to defend labor rights. So they want to get rid of it.

A SHREWD MOVE BY THE COMPANIES:

The Crane Bill, which grants tariff reductions across the board, makes the tariff breaks granted under the GSP irrelevant. In other words, the Crane Bill — so-called CBI parity — subsumes GSP. Before NAFTA, a full 25 percent of Mexico's exports to the U.S. entered under the GSP program. Today, with NAFTA, zero exports enter under GSP.

The Crane Bill knocks out the GSP program, and with it, the only effective means of protecting worker rights. This is a shrewd and deadly move on the part of the multinational corporations and their maquiladora partners.

No longer will the potential loss of GSP/CBI benefits prod governments and companies to institute at least some limited reforms to protect worker rights, as was the case in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

The Crane Bill puts an end to this.

THE CRANE BILL IMPLEMENTS THE CORPORATE GAME PLAN:

Working through their front organization Caribbean/Latin American Action (C/LAA) — which declares itself to be a non-profit charity when in reality it is a powerful business lobby — the multinationals and their junior partners have designed a very greedy, self-serving strategy. They did this in broad daylight at the December 1994 Miami Conference on the Caribbean and Latin America — organized by C/LAA and partly funded by the U.S. government — which was attended by over 1500 business and government leaders from the U.S., Central America, the Caribbean and the rest of Latin America. Representatives of the National Labor Committee were also there. We make a practice of showing up at these business meetings to learn first hand what the corporations are planning for all the rest of us — the people of the U.S., Central America and the Caribbean.

Their plan is this:

1. Worker rights are very, very important, and, of course, all companies know the value of protecting labor rights.
2. However, all worker rights protections must be completely voluntary — subsumed in various "corporate codes of conduct" which the companies design and then choose to accept or not accept.
3. Conditioning language making basic worker rights protections a legal requirement must be stripped from all existing and future trade agreements.
4. Absolutely no trade sanctions or punishments should be imposed for even the grossest of human and labor rights abuses.
5. Worker rights conditions should never be used to delay or influence pending trade legislation — as the National Labor Committee did with the Interim Trade Program (ITP) in October of 1994 when it delayed passage of the ITP until children's, women's and worker rights were respected.
6. Not surprisingly, the companies then tell us that because they themselves are the ones involved in and operating plants on the ground, who else but the industry and the maquiladoras could better monitor and police worker rights violations? According to them, they know more about the industry than anyone else.

Look around you and imagine the maquiladora firms becoming the guardians, police and final authority protecting human and worker rights in their own plants. This is the Crane Amendment.

THE SLIPPERY SLOPE DOWNWARD:

If the Crane Bill is allowed to become law before effective worker rights provisions can be attached to the bill, then from here on in it is all downhill for labor rights.

On Tuesday, March 28, the Democrats, led by Congressman Charles Rangel, attempted to get new worker rights language written into the Crane Bill. What they got back from Crane, the Republicans and the corporations was another hoax.

The Republicans simply re-wrote the original Crane Bill so that it now spells out the exact same worker rights language which has been in the CBI bill for the last eleven years, and to which the original Crane Bill, by law, had to adhere. The so-called worker rights language now in the "revised" Crane Bill remain just as ornamental and just as totally ineffective as it has been under CBI. Similarly, the "revised" Crane Bill lifts, word for word, the mandate already in CBI for the president to review every three years a beneficiary country's continued eligibility for CBI and CBI parity status. As has already been pointed out, such a review has never been used to challenge a country regarding worker rights. Leaving aside that this review has never been applied to worker rights, the Crane Bill also delays the next review until the year 1999! — giving the maquiladoras four more years to do exactly as they please with no constraints at all.

The Crane Bill calls for the complete accession of the Central American and Caribbean countries to NAFTA — or similar bilateral trade agreement — no later than ten years from the date the bill enters into law.

Of course, nothing comes without a price, and to gain full NAFTA status the Central American and Caribbean countries must bend to the will of the U.S. corporations. For example, to be eligible for NAFTA accession a country must:

• Institute reforms for "the abolition of price controls";
• Guarantee "the protection of intellectual property rights" (i.e. drug patents, movie videos and music cassettes, computer software, etc.);
• Move to quickly achieve "the elimination of barriers to trade in services" (i.e. foreign banks and insurance companies…);
• It is crucial that "the country provides national treatment to foreign direct investment";
• Similarly judged will be "the extent which the country works to accommodate market access objectives of the United States."

On the other hand, when it comes to issues important to labor, there is not one single word about the need for worker rights protections to also condition eligibility for full NAFTA status.

This is a tremendous step backwards from the worker rights protections — as limited as they may seem in practice — available under the CBI/GSP legislation. Crane's bill, as part of the corporate game plan, is meant to subtly but ruthlessly break the linkage between worker rights and trade.

Their collaboration on the above strategy is just one other face of the maquiladoras' trumped up "nationalism" and "patriotism."

TAKING DOWN ALL OF LATIN AMERICA AS WELL:

The first step is often the most important. If the only effective case of worker rights protections being linked to a trade agreement — which we now have under the CBI/GSP — is destroyed by the Crane Bill, then all of Latin America is at risk of suffering the same treatment. As Chile and other Latin American countries and trading blocks negotiate full accession to NAFTA, the Crane Bill will have established the destructive pattern — stripping worker rights protections from all future trade agreements. This is the first step in a slippery slope downward into the corporate agenda.

JUST WHAT ARE THE INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED WORKER RIGHTS THAT CRANE AND THE MAQUILADORA COMPANIES WANT TO DESTROY?

First, it is critical to note that the internationally recognized worker rights protections attached to the CBI/GSP were drawn from the International Labor Organization (ILO), which is a worldwide standard-setting commission made up of equal representation from business, government, and labor. Founded in 1919 and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the ILO maintains a close working relationship with the United Nations. The U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights also declares the inalienable "right to form and join trade unions" and to receive wages that guarantee an "existence worthy of human dignity." All ILO standards are decided by a majority vote of the business, government and labor representatives.

The internationally recognized labor rights standards established by the ILO were designed so as to be both practicable, and just, when applied across the world's diverse levels of economic and social development. The ILO standards were specifically designed to help protect the basic rights of workers in developing countries — like those of Central America and the Caribbean — without harming the countries' economic development. The ILO has established the following basic internationally recognized worker rights: 1.) The right of association; 2.) The right to organize and bargain collectively; 3.) A prohibition on the use of any form of forced or compulsory labor; 4.) A minimum age for the employment of children; and 5.) Acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of work and occupational safety and health.

The National Labor Committee did not write these labor standards. In fact, when the maquiladoras attack worker rights protections, they are attacking minimum standards set by the U.N. and the world body of the ILO to protect labor rights in all of Latin America and beyond.

WORKERS IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN HAVE A COMMON GOAL:

The ILO's international worker rights standards protect all workers in Central America, the Caribbean, and the United States from the unbridled, unregulated, low wage exploitation practiced by far too many multinational corporations. Labor rights provisions protect us from these "bad apples" within the corporate community, who roam the world looking for the lowest wages. Labor rights standards protect workers in different countries from fighting each other and playing into the maquiladoras' destructive strategy to divide and conquer. The maquiladoras want to pit workers in different countries against each other in a race to the bottom based on who will accept the lowest wages and the most miserable working conditions just to have a job. Worker rights protections are meant to raise living standards and working conditions, not lower them. Worker rights protections are meant to assure that the huge benefits of duty-free access to the U.S. market are shared by all the people in Central America and the Cribbean, and not just by the tiny business elite who control the free trade zones and maquiladoras.

It would be important to ask the maquiladora associations and their colleagues what they plan to do with the extra $240,000,000 a year they will pocket under the Crane Bill. Will they share it with the maquiladora workers? Let them explain why and how basic ILO internationally recognized worker rights standards harm their businesses.

THE NATIONAL LABOR COMMITTEE IS NOT OPPOSED TO INCREASED TARIFF BENEFITS FOR CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN:

We need to be 100 percent clear on this due to the self-serving distortions and lies perpetuated by the maquiladora associations. The National Labor Committee does not oppose — we favor and support: * increased duty-free access for Central American and Caribbean products entering the U.S. market!; * increased foreign investment in the Caribbean Basin region; and * increased U.S. foreign assistance to the region.

Not less aid; we are arguing for increased U.S. foreign assistance to the people of Central America and the Caribbean to help meet food, medical, educational, and environmental needs, especially of children and women.

The National Labor Committee is not opposed to fair trade, but we are opposed to worker rights violations and to the corporations' plot to sever the link between worker rights and all future trade agreements.

Attached at the end of this memo is a paid ad recently placed in a Salvadoran newspaper to answer the lies of the maquiladora companies. This ad very clearly states the position of the National Labor Committee.

This statement was a joint effort of the National Labor Committee and the Latin American regional office of the International Federation of Food and Agricultural Workers (UITA), and labor groups in Finland and Denmark.

IT'S NOT OVER YET — WORKER RIGHTS PROTECTIONS CAN STILL BE WON!

Crane and the multinational corporations have not won yet in their attempt to destroy worker rights. In fact, the maquiladora owners in Central America and the Caribbean are running scared, which is why they have been spending money in Washington, D.C. to lobby the U.S. Congress in support of the Crane Bill — a bill they helped write. These maquiladora owners have money and influence and they know their way around Washington. They are among friends since the pro-business Republican Party controls majorities in both the House and the Senate. The maquiladora bosses like to do their lobbying behind closed doors. What they are afraid of is exposure — of having working conditions at their maquila plants dragged into the light of day. This is their Achilles heel — they can't stand having anyone know the truth.

The maquiladoras have a long way to go. The Crane Bill won't even reach the floor of the House for a vote until this June, at the earliest. Then the U.S. Senate will have to consider a Crane type bill, which could draw things out even further, delaying a vote until September.

For the next several months the maquila companies will remain especially vulnerable. In order to eventually grab their $240 million a year in tariff breaks they will have to maintain the lie and convince the Clinton Administration and U.S. Congress that the maquiladoras: — respect worker rights; — pay a living wage; — pay all overtime and benefits correctly as stipulated by law; — provide a safe, clean working environment; — respect the rights of women; — prohibit screaming, threats and physical abuse by supervisors; — respect in practice the right of workers to organize a union of their choice at their plants, free of interference, and, — respect the right of their workers to bargain collectively to reach a fair contract covering wages and working conditions.

At this time in particular, the companies are vulnerable — not to any underhanded international conspiracy out to get them, but rather it is crystal clear: If the maquila owners want to grab the $240 million in tariff breaks they are demanding, then they have to obey international recognized workers rights. (By the way, this $240 million will be in addition to the $235 million in annual tariff breaks which they are already receiving. In short, the business elite in Central America and the Caribbean may soon be pocketing $475 million a year in special tariff breaks provided by the U.S. people. Is it too much then to ask for and demand the protection of workers rights?)

No worker rights — no $240 million. For once, the maquila companies must listen to their workers, must hear their demands.

Over the next few months, the 450,000 maquiladora workers in Central America and the Caribbean are in the best position they have ever been in to defend their basic rights.

NOW IS THE TIME:

If you want a union, now is the time to go for it.

If you want to end physical abuse and sexual harassment, now is the time to go for it.

If you want a contract with a liveable wage, now is the time to go for it.

Documentation of worker rights violations in the maquiladoras could force Congress to reform the Crane Bill so that the Central American and Caribbean people do not lose the worker rights protections they have now. Using this documentation, maquila companies violating worker rights could become the target of solidarity campaigns in the U.S., creating public pressure on the maquiladoras until worker rights abuses are ended.

The National Labor Committee will assist you in any way we can.

MAQUILADORA ASSOCIATIONS WILL APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN TO JOIN THEM IN SUPPORTING THE CRANE BILL:

It makes perfect sense for the maquiladora associations to approach labor unions, women's and human rights groups to seek their support for the Crane Bill. After all, the maquiladoras and their corporate cronies virtually wrote the bill and stand to pocket more than $240,000,000 a year in the deal.

Before being forced to take a stand on the Crane Bill, it would be best if Central American and Caribbean organizations consulted with groups which they trust in the U.S. concerning this very complicated piece of U.S. legislation.

CALL THE NATIONAL LABOR COMMITTEE COLLECT:

If you have documentation on worker rights violations which you would like to share with the National Labor Committee, please call us collect at: (212) 255-7240. Spanish speaking staff is available to take your calls or faxes.

Also, call us if you have further questions concerning the Crane Bill / H.R. 553, or if you would like to receive a copy of the Crane Bill, or copies of Crane's voting records on labor, women's, and environmental issues.

Also, the National Labor Committee has available a three minute video produced jointly by the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH) and the National Labor Committee, which was aired in Honduras to answer the distortions and lies of the maquiladora association concerning worker rights and trade agreements.

Other documents available include CODEH's March 1995 press release, and two recent National Labor Committee press releases in El Salvador and Honduras, all dealing with the truth behind worker rights and the maquiladoras.

An endnote: We have already received considerable documentation on serious worker rights violations in the maquiladoras. We want to thank those organizations who have taken the time to put these documents in order and get them to us. All the data is being compiled at this moment for presentation to the Congress at the most appropriate moment. We will closely coordinate the release of this information with those who sent it to us, since it is very possible that we can win concrete improvements in wages, benefits and working conditions at the plants we have data on. We will particularly target the U.S. companies who purchase apparel or other products from the maquiladoras under review as a way to apply pressure to secure improvements in working conditions.

Note: The National Labor Committee is an independent research and human rights organization focusing on the development and protection of international worker rights. The NLC works with a broad coalition of human rights, religious, developmental, and labor organizations across the United States. The NLC, which accepts no money from the U.S. government or from corporations, is independent of the AFL-CIO and the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD).