Hondurans Sweat For Themselves Not P. Diddy
By Ann Huggett (11/14/03)
In the late '80s, when I lived in the San Francisco coastal community of Half Moon Bay, an incident occurred which proved to me just how stupidly clueless liberal acitivists are. A local horse rental ranch with beach access and whose stables fronted Highway One suffered a major catastrophe when animal rights activists broke into the stables under the cover of darkness and "liberated" what they claimed were abused animals. The horses were forced off the ranch onto the main road by the activists who expected some type of equine Great Escape.
Instead of kicking up their collective hooves and making a beeline for greener pastures the poor horses ran in panic down the highway trying to return to the safety of their ranch. The activists kept blocking the way back until the inevitable happened: a horse was hit directly by a car sending it square through the windshield and killing the elderly driver. When police finally cleared the accident and arrested the perpetrators, the only "proof" that the activists could muster for freeing what they claimed were abused animals was that the horses must have had leg injuries because they had been observed standing on three legs with a back foot cocked.
Now anyone truly familiar with horses knows that a cocked back leg is how the animals comfortably shift their weight when they're relaxing either out in the field or standing around saddled up waiting for the next vacationer. However, never let it be said that facts ever got in the way of a good liberal head of steam. They were emotionally involved in something which gave their shallow lives meaning and that was that; no further facts need apply.
This same determined liberal activist lack of knowledge reared its agenda driven head in Hondoruas last week when the worker rights activist group, National Labor Committee, accused the Southeast Textiles factory in Choloma, Honduras, which manufactures Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' line of status wear, Sean John, of abusing its workers. According to Charles Kernaghan, who is the director of the National Labor Committee, Southeast Textiles severely underpays its workers, forces pregnancy tests on its female workers then fires them once pregnant, holds daily body inspections, demands 12 hour shifts, and provides only contaminated drinking water.
All of these accusations are clearly illegal in Honduran labor laws and caused great consternation with the manufacturer and P. Diddy especially since that shop is inspected quite regularly. ABC News reports that according to P. Diddy, "...a compliance officer conducted five inspections of the Honduran factory in the past year and a subcontractor inspects the facility every two weeks."
Fearful that the same fate that hit Kathy Lee Gifford's clothing line in 1996 would hit him, P. Daddy stated, "If there is any proof of any wrongdoing, we will terminate our relationship with this factory immediately. "I will not tolerate any violation of labor laws at any facility where Sean John is manufactured."
Not wishing to see the Southeast Textiles factory, which claims to be falsely accused by Kernaghan, forced into closing because of canceled contracts as was the Honduran factory that manufactured Kathy Lee Gifford's clothing, Honduran Labor Minister German Leitzelar personally led a team of inspectors through Southeast Textiles. Promising a full report on Southeast Textiles in the first week of November, Leitzelar said, "I think things have been overblown. If there are any irregularities, they are not like what was contained in the accusations. We visited the place to find out the truth."
Kernaghan is using as his witness a 19-year-old Southeast Textiles worker named Lydda Eli Gonzalez. The two are beginning an American cities tour to publicize that factory's alleged worker abuses. However, it should be noted that Gonzalez claims she was fired for trying to start a labor union while her employer says she was fired for producing shoddy workmanship and not starting work on time. It should also be noted that Kernaghan, who routinely works with socialist dominated United Nation NGOs, which constantly undermine democracy in Latin America, was the activist who ultimately got Kathy Lee Gifford's manufacturer to close its doors thereby forcing into unemployment hundreds of workers.
An examination of Kernaghan's The National Labor Committee's web site also raises questions since some of the very abuses he claims occurred in Southeast Textiles in Honduras are the exact same abuses he levels at El Salvadoran manufacturers like trying to start unions and pregnancy firings. Kernaghan, who has a US carpenter's union shop steward background, shows a remarkable lack of compassion towards the Third World workers he makes unemployed.
The question that needs to be asked is, "Are activists like Kernaghan pro-worker, pro- union, or pro-themselves when it comes to funding?" Wages seem low in Third World countries not because the manufacturers are cheap and mean but because these wages are always compared against US workers' salaries. In Third World nations, factories routinely pay twice the average wage for that country and sometimes even three times what can be made working in agriculture. Comparing finished retail priced goods in a First World nation to Third world wages is also disingenuous. Cost of living and wages vary geographically in Honduras just like everywhere else but according to 1997 US State Department statistics, those 24 cents an hour jobs ($1.96 per day) in Honduras were in the agriculture sector, not the manufacturing sector. In 1997 factory workers in Honduras made up to $3.08 a day. As of August 2003, Honduran domestic help for foreigners costs between $8.00 and $10.00 a day and these workers typically pay $6.00 to $10.00 a week for groceries in local markets which would be proportionately less than a typical wage earner's grocery bills in the US.
Manufacturing jobs are prized in Third World nations and many times the workers move on to start their own businesses with the money they save from their wages. Unions in the US especially are against non-union shops and it is not unusual to see student activists funded by union money like the United Students Against Sweatshops, which receives steelworkers funding and uses that union's Washington, DC office as needed. Essentially the unions, which chased American manufacturers out of the US through excessive demands and violence to get their way are pursuing these same manufacturers overseas to not only punish them but to punish the non-union employees in passing.
Kernaghan's own site proudly displays a comment about his style of activism by the author of No Logo, Naomi Klein, as, "...Greenpeace-style media antics..." and The New York Times' description of him as, "...the mouse that roared..." Kernaghan, who has taken on such manufacturers as The Gap and Liz Claiborne is reminiscent of another rights leader whose activities border on self-aggrandizement: Jesse Jackson.
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