The Gap: Three lawsuits filed in January targeted The Gap and 17 other U.S. clothing producers and retailers for their sweatshop practices on Saipan (Northern Mariana Islands). These companies sew "Made in USA" labels into their clothing and ship their products to the U.S. duty-free while using foreign contractors who prey upon Asian workers brought to Saipan in indentured servitude. Global Exchange and other Bay Area groups kicked off a campaign on March 6, with leafleting at a number of Gap outlets. The lawsuits and the campaign seek to win back pay and other demands specified by workers in Saipan. For more information, contact Global Exchange: <juliette@globalexchange.org>, (415) 255-7296 ext. 254; or check out the web sites of Global Exchange <http://www.globalexchange.org> and Sweatshop Watch <www.sweatshopwatch.org>.

Phillips-van Heusen: On December 11, workers arriving at Phillips-Van Heusen's Camisas Modernas shirt factory in Guatemala and expecting to receive their Christmas bonus were informed that the plant (PVH's only unionized facility) was closing. In 1997, after a 6-year struggle, PVH workers at the factory became the only unionized workers with a bargained contract in Guatemala's maquiladora sector. PVH is a member of the AIP (Apparel Industry Partnership - the White House task force on sweatshop issues). The company's decision to close Camisas Modernas and move that production to low-wage sweatshops in Guatemala would seem to confirm suspicions that the AIP is little more than a cover for sweatshop business as usual. On short notice, activists in some 15 cities organized leafleting at PVH outlets. Another round of leafleting took place during the week of March 8-13, to coincide with President Clinton's visit to Central America. The campaign seeks re-opening of the factory. For more information, contactthe U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project: (773) 262-6502,
<usglep@igc.org>.

Disney/Haiti: Workers who produce clothing for Disney at the Megatex factory in Port-au-Prince, Haiti have organized a union and are demanding a living wage and reasonable production quotas. The Disney company holds the economic keys to this struggle. In February, workers sent a letter to Disney CEO Michael Eisner (with a cover letter from a number of U.S. organizations), asking for his intervention. If the company does not respond with appropriate action, solidarity activists will re-start the Disney campaign, which was initiated in 1996 but then went into hibernation after Disney's largest contractor in Haiti moved its operations to Asia. For more information, contact Campaign for Labor Rights: (541) 344-5410, <CLR@igc.org>.

Gardenburger / Flav-R-Pac: The farmworker union in Oregon (PCUN -- Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste; Treeplanters and Farmworkers United of the Nortwest) learned on April 23 that their boycott of Gardenburger products succeeded in forcing the company to switch away from NORPAC distribution. They continue their boycott of products grown and/or distributed by NORPAC. They hope to establish a nationwide network of campus-based activists who will get these products out of college and university food services. For a
farmworker rights campus organizing packet, contact Campaign for Labor Rights (see above).

College / University Licensing Agreements: For the past year, students on a number of campuses have been pushing for strict codes in connection with the multi-billion dollar collegiate licensing business, to stop clothing and other items bearing their school logo from being made under sweatshop conditions. In the past several weeks, sit-ins on three campuses forced administrators to agree to provisions covering a living wage and full disclosure. To receive information from the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) list serve, contact Ginny Coughlin at UNITE: (800) 23-UNITE, <gcough@uniteunion.org>.

Nike: On January 11, Nike Vice President Joseph Ha sent a letter to the state-run Vietnam General Confederation of Labor. The letter said, in part: "It was obvious that a few U.S. human rights groups, as well as a Vietnamese refugee who is engaged in human rights activities, are not friends of Vietnam." The letter was published in the union's official newspaper. Ha's letter referred to Thuyen Nguyen and Vietnam Labor Watch. The effect of his letter was immediate intimidation of VLW's sources of information in Vietnam, making it virtually impossible now to monitor what is happening in Nike shoe factories there. Nike has refused to take any of several corrective measures suggested by human rights groups. A March 6 story in The Oregonian newspaper reported that Nike has recalled 110,000 pairs of shoes trimmed with paint containing dangerously high levels of lead. The story did not indicate whether the company undertook any health measures to protect
workers exposed to the paint. Campaign for Labor Rights e-mail alerts and the 1999 Sweatshop Activist Organizing Packet include suggestions for local activity in solidarity with Nike workers. (See contact information above.)