Union Showdown?

When, in 1996, Gap Inc. allowed labor and human rights organizations to monitor working conditions in the Mandarin International factory in El Salvador, the occasion marked a milestone in the transnational antisweatshop movement. Suddenly, codes of conduct were no longer enough; corporations also had to ensure the implementation and monitoring of those codes. Moreover, the decision provided a major boost for southern NGOs seeking to enhance worker rights. Private monitoring of clothing manufacturers had been prevalent in U.S. factories since the early 1990s, but the Mandarin case was the first time human rights groups in and from the south monitored maquiladora factories. My own organization, the Independent Monitoring Group of El Salvador (GMIES), played a major role in verifying the reinstatement of Mandarin’s discharged workers and in overseeing the fulfillment of Gap Inc.’s code of conduct in the factory.

Yet, independent monitoring organizations have encountered skepticism from an unexpected source. Many labor leaders in the United States and in some Central America and the Caribbean feel threatened by nonunion groups overseeing factory conditions. They believe that NGOs are usurping the proper function of unions by defending and advocating worker rights. Some union leaders even believe that the achievements of monitoring groups will make unions seem unnecessary by comparison and will discourage unionization efforts. Because they believe that government labor ministries should carry out the work of monitoring groups, other detractors argue that monitoring favors the process of privatization.

But such fears have proven unfounded. Independent monitors — now active in Guatemala, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and soon in Nicaragua — vocally demand stronger state action to protect workers. In Honduras, a monitoring organization called the Collective of Honduran Women (CODEMUH) is lobbying the government and firms to sign a code of ethics providing for stronger labor regulations governing maquiladora factories. And in Guatemala and El Salvador, monitoring groups conduct monitor training workshops that include government representatives.

NGOs and labor unions maintain a complex relationship, borne of profound differences in the nature, structure, and intent of these institutions. Independent monitors verify that corporations uphold labor rights, and this vigilance helps foster a working environment more amenable to collective action by workers. But monitoring groups do not unionize workers, nor do they engage in collective bargaining for workplace benefits beyond those mandated by law. In this sense, monitors do not replace or undermine traditional unions. Indeed, the best monitors are the workers themselves. But the sad truth is that workers in the south often have been denied the right to organize and monitor their rights. Most efforts to unionize end in firings. In Guatemala, for example, there is not a single union among the maquiladora factories, while El Salvador had only two maquiladora unions as of 2000 — incidentally, in factories with monitoring programs.

Independent monitoring will not solve all the problems in maquiladora factories. But workers who face precarious conditions must be creative and use all tools at their disposal. And where no tools exist, we must invent them.