From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Subject: Z: "Levi's, Button Your Fly, Your Greed Is Showing!"
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 03:28:57 GMT


	 Scanned in by jhwood1@srv.PacBell.COM (Joe Woodard)
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	    Z   M A G A Z I N E   J A N U A R Y   1 9 9 3
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	  "Levi's, Button Your Fly, Your Greed Is Showing!"
*********************************************************************
Levi Strauss is not the enlightened company it makes itself out to be.
*********************************************************************
			By Elizabeth Martinez

When ten decorous, mostly middle-aged Latina ladies shout such words
at the international headquarters of the world'slargest garment
manufacturer, one suspects that something is shaking. And so it was;
so it is. Fuerza Unida (United Force), the organization of former Levi
Strauss employees in San Antonio, Texas, came to San Francisco last
November to turn up the heat again on their ex-patrones. In the airy
plaza named after Levi's, facing the company's benign redbrick office
building, ten Fuerza Unida women staged a get-down program. It
included a week-long fast, rallies of labor and community supporters,
and a tribunal at a nearby theater.

This organization of working-class Latinas, many of whom speak little
English, is exposing the truth about a world-famous company with a
glowing liberal image to veil its exploitation.

Three years ago, on January 16, 1990, Levi's summoned workers at its
South Zarzamora Street plant in San Antonio and informed them over a
loud-speaker that the plant would be shutting down and moving to the
Caribbean where labor was cheaper. Everyone had heard rumors but in
November the plant manager had told employees their jobs were secure,
and his reassurances continued. Instead of the usual $500
Christmasbonus, they would receive a raise in January. Then suddenly
the world ended (forget that January raise). Now you see it, now you
don't; this whole sleight of hand was only one of many shabby Levi's
maneuvers.

By April the South Zarzamora plant, which produced Dockers pants, had
moved its Dockers production to Costa Rica. There it would pay $3.80 a
day -- roughly half the average hourly wage of the San Antonio work
force. The move left 1,150 people -- 92 percent Latino and 86 percent
women, including many single mothers -- out of a job. Today most of
them are either working at minimum wage or for limited hours only, not
retrained, or still unemployed. 279 did get jobs in the two other
Levi's plants in San Antonio -- with decent pay, thanks to a 9-month
struggle by Fuerza Unida.

As a result of what has been called intimidation and coercion, the
Zarzamora workers were not unionized (some other Levi's plants in the
U.S.  do have unions). But they mounted a protest against the closing
less than a week after that fatal announcement and on February 12,
1990 they launched Fuerza Unida. Membership zoomed when Levi Strauss
announced sales totaling $3.6 billion and record profits of $272.3
million for 1989. One reason for such profits was the success of
Dockers pants, the Zarzamora specialty, which accounted for almost
$400 million in sales -- more than triple the year before. "So why did
they have to close the plant?" workers protested.

Since then Fuerza Unida members have struggled to get emergency aid
from the city, state, and federal governments as well as classrooms,
books, and meaningful ESL (English as a Second Language) and GED
classes. They have carried out protests in 10 cities of the Southwest
plus Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Albany, New York, Mexico and even
France; several hunger strikes; and a series of community tribunals to
judge Levi's actions. Along with filing two lawsuits they have
maintained a food bank and set up a small seamstresses' cooperative.
They have testified at Congressional hearings, developed media
contacts, spoken to unions and raised funds.

A major activity, Fuerza Unida's boycott against Levi's clothing,
continues today. Its ten current demands include increased pension
benefits, extended severance pay, and special compensation for
disabled workers.

Somehow Fuerza Unida women have managed this kind of
schedule-from-Hell with warm smiles and powerhouse energy. Somehow
their chants don't sound tired, their slogans don't go stale. Somehow
they have held their meetings every Thursday, every week, every month,
with 50 to 100 to 200 people attending. How to explain three years of
such energy and commitment?  Perhaps the best way is with Fuerza
Unida's beautiful, untranslatable slogan -- La mujer luchando. El
mundo transformando -- which literally says: "Women struggling, the
world transforming" -- but in the sense of "Women in struggle
transform the world." Whose world? Ah, the world outside and their
world inside, I think.

This consciousness shows in the way Fuerza Unida women have built
alliances with other groups of women and workers, here and in other
countries. Among these are the Southwest Public Workers Union, Workers
Defense Coalition, Mujer Obrera (garment workers in El Paso), the
Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice based in
Albuquerque, N.M., Mujer a Mujer (Woman to Woman) in Texas and Mexico,
and the Seamstresses' Union in Mexico. Workers organizing in the
maquiladoras (assembly shops for U.S.  companies) along the border are
important sisters in the struggle. That networking with other
organizations is not merely tactical; Fuerza Unida sees the links
between their experience and other plant closures, other women's
struggles, government policy -- all sorts of broader issues.

Fuerza Unida members quickly understood that their experience was a
precursor of the North American Free Trade Agreement: "We were early
victims of the NAFTA." They are now in the forefront of grassroots
organizing against it, with the slogan "We don't want free trade, we
want fair trade." Or, more succinctly, GIVE NAFTA THE SHAFTA!

Locally Fuerza Unida has used a form of the labor/community organizing
strategy which says: corporations that have built great fortunes on
the backs of a community owe that community -- not only the workers
but also those who provide the schools, shops, medical care, fire
protection -- the whole infrastructure. In San Antonio, much of the
Chicano/Mexicano community stands with Fuerza Unida in this spirit.
Together they envision a solution that is much more than a labor
solution.

The story of Fuerza Unida is about women workers of color becoming
empowered. Reuben Solis -- veteran of the 1960s Chicano movement, now
a Southwest Network leader and longtime advisor to Fuerza Unida --
expressed its worldview when he said: 'Their strength has not been
simply to capture the moment as Levi's victims but to capture the
essence of class, gender, and national solidarity. That adds up to a
movement."

Internally, members have acquired faith in their ability to make a
plan and then carry it out -- an important road to feeling empowered.
They have also grown strong in technical knowledge; Irene Reyna, a
Levi's machine operator for seven years and one of three Fuerza Unida
coordinators, now runs down Levi's corporate tricks like a seasoned
labor lawyer. They have taken part in City Council debates.

In all these ways, external and internal, Fuerza Unida represents an
alternative form of organization which has also been seen in other
Latina groups like the striking Tolteca Food workers or the Mothers of
East Los Angeles. Its humanistic response to inhuman treatment
includes such nitty-gritty matters as how internal problems are
handled: hold a meeting immediately so that any conflict does not
become a matter of gossip or individual backbiting. "La mujer luchando
-- el mundo transformando."

Unveiling Levi's Twists and Turns

In response to the Fuerza Unida campaign, Levi's claims to have given
90 days notice with pay -- 30 days more than required by law. But
Fuerza Unida says 300 women were sent home permanently on the day the
closure was announced. They included longtime employee Bertha Suarez,
who testified at the San Francisco tribunal that 1 was the second to
leave that day."  Instead of giving 30 days extra. if anything Levi's
broke the law.

Levi's also stresses its generosity in providing three months of
extended, post-layoff health benefits. But it dated that extension
from the January 16 closure announcement, which conflicts with its own
claim of 90 days notice. It boasts of giving $1 million for job
retraining and other emergency services -- but that money went to the
city of San Antonio as a whole, not the Zarzamora plant workers.
Apparently Levi's is certain that its version of reality will be
believed, not that of some Mexican women.

The games Levi's plays feed the feeling of betrayal in Fuerza Unida,
which can run even stronger than financial distress. Such anger was
palpable at the November tribunal in San Francisco. when ten women
fasting in protest found the strength to speak out -- loud and clear.
As Emestina Mendoza testified, "No tenemos hambre de comida, tenemos
hambre de justicia" -- we are hungry for justice, not for food."

Two Fuerza Unida coordinators. Petra Mata and Irene Reyna (the third
is Viola Casares, who worked for Santone/Levi's 14 years), wept as
they described that moment on Jan. 16 when Levi's suddenly announced
the shutdown. We cry because we still hurt. ' Emma Davis? who worked a
computer at Levi's. was also suspicious: ''In my opinion they had all
the paperwork ready in July. It takes a lot to get ready for a close
down." Making workers falsely believe their jobs were secure (and just
before Christmas with extra expenses for many of them) is part of one
Fuerza Unida lawsuit.

25 Percent of Workers Injured

Another suit charges that Levi's avoided medical costs from on-the-job
injuries suffered by at least 25 percent of the workforce. At the
tribunal one woman after another spoke about such injuries. beginning
with their years at the Santone Manufacturing plant which Levi Strauss
bought in 1981 and renamed Levi's in 1983. Rosa Salas told a chilling
tale of developing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (a painful ailment of the
wrist) after working 12 years. It got worse when Levi's began to
emphasize making Dockers -- considered the right pants for "aging baby
boomers" -- instead of jeans.  The Dockers required working with
heavier material and performing more operations.

Rosa remembered how, as the problem intensified, workers were told NOT
to report injuries. In her case she finally went to a doctor on her
own and was quickly hospitalized to have surgery on both hands.
Ordered to do "light duty" she still worked 12 hours a day dropping
off pants to other workers. Eventually she hurt her shoulder and then
the doctor said she could not do work of that type either. "After the
layoff. I tried to work in a beauty parlor, but I can't. So I ask
Levi's: what are you going to do about this?"

Rosa Salas was not the only worker who spoke of being used by
Santone/Levi's -- in some cases, as many as 40 years -- to produce big
profits and then be tossed out like an old, unwanted shoe. One of the
most devastating testimonies came from Severiana Moreno, a 15-year
employee. "I can't work any more," she concluded, "nobody will hire
me. I hope the Haas family (owners of Levi's) will have a heart." To
testify, Severiana had traveled with the others from San Antonio in a
van -- lying on her back.

Bertha Suarez, who worked 22 years, has a bad back but "I'm getting
only $85 a month pension. And there are more like me -- I know at
least 8, personally. Why does the government allow this? I'm just
another face on the welfare line. Where is my pension?" San Antonio
attorney Larry Daves has suggested that the recovery of unpaid pension
benefits was one likely reason for the plant closure. What happened to
workers' pension money, going back to what they had accumulated at
Santone before it became Levi's, remains a mystery.

Throughout the tribunal, workers talked about the psychological
effects of layoff as much as the material damage: loss of a sense of
family (one's co-workers), strains at home with spouse and children,
loss of self esteem and identity in a society which defines a person
according to their work or lack of it, and many other forms of
depression.

Levi's Liberal Image

Getting an appointment with a member of the Haas family was a major
Fuerza Unida goal on that San Francisco trip. Its request went
ignored. The Fuerza Unida strategy suggests both a very Latina faith
in the power of appealing to human conscience and a sharp awareness
that Levi's has a liberal image to defend, which can be a key pressure
point.

In the Bay Area, the Haas family is a symbol of philanthropy: a major
donor in education and the performing arts. Levi Strauss makes grants
to labor groups and community organizations around the country, and
recently initiated a new grants program aimed at 20 foreign countries
to fund entities that supposedly work on issues like social justice,
combating racism, economic development. As an employer, its wage
scale, vacation periods, and other benefits are often better than
elsewhere in the garment industry (a comparison that means little when
we consider prevailing standards in that business).

It's not only Levi's, by the way, that plays the image game. Esprit
talks a lot about its concern for the environment and its pro-choice
stand for women. You can even buy from its line of "socially and
environmentally aware" garb. Just don't ask too much about the women
who make Esprit clothing -- 75 percent of it overseas, in 17 different
nations or the environment where they work.

What is the truth behind the Levi Strauss image? This company's
139-year history is said to begin with the man who created some sturdy
pants for miners during the Califomia Gold Rush (betcha those pants
were first made by a Mexicana). Today it has 31,000 employees around
the globe, 18,000 of them in the U.S. Overseas sales outpaced domestic
growth in recent years.

In 1985 the company switched from public to private with a leveraged
buyout by the Haas family, which now owns 97 percent). The $1.6
billion debt that resulted from the buyout had been reduced to $475
million by the end of 1989, putting repayment seven years ahead of
schedule. Again this made workers ask angrily: so why did they have to
shut down the Zarzamora plant?

Inside the Clothes You Wear

Levi Strauss's way to cheap offshore-labor was paved by more than $30
million in federal money. After closing the South Zarzamora plant, it
first began buying Dockers from a Honduran contractor whose workers
had been trained in a program funded by the Agency for International
Development, AID. (The agency has acknowledged giving $6.3 million,
according to the Journal of Commerce). Later Levi's shifted to Costa
Rica.

=========================================================================
                             Latino Politics

                   PETRA MATA, A VOICE OF FUERZA UNIDA

Fuerza Unida was born when Levi Strauss laid off 1,150 mostly Latina
garment workers three years ago in San Antonio. Today it has three
co-coordinators: Viola Casares, Petra Mata, and Irene Reyna. In an
interview last September Petra Mata talked about Fuerza Unida's
campaign for justice and also about how it works to organize people.
Here are some comments by Petra and Nellie Casas, a 20-year old
volunteer accompanying her.

Elizabeth Martinez: Tell me about the problems Fuerza Unida is working
to resolve.

Petra Mata: We are trying to show what really happened, because many
people are still confused. Levi's has gotten coverage in all the
papers, it has been making grants to organizations. While we are
distributing potatoes from the food bank, they are out offering money.
We give testimony in the tribunals so that people become aware and
make their own decision about who's who. Many people think we're
working on something that's over. Levi's paid us, they gave us
training...but that is a lie. What did Levi Straus give us? Nothing.
That's the message we have to get out.

Martinez: How is Fuerza Unida trying to do that?

Mata: We communicate with people with radio programs. where we put
across our message and protest the Free Trade Agreement. We send out
our newsletter every three months, we maintain communication with our
members.  Whatever happens, we want them to participate. We have
meetings, we collect information, we go to workshops. Some understand
and are more informed than others.

Martinez: Have you seen changes in the outlook of Fuerza Unida during
the last two and a half years?

Mata: Yes, because now people are thinking that what Levi's did, any
other big corporation could do. So people are more conscious. Many are
working again, but earning a miserable life, you know, without any
benefits, having to go to the city hospital and wait 5, 6, 7 hours to
be seen.

The most important thing right now is for people to open their minds,
to see things as they are. We don't want what happened to us to happen
to others -- we don't want more of our people to suffer. We want them
to be prepared.

Martinez: What are your other goals now?

Mata: Before we saw our struggle as just against Levi's, now we see
the needs of our communities, our barrios, our young people, our
married, our friends. Our goal is to work more with our communities,
to find the people who need someone unafraid to speak out, who need
someone able to talk in court and demand their rights. Our goal is to
provide rehabilitation centers for those who are lost -- because many
of us suffer from depression. Couples have separated and families
broken up, the youth are lost in different kinds of bad living.

We want to work with people in different ways. This includes people
seeing that before choosing our president, our political leaders, we
should think hard about who doesn't keep their promises. One of our
weaknesses as a people has been that we often don't vote, thinking,
why? -- they will elect who they want. But I think we have to live
reality, and reality is us.  Sometimes we are afraid to speak. When
they told us (at Levi's), "do this" or "do that," we said "yes ma'am."
We didn't work to live, we lived to work. In the end we saw that they
treated the machines better than us. When they sold those machines,
they packed them up very carefully.

Martinez: Nellie, what are you doing with Fuerza Unida?

Nellie Casas: I'm an associate member, my mother works in the office.
I've been involved since it started and I help in almost everything.
I've been on the hunger strikes, I went to San Francisco. I am in
college and I go straight to the office after school.

Martinez: Are there other students supporting Fuerza Unida?

Casas: Yes. We support it because we think that if Levi Strauss's lack
of adequate compensation happens now and we let it go by, the same can
happen to us. And there won't be work for us.

Martinez: Are there a lot of youth who understand that?

Casas: Not a lot. Some say "oh, that won't happen to me."

Martinez: Why do they say that?

Casas: If the parents don't tell them that it's true, that they should
watch the news and read the newspaper...There are some parents who say
"Oh, that won't happen to my children." But they should think about
the future of their children.

Martinez: And what is your dream for the future?

Casas: I know it's very hard but I think I would like to go into
politics.  I think I could make a change. But I wouldn't sell out to
anybody! You know, at the beginning, a lot of the women said "it's
done with, I don't want to think about it." But when they saw there
was a lot of support and that Levi's had taken everything from them,
they thought: what's to lose?  There is nothing to lose, only to gain.
They understood, they realized they had to struggle because nobody
else would do it for them.

=========================================================================

                            DON'T BUY LEVI'S!
                          MAIL IN YOUR PATCHES!
                             BOYCOTT LEVI'S
                           SHOW YOUR OUTRAGE!
                         !DEMUESTRE SU CORRAJE!

IF YOU ALREADY OWN LEVI PRODUCTS, SEND THE LABELS WITH A SHORT STATEMENT
(for example, "I refuse to buy your productqs until you settle with Fuerza
Unida) to: LEVI STRAUSS & CO., ATTN: Bob Haas, 1153 BATTERY STREET, SAN
FRANCISCO, CA 94111.

=========================================================================

Documentation presented by Congressman George Brown (D-CA) revealed
that AID funding of the Honduran training program also enabled Arrow
Shirt to move offshore and close several plants in Georgia and Alabama
during the late 1980s. This use of taxpayers money to help shops run
away was a pillar of Bush administration policy. (We'll see how much
Clinton, who campaigned against the policy, changes it.)

The garment industry, including Levi Strauss, is riddled with these
and other abuses, the main victims being working-class women of color.
A GAO study of sweatshops released in 1988 estimated that "Hispanics"
made up 60 percent of the workers in apparel, with Asians making up
another 35 percent. Often the sweatshops contract work from the big
name manufacturers. That practice has led to staggering exploitation
behind some very fancy labels.

On the island of Saipan -- which is U.S. territory, some 7,000 miles
from California -- teenage Chinese girls were imported by a garment
subcontractor. They worked up to 70-80 hours a week under prison-like
conditions and for pay ranging from $1.63 to $1.75 an hour. Their
passports were confiscated on arrival so they could not leave without
approval. Their hands produced goods for companies that included The
Gap, Esprit, Christian Dior, Van Heusen, and Perry Ellis -- and Levi
Strauss. After widespread exposure of this scandal in April 1992, U.S.
mainland contractors pulled out; up to that time they were surely
pleased to get dirt-cheap clothes labeled "Made in the USA."

Levi's will tell you that, in the aftermath, it formed a task force to
create international guidelines covering the use of foreign contract
labor.  Scratch deeper and you learn the guidelines included such
proposed terms as "Contractors will be favored who schedule employees
to work 60 hours or less a week." 60 hours? Explained Levi's: they
don't want to "impose" U.S.  values (the 40-hour week) on foreign
business people. Well you can't accuse Levis of being politically
correct.

A Fuerza Unida lawsuit against Levi Strauss charges the company with
race and gender discrimination. Levi's has closed some 26 plants
across the U.S.  since 1985; the vast majority of employees laid off
were women and of color. Fuerza Unida offers a shining example for all
Latina workers -- and others -- who are on the street now or will be
as the so-called Free Trade Agreement takes effect. They have forced
Levi Strauss to take them seriously, and won some small concessions.
La mujer luchando, el mundo transformando!  z

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