Yoo Yang struggle continues

Labor Alerts, 3 June 2000

Yoo Yang, a textile factory in Continental Park, Honduras, and the union, SITRAIMASH, signed an agreement in March to negotiate a contract before the union gained legal recognition. Once legal recognition was granted, the contract would become the collective bargaining agreement. Latest reports indicate that Yoo Yang is violating the agreement and refusing to negotiate a contract until the legal recognition is gained. Potentially more important, there have been rumors that Yoo Yang will be closing the factory in Honduras and possibly moving to another location. The union is working on strategies to combat this possibility.

Before the rumors of the factory closing began, the Yoo Yang workers decided to appeal the Honduran Labor Ministry's decision to deny their industrial union legal recognition. The workers decided that the blatant misinterpretation of Honduran labor law must be challenged. As previously reported, the Honduran Labor Ministry denied SITRAIMASH, the industrial union of Kimi and Yoo Yang workers, legal recognition due to a law interpretation technicality. The union lawyers are confident the application is in fact legal and that the denial for legal recognition is a discriminatory move.

[Honduras information provided by the U.S./Labor Education in the Americas Project: (773) 262-6502, <usleapja@mindspring.com>, <www.usleap.org>. All materials edited by Campaign for Labor Rights.]