AKA: Filthy Rich Clothing Companies Still Want Dirt Cheap Labor
Clothing manufacturers in the U.S. are apparently becoming a bit uneasy as the country’s political fiasco continues. ChinaView.com reports in its article “U.S. clothing companies request normality in Honduras” that U.S. manufacturers are “concerned.” The article claims these companies are concerned about violence. I would argue that these companies are more concerned about losing their privileges of ridiculously low pay for labor. The minimum wage in Honduras was just recently raised by ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Officially, workers in Honduras are supposed to be earning 5,500 Lempiras – or about $290 – per month. But the reality is most of the labor force that works in factories such as Nike and Gap are earning about $0.63 per hour or $112 per month. Compare that to the reported $3 BILLION dollars of exports from Honduras each year. Not quite what you would call clean and fair business if you ask me.
Not to mention the FREE ZONE LAW that applies in Honduras. As reported on the Central American Business Consultants’s website:
A special law has been established for export companies operating in government Free Zones that provides the following benefits:
No import or export duties for material, equipment, office supplies, etc., required by the manufacturing plant.
Companies are exempt from income tax, city and county taxes.
100% repatriation of currency is permitted.
The paperwork required to clear incoming and outgoing shipments is minimal.
Plus the following additional incentives:
Unrestricted currency conversion
Duty free importation of all production machinery, other equipment, fixtures, spare parts, raw Material and supplies.
Import and export shipments cleared in less then one day with minimum documentation.
No government income, sales or corporate taxes or fees.
Unrestricted repatriation of profits and capital at any time.
Low cost skilled and unskilled labor.
Ample supply of trainable and productive labor.
A wide range of low cost, local raw materials such as wood, cotton, textiles, fruits, sugar, vegetables, meats, seafood, leather, coffee, cocoa and spices are available for processing and manufacturing industries.
Many Honduran products enter the US duty free under the Caribbean Basin Initiative.
Please tell me why the following article failed to mention all of the above. Are we meant to feel sorry for these clothing manufacturers that chose to do incredibly low-cost business in a politically-volatile country with a suppressed labor force??
TEGUCIGALPA, July 28 (Xinhua) — U.S. clothing companies in Honduras said Tuesday that they were concerned about the political crisis in the country. They called for a dialogue to find a solution.
Regional director of the Makers up Association of Honduras, Guillermo Matamoros, said on Tuesday that they had urged the Honduran government to solve the crisis with a dialogue.
He said the companies were operating normally. However, they were worried that the conflict, which may affect their production, cannot be solved immediately.
Clothing companies like Nike, Adidas and Gap that manufacture products in Honduran factories released a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for the “restoration of democracy in Honduras.”
They said they were “very concerned about the continuation of the violence, if the dispute is not solved immediately.”
They also sent a copy of the letter to the general secretary of the Organization of American States, Jose Miguel Insulza, and to the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, Thomas Shannon.
Honduran manufacture exports about 3 billion U.S. dollars per year. Most of the foreign clothing companies in Honduras are from the United States and Asia.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.