20 representatives from Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), Globalization Monitor (GM), CUHK Employees General Union, Citybus Limited Employees Union, Union of Hong Kong Dockers, Clothing Industry, Clerical and Retail Trade Employees General Union and Hong Kong liaison office of the International Trade Union Confederation initiated a solidarity action in front of the store of G2000 and UNIQLO in Festival Walk to support the strikers in the factory of Shenzhen Artigas Clothing & Leatherwear, which belongs to a Hong Kong company Lever Style Inc. The action targets the buyers of Artigas, Hong Kong local brand G2000 and Japanese brand UNIQLO, for their failure to closely monitor the behaviour of the supplier. To settle the disputes, we urge both the factory and the brands to have equal negotiation with the worker representatives within this week. During the action, as two shops rejected to send representatives to receive the protest letter, we went inside the stores and put the letter on the cashier before we finished the solidarity action.
Starting from the 10th of December, nearly thousands of workers from Artigas staged a strike against the factory for the insufficient contribution of social insurance and housing provident fund. Most of the workers have been working more than ten years in the factory, yet, the factory has just contributed the social insurance fund for 5 to 6 years only. These workers are at their retirement age, they are deeply affected by the misbehaviour of the factory as they were unable to enjoy their retirement fund. Workers demand the compensation of the unpaid social insurance in arrears over the years. Unfortunately, the factory still has not given any positive response to the workers. Worse still, it threatened yesterday to sack workers for taking part in the strike. Also, this case is similar to the Yu Yuen strike happened in April 2014 which more than fifty thousand workers also demanded the compensation on unpaid social insurance from the company. Lever Style is a well-known company which has three garment factories in Shenzhen and employs more than 4000 workforce. It also has factories in other regions of China. However, even with such scale and capacity, the company does not abide strictly the local law.
We urge the brands to bear the responsibility because they failed to monitor the supplier to follow the law. We concern the interests and livelihood of the workers.
We demand the brands to urge the factory to have equal negotiation with the workers representative within this week and to ensure no retaliation against the workers by the factory. The brands should also proactively investigate into the workers’ complaints regarding on their social insurance.
Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior
Contact Person:
1. Chan Hiu Ching, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior
2. Wong Yu Loy, Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions
