BURMESE ORGAZATION'S NEWS

Who ordered these police uniforms?

Source : Canada News Wire( March 6, 2001)

Canadian Labour Congress wants to know who is ordering "police uniforms" from Burmese sweatshops

OTTAWA--- The Canadian Labour Congress has obtained a copy of a cable from the US Embassy in Burma which reports that police uniforms destined for Montreal were being manufactured in a Burmese sweatshop. The document refers to a visit at agovernment-owned garment factory in Burma where an American "reported seeing Montreal, Canada police uniforms being sewn and boxed for shipping." Staff at the Canadian Labour Congress are working to discover who placed the order for those garments.

"Canadians do not want products manufactured in sweatshops," said Ken Georgetti, President of the Canadian Labour Congress. "Working families have made it quite clear that they do not want their money handed to repressive military rulers like the Burmese government. Those uniforms are dirty and we need to find them."

At the factory where the uniforms were spotted, wages start at $21.00 per month for a 48 hour work week (which works out to less than 11 cents an hour).

The factory is owned by the Burmese government, a repressive military regime that was recently sanctioned by the International Labour Organization for its flagrant and continuous use of forced labour and other violations of human rights.

"Why is this still happening?" asked Jean-Claude Parrot, Executive Vice President of the Canadian Labour Congress. "Everyone has known about Burma for years. At the ILO, representatives from the Canadian government, employers and labour joined the rest of the world in a quasi-unanimous vote against doing business with this monster of a regime... and still Canadian companies are using their sweatshops and giving them the money they only use to further oppress their own people."

The Canadian Labour Congress has condemned the military junta's treatment of the Burmese people, particularly its use of forced labour, and continues to call on the Canadian government to do more than politely ask companies to refrain from doing business there. Specifically, the CLC wants the federal government to:

1. research, monitor and report on Canadian investments in and imports from Burma;

2. review the Special Economic Measures Act to allow for concrete and specific measures to be taken; and

3. convene a meeting, with the participation of the CLC, of the Working Group on Corporate Social Responsibility to jointly develop steps to address this issue.

The Canadian Labour Congress is committed to living up to the spirit and letter of the ILO resolution and will continue to work with its partners, the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions to monitor closely the situation in Burma. To that effect,it adopted an action plan at its Executive Committee and Council Meeting today aimed at helping working families avoid the products of sweatshops and forced labour.

The Canadian Labour Congress brings together the majority of the country's unions and represents 2.3 million working Canadians and their families. Its Executive Council concludes its two-day meeting in Ottawa at the Chateau Laurier hotel today.

For further information: Jean Wolff at 613-526-7431 or 613-798-6040 (cell); Jeff Atkinson at 613-526-7425 or 613-292-1413 (cell) or visit www.clc-ctc.ca. The ILO resolution on Burma (Myanmar) can be found on the ILO web site:
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc88/com-seld.htm