The Gap is another poster child for horrible labor relations. Echoing recent stories coming from Caracol, Alejandro Argueta an Sae-A lawyer turned union supporter, filed criminal cases in Guatemala against Sae-A "for antiunion (sic) discrimination and discrimination against women. He also appealed to Gap, writing, 'The production of Gap clothing is being carried out amidst screaming, threats and even in some cases assaults on workers.'
At the end of 2009, Gap ceased production in Guatemala.
See "How Promises of Aid Stiffed Haiti" for a slide show of conditions in and around Caracol in December 2015.
In December 2015, we interviewed a woman who was fired from Sae-A because she took two days to go to a doctor in Port-au-Prince for what amounted to a stress-induced illness. It takes a day to drive back and forth IF you have a car. Korean employers did not care that she had endured unwanted sexual advances, supervisors screaming at her to "work faster," and fists pounded on tables if she failed to meet quotas.
Willie Tan, Abramoff, and Friends of Hillary
The National Review click here reported that "in 2005 Senator Hillary Clinton accepted contributions from a tycoon involved in the Abramoff lobbying scandal. Saipan garment-industry tycoon Willie Tan gave $2,000 to Friends of Hillary, one of the senator's political action committees. Friends of Hillary also accepted $2,000 contributions from Raymond Tan and Siu Lin Tan, family members who are top executives in Willie Tan's businesses. All three contributions were received on September 30, 2005, according to FEC records." Another family member, Josie Tan, who listed her occupation as homemaker, made a $2,000 contribution received on October 2, 2005. In Total, the Tan family donated Hillary Clinton $10,000 for her Senate re-election campaign. See the complete story at Daily Kos.
A transcript of a May 1999 20/20 investigation of Willie Tan's Saipan operation revealed an incident where more than 1,000 workers were sickened by suspected food poisoning at one of the biggest factories on the island. The same factory where the workers became ill produced even more clothes for the Polo line of Ralph Lauren, which told 20/20 it would investigate conditions but has continued production here. Ralph Lauren, who was president of the company, told ABC's investigative unit 20/20 that he didn't want to talk about the garment factories on Saipan.
So, the former Gap and Ralph Lauren Director, D'Sa, would become an integral part of the Caracol operation. His LinkedIn resume includes this description of his part in the development plan at the industrial park. "A catalyst to transform northern Haiti. Largest Industrial Park in the Caribbean region occupying 2.5 million square meters with a power station, fiber optic connectivity, potable water supply, waste water treatment, solid waste disposal, buildings IBC compliant, 5 heliports, health and banking facilities, customs clearing yard and transportation network. Targeted to create 60,000 jobs when fully occupied."
A five page Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed by Hillary Clinton between the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Haiti, Korean apparel manufacturer Sae-A Trading Co., Ltd, the International Finance Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank and the U.S. Department of State promised an investment utopia that would showcase "Haiti's advantages as a place to do business to other potential investors to create a competitive economic cluster with a range of production facilities and support services." The MOU did not address the source of labor except in the context of "supporting infrastructure."
Caracol was safely anchored in place by the Korean company Sae-A while Gap, Inc, Willie Tan, Tony Rodham and VCS mining had paid mightily to play in the grand experiment known as Haiti Reconstruction.
Caracol clung to the debris of deception floating on the lies of "poor planning." Viewed from another angle, the planning behind Caracol was in fact deliberate and would result in institutionalized slavery. The devil was in the details, hidden in spreadsheets that confounded understanding and analysis. Financial finagling would dwell within preferential tariff programs that would steal from the poor and promote massive wage theft in the Haitian Apparel industry.
Caracol was a problem, but the GAO report was focused on infrastructure. It was using a telescope on bricks and mortar when a microscope was needed to analyze the cellular degradation caused by grueling poverty and wage theft. Similar to the murder of Charlemagne Peralte, the end result would strap Haiti to the cross of international monetary enslavement.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank were the supervisors, while the U.S. Commerce Department issued quotas for the garment industry and turned blind eye to spreadsheets on exports that did not add up.
Not once did the committee ask the question about the number of garment workers vs. productions quotas and how these quotas would be met at Caracol or elsewhere in the garment sweatshops. Discussion focused on building houses to support the workforce at Caracol, and the minimum amount of square footage necessary for a family to night's sleep. Congressman Randy K. Weber of Texas noted that his family did just fine in a vacation travel trailer of 320 square feet, so a house of 450 square feet would "be tremendous." "You can make do with what you can," he added.
The narrative was in place. Haiti was so poor that the people would be grateful for anything. A 40 foot fifth wheel would be more than adequate.
The Workers Rights Consortium was monitoring, but a report published a few months later in October 2013, revealed massive wage theft by North American apparel brands and retailers, including, but not limited to Gap, Gildan, Hanes, Kohl's, Levi's, Russell, Target, and Walmart. Target and Walmart were tied to Caracol, but the cheating and wage stealing was endemic nation-wide. The root of the graft would be found in the non-existent monitoring of the preferential tariff programs Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Encouragement Act (HOPE/HOPE II) and the Haiti Economic Lift Program Act (HELP) of 2010. See Stealing From the Poor.
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