Workers at the Myanmar Marko Rui-Ning and Huabo Times factories, who are weaving for Zara, have written a letter to Amancio Ortega to denounce the undemocratic activities in the Inditex supply chain, according to El Salto.

According to the Clean Clothes campaign, Rui Ningek has Inditex, Mango, Bestseller, Tally Weijl and Balala among his clients. The workers in Huabo Times, for their part, are engaged in clothing production for the companies Inditex, Bestseller and Primark. “We are far from your home in Spain, but we feel a certain closeness to you, having spent most of our adult life doing the clothes with our hands,” they explained in a statement. Although they recognize that they have the hope that Amancio Ortega’s “good name” is not a fraud, the letter maintains an ironic tone at all times:

They say they feel "hopeful" when they know he's the sixth richest man in the world, with a fortune of 70.6 billion dollars. In his opinion, it is "reassuring" to know that Ortega's private aircraft, which is worth 45 million dollars, can pay 41,000 times the annual salaries in his factory. And that is that a man with those riches "doesn't need to exploit our unions with a global pandemic."

Union repression

The health, safety and well-being of workers are not of concern at the Huabo Times and Rui-Ning plants. The workers report that at the beginning of the epidemic "the same pace of work was maintained", although the management of the factories did not implement safety measures, did not distribute masks, nor did it guarantee the distances between positions. They denounce that the leadership "has taken advantage of the pandemic" to destroy trade unions, including the dismissal of trade unionists. These anti-union practices also refer to the right to protest. Thus, the authorities have imposed harsh sanctions on the gathering of more than five people, which makes the protests extremely difficult. As a result, trade union representatives have been arrested on severe charges. Another factory called Myan Mode, which produces for Inditex and Mango, for example,

On 28 March, he dismissed 571 of the 1,270 workers, on the pretext of the coronavirus cuts. Of these, 520 were affiliated to the plant, according to the Ropa Limpia campaign, which works in Madrid.

Justifications for deliveries

The Administration has justified its actions, using the coronavirus and the economic consequences as an excuse. “But how can this lead to dismissing union members and, at the same time, to unsyndicated workers continuing in their jobs? they asked in the letter. In Huabe, a hundred workers have been laid off, shortly after registration of the union, claiming that "it was better to maintain the social distance". But the figures speak for themselves, as, among them, 81 workers from the union were workers of the company. Four days after these dismissals, the management transferred 200 workers who were not in the union to another work centre. In addition, workers have denounced that their union leader, Rui-Ning, has been stabbed while at the center of the campaign to prevent 298 affiliate layoffs.

Necessity

"We need our unions, we need our collective voice to ensure that at an unprecedented time worldwide we are heard when we express our concerns about our rights, our health and our security," he added. Workers have warned that in factories they earn three euros a day, while in plants they are higher. As if that were not enough, they have no savings. They have children to feed, sick parents and bills. "This situation frightens us," they acknowledged.

Racism

In addition, the workers of Rui-Ning and Huabo Times have recalled messages disseminated by social media around the Zarak Black Lives Matter protests. As non-white workers in Southeast Asia, they are “intensely” grateful for their public commitment to racial equality. Surely, those who have these anti-racist principles “would never accept cruel treatment against black and brown workers who make clothes”, for European workers “in conditions that would never be admitted”.

Cover

Since the Clean Clothes campaign, all brands have been called upon to take "preventive measures" against the black lists of workers. "Brands must take all necessary measures to prevent suppliers from using the pandemic as a cover for union repression," the campaign's drivers explained.