Solidarity Actions Needed: Tell U.S. Company, Delta Apparel to Give 25 Injured Honduran Workers Their Jobs Back!!
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May Day March 2017. Paper sign to the right reads “Male and female workers demand that Delta Apparel Honduras give us our jobs back.” Photo credit: CODEMUH
Between April 5-7th, 2017, U.S.-based Delta Apparel fired over 40 workers that suffer from crippling musculoskeletal injuries, from their factory in Villanueva, Cortés, Honduras. Most have worked with the company for over 10 years. 25 of the 40 workers have refused to accept any settlements and are demanding that Delta Apparel give them their jobs back.
Without their jobs, the injured workers lose their health coverage and cannot access needed medical benefits and treatments, including operations, medicines, and rehab. Since they were fired, CODEMUH, The Honduran Women’s Collective, and the workers have organized protests outside of Delta’s factory. Delta Apparel needs to hear from you!
The 25 workers - 22 women and three men – have received medical diagnoses that demonstrate that their injuries have been largely caused by the repetitive assembly line work in the factories. Honduran law requires that Delta relocate injured workers inside the factory in order to reduce the risk factors that caused the injuries. Delta refused to do this. Instead they fired the workers, using their injuries and diagnoses as the justification! Honduran law is weakly enforced because foreign companies are very powerful and the government is corrupt. That’s why Delta Apparel needs to hear from workers and consumers in the U.S.
CODEMUH and the 25 recently fired employees are requesting that international organizations and individuals, send letters, email, call, tweet and Facebook the Delta Apparel’s U.S. headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina. It is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.
Call, tweet, facebook, and write Delta Apparel and demand:
1. That Delta Apparently reinstate the 25 fired workers, without conditions and without delay.
2. That the company abide by Honduran law, and relocate the 25 workers to positions in the factories and that they stop exposing their workers to the risk factors that cause these injuries in the first place.
CONTACT INFO:
Delta Apparel, Corporate Headquarters: 322 South Main Street, Greenville, South Carolina 29601,
Tel: 864-232-5200, Email: investor.relations@deltaapparel.com
Twitter: @DeltaApparel; Facebook: Delta Apparel
Write the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa (SmithJA6@state.gov) and insist that they follow-up with Delta Apparel and the Honduran government to ensure the workers’ voices are heard.
In all communications, please send a copy to CODEMUH at mujeresfem@codemuh.hn. Also demonstrate your solidarity for the workers on CODEMUH’s facebook (Codemuh Codemuh)
SAMPLE LETTER
May 8, 2017
Dear CEO and President Robert W. Humphreys,
It has come to our attention that Delta Apparel fired over 40 Honduran employees in early April 2017 from their Delta Apparel Honduras factory in Villanueva, Cortes. Of the 40 fired employees, 25 workers – 22 women and 3 men – are demanding that Delta Apparel give them their jobs back. All 25 workers are injured with work-related injuries like musculoskeletal disorders, as diagnosed by the Honduran Social Security Institute (IHSS), Without their jobs, they cannot access the expensive and specialized medical treatment they need for their injuries.
Delta Apparel knows that these workers are injured, but it simply wants to rid itself of a problem that the conditions in their own factory created! Delta justified firing the workers because of the diagnoses that the workers have been given by the IHSS, but the law is very clear: Delta is legally required to relocate the workers inside the factory in order to reduce the physical stress and risk factors that caused their injuries in the first place. However, Delta has refused in various hearings held by the Honduran Ministry of Labor to reinstate the 25 workers in jobs appropriate for their health conditions. We demand that their voices be heard!
All fired employees have worked with the company for between 10-19 years, and all require immediate and specialized medical assistance as a result of the injuries they have developed on Delta’s assembly lines. The 25 employees should not be thrown away like a used and broken machine. They want their jobs back, and they need their jobs back so that they can continue to receive medical coverage through the Social Security Institute for the damage Delta Apparel has done to their bodies while working for them.
We demand that Delta Apparel abide by Honduran law and act as the “socially responsible” company it claims to be! Give the 25 workers their jobs back, without delay or conditions, and relocate them inside the factory to jobs where they are no longer at risk of further injury at no reduction in pay!
Sincerely,
Your Name
Cc: Jason Smith, Human Rights and Labor Representative, US Embassy in Tegucigalpa; SmithJA6@state.gov; CODEMUH, mujeresfem@codemuh.hn; Honduras Solidarity Network, honsolnetwork@gmail.com;