Print this Article

Daisy Fuentes Clothing Sewn in Guatemalan Sweatshop

The workers are seeking her help

June 18, 2007 a report by National Labor Committee & Center for the Study & Support of Local Development (CEADEL)

---

6/16/2007: Letter from Fribo workers to Daisy Fuentes

6/18/2007: Action Alert! Please help! Write a letter to Daisy Fuentes on behalf of the workers sewing her clothing label.

6/21/2007: Daisy Fuentes Workers in Honduras also in Crisis

6/21/2007: Fribo Worker Receives Death Threat for Exposing Violations

---

SUMMARY

Fribo Factory in Guatemala Abusive and Illegal Conditions Endured by Young Women Sewing Daisy Fuentes Garments & Other Labels

z Forced overtime: Routine daily shifts from 7:20 a.m. to 6:30 or 7:15 p.m. with workers toiling 60 hours or more a week. All overtime is mandatory.

z Cheated on overtime pay: Overtime hours are not properly recorded or paid for.

z Trapped in poverty: Ninety-cent minimum wage traps families in poverty, unable to meet school expenses for their children.

z Workers cheated of healthcare and pensions; women denied paid maternity leave and care for their children; injured and sick workers denied healthcare and fired without legal severance: For years, management has stolen the healthcare and pension fees deducted from workers wages. These fees were supposed to be transferred to the Guatemalan Institute for Social Security, but the workers and their children were left without access to healthcare, despite the fact that they paid for it. Pension monies have also been stolen. Workers injured on the job and those falling ill not only fail to receive proper healthcare, but will be fired without the severance pay legally due them. z Constant pressure and abuse: Women especially endure constant abuse and humiliation, as management curses and shouts at them every day to work faster at completing their excessive mandatory production targets. Grown women are brought to tears under these conditions. z Paid 25 cents for each Daisy Fuentes blouse: Workers are paid just 25 cents for each $22 to $38 Daisy Fuentes blouse they sew, meaning their wages amount to one percent or less of the retail price of the garment. z Exit doors locked: Three exit doors at the Fribo factory are kept locked. z Hot, noisy and dusty: The factory is hot, noisy and the air is heavy with fabric dust due to inadequate ventilation. z Filthy drinking water: Access to clean drinking water is limited, regularly leaving the workers with only contaminated water to drink, which often makes them sick. z Dirty bathrooms lacking toilet paper: The bathrooms are filthy, lacking toilet paper or soap. Anyone spending more than five minutes away from their work station will be punished. z Workers physically searched four times a day: Guards search the workers to take candy, cell phones or even medicine away from them, and to check that they are not leaving with scraps of fabric. z Talking prohibited: Talking during working hours is strictly prohibited. z Eating lunch sitting on the factory floor: There is no cafeteria space in the factory, leaving the workers with just two options—they can take their lunch sitting on the factory floor, or go outside to sit in the dirt along the side of the road. z Fined six hours’ wages for arriving five minutes late: The workers can be fined the equivalent of six hours’ wages as punishment for arriving five minutes late in the morning. Workers who misplace their ID cards can lose two days’ wages. z Corporate monitoring is a joke: Before North American visitors arrive, the factory is cleaned, purified drinking water is provided in abundance, along with soap and toilet paper. Workers are coached and instructed to lie to the auditors. Worker interviews are conducted in front of management. Every worker knows that if they speak the truth about abusive conditions in the factory, they will be immediately fired. z Workers are terrified, with nowhere to turn: The legal right to organize does not exist at the Fribo factory. It is impossible for the workers even to discuss organizing a union. The workers are in a trap, suffering the constant violations, but with nowhere to turn, since they and their families desperately need these jobs. The workers exist in a constant state of terror, afraid to speak out lest they be fired. z Headaches, sore throats and back pain: At the end of the long shift, workers complain of headaches due to the heat and constant pressure, sore throats from the fabric's dust, and arm, leg and back pain due to the furious pace of the work done while sitting 12 hours on hard wooden benches with no backs or cushions. z A group of Fribo workers have written a letter to Daisy Fuentes to ask her help in ending the abuses at the factory. Letter from workers to Daisy Fuentes.

Fribo S.A. Kilometer 36.6 Carretera Interamericana Santa Maria Cauque, Santiago Sacatepequez Guatemala

Phone: (502) 787-93561 (502) 787-93563 Fax: (502) 787-93559

Ownership: Korean Manager: Yook Ryan Ha Legal Representative: Mynor Daniel Garcia Salazar Email: [email protected]

Number of workers: Currently there are approximately 500 workers in the plant, 70 percent of whom are young women, 20 to 30 years of age. There are also many 16 and 17-year-old minors working at the plant.

The factory was opened in 1999 under the name Modas Cocos S.A.

Labels:

Currently (June 2007) the Fribo factory is producing garments for the following labels:

z Daisy Fuentes: Women’s blouse. The Daisy Fuentes label has been sewn at the Fribo factory for at least two years, beginning in 2005. The label is produced year round, with breaks of at most two or three weeks between styles. Each style run is between 40,000 and 80,000 units. Workers estimate that Daisy Fuentes production accounts for 13 to 38 percent of total factory output. Daisy Fuentes is a private label sold exclusively at Kohl’s. z Wet Seal: Women’s “baby-doll cami” and t- shirt pullovers.

z Filia: T-shirts with and without sleeves and a blouse with hood and sleeves.

z Recently the Maurice’s label was also produced at Fribo—a basic t-shirt. (Maurice’s is owned by Dress Barn.) z In the past, the Fribo factory has also produced garments for One Step Up, Pretty Girl (Trends Sportswear Ltd.), Paul Gottlieb & Company and Ikeddi Enterprises Inc.

Daisy Fuentes – Actress and Model

Daisy Fuentes was born in Cuba, but moved with her family to Harrison, New Jersey when she was seven years old. Ms. Fuentes graduated from Harrison High School and studied at Bergen Community College.

After a stint at Telemundo, Ms. Fuentes became a rising star at MTV. She also appeared in the ABC soap opera Loving. Ms. Fuentes has hosted America’s Funniest Home Videos, as well as the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, and Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve.

Ms. Fuentes received the Human Spirit Award from the Los Angeles’ Wellness Community for her work spreading breast cancer awareness, especially in the Latino community.

Daisy Fuentes and Kohl’s

On January 29, 2004, Kohl’s announced its plan to launch and hold exclusive rights to a new fashion line of women’s clothing produced under the Daisy Fuentes label. Mr. Fuentes would oversee the development of the fashions.

According to Kohl’s Corporation news release: “Daisy Fuentes has strong name recognition among Kohl’s female shoppers and our research shows that she appeals to a broad cross-section of Kohl’s shoppers.”

In the same press release, Daisy Fuentes is quoted as saying, “When you’re looking great, chances are you’re feeling great about who you are. My new line consists of modern options that make looking stylish simple.” According to Kohl’s, “The clothing line is being licensed and manufactured by New York-based Regatta USA.”

Kohl’s described itself as a “family-focused, value-oriented specialty department store.”

Shipping data based on U.S. Customs documents show several shipments in October 2006 from the Fribo factory to the New York City-based, Regatta company, which licenses and manufactures the Daisy Fuentes label. In just a two week period, from October 4 to 18, Regatta imported $219,500-worth of women’s blouses from the Fribo factory.

Company Contact Information:

Kohl’s Department Stores Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin Media contact: Vicki Shamion, Director of Public Relations: (262) 703- NEWS

Regatta 1450 Broadway, 21st Floor New York, NY 10018 Media contact: Marisa Inzucchi: (212) 840-5600 ext. 223

Daisy Fuentes Media contact: Kim Jakwerth: (212) 620-3126

Contacts for Wet Seal, Filia, Maurice’s

Wet Seal, Inc. 26972 Burbank Foothill Ranch, California 92610 Phone: (866) SHOP WET SEAL Email: [email protected]

Maurices Incorporated (Owned by Dress Barn) David Jaffe, CEO Dress Barn, Inc. 30 Dunnigan Drive Suffern, NY 10901 Phone: (845) 369-4500 Fax: (845) 369-4625

Filia Fabrics Inc. 5383 Alcoa Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90058 Phone: (323) 581-1800

Abusive and Illegal Conditions at the Fribo Factory Hours:

z Mandatory overtime; z Routine daily shift from 7:20 a.m. to 6:30 or 7:15 p.m (11.16 to 11.92 hours); z Workers are routinely at the factory 61 ½ hours a week and up to 66 ½ hours. z The workers are certain that their overtime hours are not correctly recorded and paid; z Workers arriving five minutes late can be punished with the loss of six hours’ pay.

The workers sign a contract stipulating that the regular workweek will be eight hours a day and 44 hours a week. However, overtime is mandatory—which is illegal—and the workweek is routinely 60 hours or more.

Working Hours Monday to Friday

7:20 a.m. – 12:00 noon (Work, 4.66 hours) 12:00 noon – 12:30 p.m. (Lunch, ½ hour) 12:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (Work, 3 ½ hours) 4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (Overtime, 2 ½ hours)

Saturday Hours

7:20 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (Work, 5.66 hours)

This schedule puts the workers at the factory 11.16 hours a day during the week and 5.66 hours on Saturday for a total of 61.46 hours. Given the half hour lunch break, this means the workers are toiling 59 hours a week, which includes 14 to 15 hours of overtime. (The legal, regular workweek is 45 hours, but the contract the workers sign with the factory is for a 44-hour regular workweek.)

Fribo workers eating lunch outside the factory.

All overtime is mandatory, and workers cannot leave until their daily production goal is met. It is not uncommon for the workers to be kept until 7:15 p.m., or an additional 45 minutes. If this happens five days a week, it adds another 3 ¾ hours of overtime, bringing the weekly total to 17 ¾ to 18 ¾ hours of overtime. Occasionally, the workers are required to work a 14.66-hour shift, from 7:20 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. This might happen a minimum of once every two weeks, adding another 1.33 hours of overtime and bringing the weekly total to 19 to 20 hours. This means that at the extreme, the workers could be forced to toil up to 65 hours a week. Early in June, workers—we believe sewing Daisy Fuentes blouses—were kept till 1:00 a.m., forced to put in a 17.3-hour shift.

The workers are given a 20 Quetzals bonus ($2.66) every 15 days for beginning work at 7:20 a.m. On the other hand, if they arrive even five minutes late, they can be punished with a fine of 40 Quetzals ($5.33), which is the equivalent of losing nearly six hours’ wages.

Wages:

z Minimum wage of 90 cents an hour ($7.22 a day); z Workers are certain that their overtime hours are not correctly recorded and paid.

Legal Minimum Wage in Guatemala

The legal minimum wage in Guatemala is 90 cents an hour, or $7.22 a day. However, it is traditional in Central America to also pay the Seventh Day, which functions as a sort of attendance bonus. If a worker always arrives punctually and does not miss a day, he or she will be paid for seven days. This will bring the wage to $1.12 an hour. Of course, if they are late or miss a day during the two week pay period they will lose the Seventh Day's pay.

Minimum Wage Plus Seventh Day’s Pay

$1.12 an hour $8.96 a day (8 hours) $50.54 a week (six days; 45 hours) $216.61 a month

Overtime must be paid at a 50 percent premium over the minimum wage of 90 cents an hour—i.e. $1.35 an hour.

The workers report earning 940 to 1,105 Quetzals ($125.33 to $147.33) per 15-day pay period, which includes all overtime and bonuses. This is equivalent to $62.67 to $73.66 per week. It would appear that some workers are definitely being shortchanged of overtime hours and the pay legally due them. The workers are demanding a clear accounting, recording all overtime hours they work, and the rate at which they are being paid.

Company Robs Workers of their Healthcare and Old Age Pensions

It is mandatory in Guatemala for companies to pay into the Guatemalan Institute of Social Security (IGSS), which covers healthcare and pensions. In this regard, Fribo deducts 4.25 percent of the workers’ wages—approximately 35 to 44 Quetzals ($4.80 to $5.87)—each fifteen-day period, which should be transferred to the government’s Social Security Institute. Fribo management fails to do this, which is blatantly illegal, robbing the poor workers of their wage deductions. This means that despite the fact that they pay for it, the workers and their children have no access to healthcare. On top of that, they are also being robbed of their old age pensions. Many workers have lost years of healthcare and pension contributions due to management corruption. It is also very disturbing that over the years the Ministry of Labor has evidently been powerless to bring the Fribo factory into compliance with Guatemalan law. Robbing the workers of their healthcare and pensions has had some tragic consequences: mothers and children going without healthcare and denied paid maternity leave; injured and sick workers denied care and fired without their severance pay.

Sewing machine operator For the 15-day period, this worker earned $123.50, or about $9.50 a day, given the two Sunday holidays. Note the Q40.66 ($5.42) which is deducted from the worker’s wages but not transferred to the IGSS national healthcare and pension fund. The Fribo factory management robs the workers, and also leaves them and their children without healthcare. This is grossly illegal, but has gone on for years with no intervention or enforcement by the Ministry of Labor. Sewing machine operator For the 15-day period, this worker earned $120.42, or about $9.26 a day, given the two Sundays off. Note also the Q39.55 deducted from the worker’s wage, which were not transferred to the IGSS national healthcare and pension fund.

Constant Abuse: Workers told, “You’re Shit”

Especially for the women workers, treatment at the factory is very bad. It is a daily course of humiliation, curses, threats, crude and nasty attacks. The worst offender is a male supervisor named Ceasar. He is constantly shouting and cursing at the women, yelling, “You are shit....You have shit for brains...You’re too old...Hurry up you animals...You don’t know how to use your brain...You’re an idiot.”

One woman described their treatment in the following way: “When you start work, they tell you things because they know you need the work. They say to us, we’re animals, idiots, that we have shit for brains, and that we are good for nothing.”

Grown women are often brought to tears.

Filthy Drinking Water:

Fribo management even cheats the workers of clean drinking water. The factory can get very hot, and since the workers are sweating, they need to drink. But when the water cooler runs dry, management replaces the filtered water with water from an open, unprotected cistern, which is dirty and polluted. Workers can either drink the cistern water (and get sick) or they have to buy clean water from a nearby stand.

Dirty Bathrooms:

Bathrooms lack toilet paper and soap, which is a serious problem given that the unsafe water often causes diarrhea among the workers. Workers can be away from their work stations for just five minutes, and anyone spending longer in the bathroom will be punished.

Excessive heat and air thick with fabric dust:

Despite four ventilation fans, temperatures inside the Fribo factory remain excessively hot and the air is thick with fabric dust. According to the workers, three emergency exit doors are always locked, as are two small windows. Exposed overhead lamps, hanging just 20 inches over the workers heads—combine with the heat from the sewing machines and vapor from the pressing department to raise temperatures.

Eating on the ground:

As noted, the workers receive just a half hour lunch break. There is no cafeteria in the factory, nor any free table or chairs, which leaves the workers eating their lunch either sitting on the factory floor or outside in the dirt alongside the road. Fribo is located next to a poultry plant and the workers complain of the horrible stench as they attempt to eat.

Workers Paid just 25 cents for each Daisy Fuentes shirt they sew

Workers are allowed just 13 minutes to complete each blouse. Wages amount to one percent or less of the garment's retail price.

Each assembly line is assigned a mandatory daily production goal by management, and the workers cannot leave until the goal is met. In the case of one Daisy Fuentes blouse, an assembly line of 35 to 40 sewing operators must complete 1,800 blouses during the 10 ½ hour shift, working from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with a half hour off for lunch. Each hour, the assembly line must complete 171.43 blouses— or 4.57 shirts per hour per worker, which means that the workers are allowed just 13.13 minutes to sew a blouse. As we have seen, if the workers receive the Seventh Day’s pay, they can earn $1.12 per hour. The 13.13 minutes allotted to sew a blouse would amount to being paid just 25 cents for each completed shirt.

(1,800 blouses divided by 10.5 hours = 171.43 blouses per hour. 171.43 blouses divided by an average of 37.5 sewing operators on a line = 4.57 blouses per worker per hour. Sixty minutes per hour divided by 4.57 blouses = 1 blouse each 13.13 minutes. Thirteen minutes = 22% of an hour. 0.22 x $1.12 = 25 cents per blouse.)

In fact, the 25 cents in wages the workers receive to sew each Daisy Fuentes blouse amounts to just one percent or less of the $22 to $38 retail price of the garment. So, clearly there is enough money in hand to assure that the legal rights of the workers are respected.

Corporate Factory Audits Fail Miserably—Again

Audits of the Fribo factory by Kohl’s and the other companies involved have failed to uncover even the grossest of violations. How could the Kohl’s auditors monitoring Daisy Fuentes production fail to notice that—in broad daylight and over the course of years—factory management has been robbing from the workers’ wages money that was supposed to be transferred to the Guatemalan Social Security Institute? Not only did management rob the workers of their hard-earned pay, but it left them and their children without access to healthcare. The workers were also cheated of their pension funds.

The workers know that the audits by Kohl’s and other companies are carried out merely for formality’s sake and are largely a joke.

Here’s how the workers described the auditing process at the Fribo factory:

“We see some Gringos coming to the factory from time to time, when new styles are coming into production. They come to check the garments. They never speak with us. Before they show up, management puts up a first-aid kit, the bathrooms are cleaned, they put toilet paper out, and clean bottled water is everywhere. The Koreans give us advice on what to say if the Gringos ask something. A group of workers they have prepared are taken to speak with the visitors.

“Once they go away, the mess comes back; they take away the toilet paper, and all the rest.

“The truth is we don’t know what a code of conduct is. The company says it fulfills the labor laws and the internal rules of the company, that they pay our full wages—and they have some of this posted on the walls—but they act in a different way.”

Corporate auditors meet with the chosen workers in a conference room inside the factory. During the meeting, Fribo’s general manager, the chief of personnel and the legal representative all present. The workers know they must lie and, if asked, agree that the factory complies with all the laws—that overtime is voluntary, limited and paid correctly; that the bathrooms and clean, and drinking water purified. Anyone daring to speak the truth would be immediately fired, mostly likely without receiving their back wages or severance pay.

Individual Cases:

Workers robbed of the healthcare fees deducted from their wages, denied medical care, fired, and then cheated again of the back wages and severance pay legally due them z Efrain Vasquez Nolasco was injured on March 14, 2007.

“I worked as a sewing operator at Fribo S.A. The machines are in bad shape, sometimes they repair them and sometimes not.—That’s why my accident happened. In my case, it was a piece of metal that came into my eye. We beg them to change the machines, buy a new machine, but they tell us that we have to work with the machines we have.”

When his sewing machine broke, it projected a small piece of metal, which pierced his right eye. Efrain immediately went to the Social Security hospital for treatment, but was informed that he would have to return with the Social Security work certificate from his factory.

“The next day, I showed up at the factory early, at the same time as everyone starts working, and went immediately to the office to ask for the certificate. They answered me: ‘Well, we’re sorry, but we cannot give it to you!’ I told them it wasn’t possible, as they have been deducting the Social Security fees from my wages for the last two years. Then they told me that the problem was that the factory was not affiliated with Social Security, so we can’t send you there. I told them that I needed my sight back in my right eye and that I needed to go to a hospital. They told me they couldn’t help, but would give me Q300 [$40]. I went to an ophthalmologist’s office where they put liquids in my eye and told me I would need an operation.”

Efrain then went to the public hospital (which services the poor) and had an operation on March 18. Four days later he was told he would need a second surgery in a private hospital, but would have to pay for it.

“It went to the company and to the Ministry of Labor, which said they couldn’t do anything.

“The doctor who examined me said I can’t go back to work with my eye as it is. I have his letter to the company, but they said nothing. They don’t want to pay me for all this time I’ve missed since March.”

Efrain explains that it is not his fault that he did not receive the proper medical care that would allow him to return to work. Rather, he could not work because management stole the Social Security fees which had been deducted from his pay for the last two years.

To date, Efrain is still owed the at least $642 in wages due him since his work injury, nor has he received any severance pay. He also needs a second operation. z Maria Clara Sebaquipay Zic started working at Fribo as a sewing operator on November 8, 2004.

“When I knew I was pregnant, I was three months along and went immediately to ask management for the [IGSS] certification, but they didn’t give it to me. They told me to come the next day, but then they shifted the date all the time. But I was insistent and I went a lot of times to the office. Finally, they gave me the certificate four and a half months later, when I was already seven and a half months pregnant.”

At the Social Security hospital, they told Maria Clara that she would have to stop working immediately and go on maternity leave, as her probable delivery date would be March 3, 2007. To get her paid maternity leave, all she had to do was present the updated monthly Social Security certificate, which she never received from the company. Without the IGSS certificate, she lost her paid maternity leave.

“The baby is almost three months and I’m going back and forth to the company asking for my certificate, and they treat me like a toy. So I got desperate and went to the Labor Inspector’s Office.”

The Labor Inspector, Julio Ricardo Castellanos Paz, confirmed that Maria Clara had not received the maternity leave because the “company is not up to date with their payments to the Social Security fund” and ordered the Fribo company to pay Maria Clara what she is owed due to the company’s negligence.

Fribo’s legal representative, Mynor Daniel Garcia Salazar, offered her Q3,848.88 ($513.18) to be paid in five installments. Maria Clara felt she had to accept the offer. However, to date, Maria Clara has received just one payment of Q770 ($102.66) out of the total owed to her.

After repeated efforts to enter the factory to request her money—sometimes she is kept waiting three hours or given no response at all—Maria Clara fears she will again be cheated of the maternity leave money due her, and that she not receive any of the severance pay legally due her. z Carmelina López Gonzales started working in the Fribo factory as an inspector on March 7, 2006.

“I felt really bad on Thursday, March 15, 2007, and I worked the whole day with a fever. But I didn’t say anything, because at Fribo they never give any medicine, not even a pill. The next day, I was really very bad, and the fever was worse, so I went to Social Security. They asked me for my work certificate from the Fribo factory, so I went to the factory, but the secretary told me they did not have one, telling me to come back on Monday, March 20. But I was hospitalized in the San Francisco from the 16th to the 21st of March. I had bronchial pneumonia and a serious urinary infection.

“When I got out of the hospital I went to Fribo to ask for the IGSS certificate and the secretary again told me that they didn’t have one, but during the week she would get me one. I urged her to give me the certificate because I had signed a document with San Francisco hospital for 3,000 Quetzals ($400), which I had to pay from my pocket if I didn’t receive the Fribo IGSS certificate. I asked the secretary why they were denying the document if they were deducting the IGSS from us.

“So I decided to go to the Labor Inspection to ask why I hadn’t received my health certificate and the Labor Inspection contacted Fribo. So the next time I went to the factory the secretary shouted at me: Never do that! They just paid the fortnight on Friday and didn’t let me into the factory. They asked me to leave the office. I stood 1 1/2 hours outside the factory waiting for my money.

“I asked for my severance, but they told me: Your work is there, waiting for you. But they didn’t let me into the factory. They took me out of the cue of workers and said to me that I had to speak with the manager, but the manager only looked at me and rapidly went back into the factory.

“So I went to the Labor Inspection of the Ministry.”

There was a meeting was on April 11, 2007 before the Labor Inspector, Julio Ricardo Castellanos Paz. The workers confirmed that after Carmelina López was sick in March she was not allowed to enter Fribo anymore. However, Fribo legal representative Mynor Daniel Garcia Salazar claimed that she “abandoned her job” because when she came to the factory on January 21, the company said she had to work that day, but she said she had to receive her IGSS certificate to take to the IGSS. The Labor Inspector concluded that as the two parties were in conflict and could not reach an agreement, the case was closed and the worker was invited to use the labor courts, giving her 30 days to do so.

The company still owes Carmelina somewhere between Q4,600 and 5,600 ($613.33 to $746.66).

Fribo Workers’ Demands

The demands of the Fribo workers are very modest, and in full compliance with Guatemalan labor law.

1.) Fribo management must stop stealing the health care and pension fees deducted from the workers’ wages and must finally transfer the money to the Guatemalan Social Security Institute. For years, management has robbed the workers, leaving them and their children without healthcare despite the fact that the workers paid for it. Management should make a lump-sum payment to each worker, returning the healthcare and pension fees they misappropriated.

2.) All overtime hours must be properly recorded and paid according to the law. An independent review should be undertaken with the help of the CEADEL (Center for the Study and Support of Local Development), and back wages due the workers should be immediately paid.

3.) A small clinic should be established at the factory, with a part-time doctor and full-time nurse so that basic medicines and first aid will always be available to the workers. This is especially urgent in that Fribo is a large factory with approximately 500 workers.

4.) All abusive treatment—including shouting, cursing and other humiliating treatment, must immediately cease—especially on the part of the supervisor named Ceasar. All workers must be treated with respect and according to Guatemalan law.

5.) Sufficient clean drinking water must always be available in the factory, and the bathrooms should be cleaned and supplied with toilet paper and soap.

6.) Legal severance payments must be made to workers who have lost their jobs at Fribo due to maternity leave, work injuries or illness. Specifically, Efrain Vasquez Nolasco, Maria Clara Sebaquijay Zil, and Carmelina López Gonzalez must be made whole again and paid the back wages, severance, and health costs due them.

7.) The workers want the respected local nongovernmental organization CEADEL (Center for the Study and Support of Local Development) to have unimpeded access to the Fribo factory to help monitor working conditions and to guarantee full compliance with Guatemalan labor law. This is especially urgent given the gross failure of corporate monitoring, as well as the Labor Ministry’s apparent inability to compel Fribo management to comply with the law.

8.) The reign of terror must end at the Fribo factory so that workers can have a voice, and no longer fear that they will be summarily fired for daring to discuss even their most basic rights. Management must acknowledge that under Guatemalan law and the UN/ILO’s internationally recognized worker rights standards, Fribo workers have the right to organize.

9.) Fribo’s U.S. buyers must not cut and run and pull production from the factory, which would only harm the workers more. The workers have already suffered enough. They and their families desperately need and depend upon these jobs. The companies should keep their production in the factory while working with management to clean up the plant and assure that the legal rights of the workers are finally respected. If this is done, it could be a win-win situation for everyone involved—the U.S. companies, the Guatemalan workers, the U.S. consumers, and the Fribo factory itself.

Contact Information for CEADEL:

Centro de Estudios y Apoyo al Desarrollo Local (CEADEL) Center for Study and Support of Local Development 1 Av. 4-76 Zona 4 De la antigua terminal 2 cuadras al sur sobre ruta internacional Chimaltenango, Guatemala

Phone: (502) 2424-6122 Fax: (502) 7839 3349

Gabriel Zelada Ortiz, director Gladys Marroquin, assistant director

ATTACHMENTS:

Letter from the Fribo workers to Daisy Fuentes, June 16, 2007.

NLC interview with a Daisy Fuentes worker in Guatemala, June 16, 2007.

Shipping Record: October shipment of women’s blouses from Fribo to Regatta.

Diagram of the Daisy Fuentes shirts Fribo workers are currently making.

Daisy Fuentes Tops made in Guatemala.

Wet Seal Top Styles identified by Fribo workers as having been produced in the factory.