Faremo International is a garment manufacturer that employs close to 1,000 workers in the Philippines Cavite Export Processing Zone. This week it announced it was going to relocate to Vietnam and Cambodia. In the weeks prior, it had shifted most of its machinery out of the factory and had given a list of union members to other garment factories in the area so as to blacklist the best organisers. The workers in this factory had fought long and hard under harsh conditions to organise and win a collective agreement. This move by Faremo International once again shows how companies will use their global reach to undermine local groups of workers. Only by organising and taking co-ordinated action across countries can workers begin to challenge the power of these global companies.
Faremo International is a garment manufacturer that employs close to 1,000 workers in the Philippines Cavite Export Processing Zone. This week it announced it was going to relocate to Vietnam and Cambodia. In the weeks prior, it had shifted most of its machinery out of the factory and had given a list of union members to other garment factories in the area so as to blacklist the best organisers. The workers in this factory had fought long and hard under harsh conditions to organise and win a collective agreement. This move by Faremo International once again shows how companies will use their global reach to undermine local groups of workers. Only by organising and taking co-ordinated action across countries can workers begin to challenge the power of these global companies.
