27 March, 2011
Organizing has always been a top priority of unions, requiring significant effort and resources to be successful. Particularly challenging is organizing workers in union hostile areas like Export Processing Zones (EPZs).
The IMF affiliate in Dominican Republic, Federación Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros y Metalúrgicos (FENATRAMIM), through the Federación Nacional de Trabajadores de Zonas Francas (FENATRAZONAS), is specialized in organizing at EPZs, also known locally as Zonas Francas.
When Gertrudis Santana, the national education secretary of FENATRAZONAS, first became active with her union, she was working at a shoe factory in one of the zonas francas of Dominican Republic. She became an organizer at the EPZ in San Pedro de Macoris. Soon Santana was responsible for organizing at other zonas francas, including both textile and electronics sectors.
“Initially,” explains Santana, “in the EPZs of the Dominican Republic one could see only textile factories present. Later on production of electronic chips also moved in and the metal sector became present through the use of gold in cloth manufacturing.”
Nowadays Santana does not organize workers directly; she is more involved in the political work within her union. As national secretary of education, she trains activists on issues of organizing. Her union constantly has to deal with challenges in organizing due to the problem of restricted access to workers.
“The working conditions in EPZs these days have changed,” continues Santana. “Before workers used to have fixed working hours, now they are paid for finished product. Despite claims that this will result in higher earnings, in practice workers’ income has shrunk and working hours have increased.”
From her experience Santana notes that in organizing at EPZs the organizing tactics and strategies in different industrial sectors are very similar as the conditions are often the same. However some of the sectors, like welding in metalworking, are notorious with health hazards, while in textiles it is much easier for an employer to change the location of an enterprise as in most cases the machines are rented.
“Freedom of association is still a dream for us,” says Santana, giving the example of the EPZ in San Pedro de Macoris, which is the largest electronics industry area in the Dominican Republic.
According to national legislation a union can be established with at least 25 workers. However the creation of a union is not the final goal, since these workers will achieve little at an enterprise employing thousands of workers. Instead the main goal is to form a union big enough to bargain collectively. The union’s current campaign, “Fuerte” (from Spanish “strong”), has organizers communicate with workers at factory gates, bus stops and also try to obtain their addresses in order to contact them at home and convince them to join the union.
The results of this work are promising: nine collective agreements were concluded by FENATRAMIM in EPZs, and considering that 50% plus one rule is an obligation for the union to start collective bargaining, this is a very serious achievement.