Central America Project (CAmP)

The Central America Project seeks to develop mechanisms and tools that will produce measurable improvements in workplace conditions in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, particularly with regard to issues involving discrimination, harassment and abuse, and freedom of association in the apparel assembly or maquila sector.

The FLA is seeking to establish these tools in a manner that will ensure their continued usability beyond the lifetime of the project. Several Participating Companies (PCs) are collaborating with the FLA on this project, including adidas-Salomon, Eddie Bauer, Gildan, Liz Claiborne, Nike, Phillips-Van Heusen, and Reebok as well as trade associations such as VESTEX (Guatemala) and ministries of labor in the region. The project is funded by the FLA and with a grant from the U.S. State Department.

The Project Coordinator worked with multiple stakeholders to develop Guidelines for Good Practice in Hiring, Termination, Discipline, and Grievance Procedures (in Spanish) that guard against discrimination and harassment and abuse and promote respect for freedom of association. The coordinator made the guidelines available to zone authorities, participating factories, Ministry of Labor personnel, and staff from the Participating Companies (PCs), and trained zone authorities and company staff on how to incorporate the guidelines into their activities. The objective of the project is to create awareness among factory management teams of the benefits of positive labor relations and an understanding on the part of zone and government officials of the potential long-term benefits of providing a factory base close to the U.S. that has a demonstrable commitment to improved workplace conditions.

In addition, an ombudsman was hired, under an arrangement with the Worker Rights Consortium, to receive, process, investigate, and help remediate complaints brought forth by workers and others, particularly with regard to systematic barriers to freedom of association, such as blacklisting. In Guatemala, requests for training administered by the FLA Project Coordinator have come from the labor inspectorate within the Ministry of Labor, including the specific unit that covers the maquila sector, and Vestex (the apparel exporters association in Guatemala.) A request for training has also come from the free trade zone authority in the Dominican Republic (a country not covered by the project.)