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Victoria’s Secrets Exposed

Clover Group International, a Hong Kong based lingerie company, shut down its Gina Form Bra factory in Thailand on October 20. Workers were locked in the factory while police and military personnel stood by. They were pressured to sign “voluntary” resignation letters accepting lower severance pay than legally mandated. Sixteen hundred Gina workers formed the Gina Relations Workers Union (GRWU) in 2003; now they could be out of a job.

Clover Group produces for brands such as Limited, which owns Victoria’s Secret and Express; Gap; and Calvin Klein. Just before the factory closure, the GRWU won wage increases, production bonuses, paid union leave, lunch benefits, and ongoing monitoring of the factory’s health and safety conditions.

Clover Group claims that “price pressure” makes it impossible to keep this factory open; it also claims that the Gina factory is more costly because of the union’s success at eliminating sweatshop conditions.

GRWU has protested the factory closure outside the work site and inside the Clover Group building in Hong Kong. The Thai union received support from the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions. HKCTU’s chairman accompanied GRWU in negotiations with Clover Group in Hong Kong.

Over 800 marching protestors built a bra barricade on October 9 outside the U.S. embassy in Thailand. It was the first major demonstration since the Thai army staged a coup against the government on September 19.

Tell Limited Brands to keep the unionized Gina Form Bra factory in Thailand open. Demand that they publicly denounce union discrimination and intimidation. Call Limited Vice President Bruce Soll at 614/415-7191 and Limited President and CEO Leslie Wexner at 614/415-8000. You can also send a letter, demanding the plant remain open, to: Limited Brands, Three Limited Parkway, P.O. Box 16000, Columbus, OH 43216. Email
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Expiration Date:
Mon, 01/01/2007 - 12:00am