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The
Canadian government's involvement in the ongoing United Nations' military
occupation of Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, is
not confined to picking up the slack of its imperial allies, and it is
certainly not about humanitarian aid.
But it is at least partly about fostering conditions conducive to
Canadian corporate profiteering.
A case
in point is Gildan Activewear, the Montreal-based textile giant which
produces t-shirts and socks in several 'cheap labour' regions of the
South, including Haiti and Honduras.
In
Haiti, Gildan has a sub-contracting relationship with Alpha Industries,
owned by the notorious Haitian-American sweatshop owner Andre Apaid Jr.,
a prominent player in the 2004 coup that overthrew (with Ottawa's help)
democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
The 2007
annual report of Gildan Activewear, released on December 20, reports that
its sales have doubled in the last four years, reaching $964 million in
2007. Net profits (earnings) were
$130 million in 2007.
Gildan
was recently added to the S&P / TSX 60 group of companies, a stable
of large Canadian firms that is an automatic stock selection for many
mutual funds, pension funds, banks and other big investors.
While
Gildan has closed plants and laid off workers in Quebec, it is expanding
its sewing facilities in Central America and the Caribbean. According to its annual report, the
company benefits
directly from international
trade agreements, including NAFTA, CAFTA-DR, and the highly-touted “HOPE”
agreement (Haitian Hemispheric Opportunities for Partnership
Encouragement Act). It boasts of
having situated production facilities in “strategic locations” from which
to “take advantage
of these trade liberalization measures.”
The
report refers to “the income generated from its global activities being subject to relatively low
income tax rates”. Indeed, cheap
labour and low taxes do help to account for Gildan's high profit rates and
its 20 per cent return on equity over the past 7 years, including a
whopping 24 per cent in 2007.
Following the 2004 coup in
Haiti, Gildan announced the establishment of a new production facility
there. As reported in its
end-of-year report that year, “Our new hubs in Dominican Republic/ Haiti
and Nicaragua are expected to have even lower cost structures than
Honduras.”
CEO Glenn Chamandy insists
that such “lower cost structures” (based on the lower cost wages of Haiti
and Nicaragua) do not conflict with his company being “totally committed
to maintaining excellent working conditions” in Gildan facilities, and to
“enhancing the quality of life in the communities in which we operate.”
We can't help but wonder
whether 'quality of life' includes democracy and Haitian national
sovereignty? Gildan's annual
report doesn't say.
(All
Gildan Activewear Annual Reports, press releases, and other materials are
posted to their website at: http://gildan.com Many thanks to Kevin Skerritt of
Canada-Haiti Action Network for his Gildan Report summary.)
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