LABOUR: Workers Condemn Middle East Free Trade ‘Model’

By Emad Mekay Reprint | | Print |

Emad Mekay

TAJAMUAT, Jordan, Jun 27 2003 (IPS) - A U.S. free trade initiative that provides Jordanian exports, which include mandatory input from Israel, to U.S. retailers is sliding into a sweatshop operation, say workers who complain about deteriorating health because of the poor conditions.

The Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs) programme, launched by Washington in 1998 as an economic dividend for Jordan’s peace agreement with Israel, gives products from the zones duty and quota free access to the U.S. market.

During a high-profile visit to the region earlier this week to explain the proposed U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Agreement (MEFTA), U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick both hailed the U.S.-Jordan-Israel deal as a model for the regional agreement that proposes to gather some 20 countries in one of the largest free trade zones in the world.

"Jordan is leading by example," said Zoellick during the World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings. "Jordan is now outpacing its neighbours ¡- and much of the world – by leveraging trade to create growth and opportunity."

According to U.S. regulations, products from Jordan must source at least eight percent of their content from an Israeli manufacturer to qualify for entry to the U.S. market. Buyers in the United States include Sears, Target, JC Penny, Wal Mart and K-Mart.

Many workers from some of the 25 factories interviewed by IPS at this 300,000 sq. km zone, the largest private operation in Amman, say they incur daily abuse from bosses, physical hardship, long hours of work, meagre pay and even religious discrimination.

"Life was taken away from me because of my work here," said a 28-year-old Jordanian woman as she sat on the pavement outside the Taiwanese-owned Best Medal Apparel Company Ltd in al-Tajamuat Industrial Zone.

Seven other women in their twenties all nodded in silent agreement as their fingers raced nervously to a meal of cheese, fava beans and tea.

"I used to laugh a lot and watch TV," said the woman, who identified herself as Ashgan, describing her six months of work for the company that employs some 450 other workers.

"Now I go home very tired with bad headache. I don’t talk to anyone and I often forget to pray my evening prayers. I sometimes cry because I feel I am so helpless."

Like other female workers, who make up 95 percent of the labour force in this area some 25 km east of the capital Amman, the women say they begin their day at five a.m. to catch the company bus one hour later.

Ashgan starts work at 7:00 a.m. every day and finishes at 6:30 p.m. in her factory, which, according to manager Minson Kao, sells to Wal Mart, K-Mart, Sears and JC Penny, among other U.S. retailers.

Ashgan and her colleagues make some 85 Jordanian dinars a month (125 U.S. dollars), the minimum set by the Jordanian government, but complain it is not enough to provide a basic life for their families or for the long, hard hours that they work.

Others employees interviewed said they get paid piece rates, which often fails to add up to the government’s minimum wage as bosses deduct money, accusing the employees of inferior quality work.

The factories do not pay regularly, fail to pay them overtime or even proper rates, they add.

Workers also complained about their health, with one employee saying she had "breathing problems" after working for one factory.

”We recorded many problems with the (factory) conditions,” said Jebril Abdulrahman of the Textile Workers Union.

He said employers in the QIZs often demote workers and cut their salaries under the pretext of restructuring company operations, sending many workers back to their start-up salaries after a few years working with the company and salary increases.

Opposition politicians say they are also aware of the problems in the zones, while journalists say they cannot report on the situation. "We know the conditions there are not as good as they say they are," said one journalist. "But the government bans (local) journalists from saying so. They just want us to stress the positive side."

Another woman interviewed outside the Ivory Apparel factory, owned by Indian and Emirati investors and employing 600 workers, said she felt cheated by her government because it does not enforce the labour laws.

"One of the girls dared to complain and was fired. She made an example out of her," she said. "The government is selling us to the Israelis and the Americans. They make a commission for making us work so cheaply."

Other workers said the malpractice at their factory bordered on religious discrimination because their Taiwanese and Arab bosses do not allow them to perform their noon prayers, which takes five minutes.

Some of the factories refused to grant press interviews, and this reporter was forced away by security officers outside of the U.S.-owned CCKM factory when he wanted to interview female workers during their break.

Other factories operating in the area include I Texfil factory from Korea, Yada International from Taiwan and Hong Kong and Naya Garments industry from Pakistan.

Only one operation, New World Textiles, which also sells to JC Penny and Target, allowed interviews in the presence of officials, including the factory manager and an official from the Jordanian authority.

But Jordanian officials denied responsibility for conditions in the QIZs.

"It is not our business," said Zaid N. Marar of al-Tajamouat Authority. "We are in the business of providing the building, providing the infrastructure and giving the supporting services. We cannot be involved in the internal management of the factories."

But he denied the conditions described by workers.

"What’s the definition of a sweatshop? A sweatshop is when you employ people by force … in unhealthy conditions. I don’t think that any of our factories have unhealthy conditions," said Marar.

The officials, many of them with degrees from U.S. universities, tended to contemptuously attribute workers’ complaints to an inferior culture that does not understand the operation of the free market.

"Jordanians do not have the industrial culture as such," said Amer al-Hadidi, director of industrial development at the ministry of trade, a Jordanian who gave an interview in English. "They’d rather sit at home than get minimum wage."

Officials also say the complaints represent "isolated incidents" that should not mar the positive impact of the operations.

They say they are proud that Jordanian exports to the United States rose from about 13 million dollars in 1999 to nearly 400 million dollars in 2002, making the United States Jordan’s largest export market.

The QIZs help Jordanian labourers acquire experience and new skill, they add, and boost the economy by generating work for the country’s hotels and packaging and transportation industries.

But that is not the entire picture.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), unemployment in Jordan, a country with few resources, including phosphate and agriculture, remains bleak. The rate in 1997, before the FTA and the deal with Israel, was 12.7.. In January 2003, it had climbed to 15.3 percent.