Justice at Rising Sun

Linking to the website posting updates in support of the locked out union workers at the Rising Sun textile factory in Kenya, which manufactures university apparel and is the target of a USAS solidarity campaign

“The reality that is here is that there is a lot of oppression... Whatever
clothes the buyers are wearing, to me I can term them as ‘blood clothes,’
because they are not being got in the just way. People are being oppressed;
people are being harassed to produce their garment. It is very wrong if whatever
someone is wearing is made by somebody who is not paid… They should be aware of
what is happening on the ground.”
“I can talk about the major problem with
the working conditions which was discrimination, nothing else. Discrimination is
the one which brought all this. Because the CEO, or someone like CEO, is telling
people they are like “black monkeys.” …They see the Blacks as if they are
prisoners, …as if they are working with somebody who does not have their
rights.”
“I had worked in Rising Sun for two and a half years. There was an
incident that happened … where one of our managers, by the name Mr. ________,
had abused one lady. He found that lady; she was at the table working, but there
was no job. So, he threw garments on her face. After that… the lady asked ‘why
did you do that?’ [He said], ‘I can fuck you and sack you.’ So, from there it
was a case that came up to the Export Processing Zone Authority, where the case
was presented…They ruled that the lady should forgive the man. Then the lady was
asking, ‘If I was the one who had abused the manager, I would have been
summarily dismissed! Why should that rule not be applied?’ Then, he came in the
morning, the same same manager. You see after coming [to the authorities], there
was no action that was taken so he was very proud and bragging about it. He came
and then he said to the factory, “I can fuck you and sack all of you.” Then,
from that statement, people were very much annoyed, so they came out
demonstrating and policemen were called to throw us out…
“When the police
came they abused human rights because there was no talking about anything.
Ladies were being beaten. Men were being chased. That was what happened. By the
time the police came, people had settled down after demonstrating, but when they
evicted everyone from the factory…
“Then we came on Monday… and we found a
notice that all of us are being summarily dismissed. So, after a few days… they
wrote a circular, a memo, that our dues are being paid at Machakos District
labor office and that after you go and take that money we will take you back to
job …. When people went there, they found after working for two years, three
years, they are only getting 3,000 [shillings] ($41), whereas they expected
something like 20,000 ($274) … Some people were cheated to go and take the
money, but after taking the money they were not taken back to the job. So, we
still refuse to go and take the money, and we reported the issue to the branch
secretary [of the union]."…From there we have been fighting and some people… got
jobs, but after getting jobs they are still calling from where they are working.
They are saying ‘don’t employ those guys.’ I’m a victim. I was employed and I
was sacked just because… there was a statement that was written that this is one
of the guys that led the demonstrations. So, I was sacked.”
“They are
oppressing us so much because we can’t get jobs anywhere. This one they have to
be made to stop with immediate effect because what they are trying to do is they
are trying to oppress us. They are trying to make us desperate so that we can
agree with anything they come up with. Recently, I was working in [another
factory], but I was fired because there was a circular, containing my name and
around 30 other people, saying that these people are not supposed to be employed
anywhere. They have circulated it in Mombasa, Nairobi, even here. So, we cannot
get jobs.”