The Independent Monitoring Group of El Salvador (GMIES) tracks progress on the agreements signed by The Gap on March 22, 1996. These agreements reestablish healthy labor relations at Mandarin International. They also oversee compliance with applicable labor laws and The Gap’s code of conduct.

The Ground Breaking Agreement

In December 1995 the US apparel retailer, The Gap, accepted independent monitoring of its code of conduct at the Mandarin International maquila factory in El Salvador. This agreement is a precedent-setting victory and model for how corporate codes of conduct can be effective. The Gap accepted this agreement after an intensive public campaign in the US, Canada, and El Salvador. The Gap and Salvadoran contractor, Mandarin International, allowed independent local human rights groups to monitor their factory. These groups tracked working conditions and labor rights violations at Mandarin International.

GMIES Method

The Independent Monitoring Group of El Salvador (GMIES) resulted from the resolution to solve labor-related problems at Mandarin International. GMIES has taken several steps to ensure adherence with the March 22 agreement and prevent future abuse, including:

• bilateral meetings with the management of Mandarin International to discuss compliance with the agreement and solutions to detected problems
• meetings with the leaders of the Association of Mandarin International Workers (ATEMISA) and former leaders of the Mandarin International Workers Union (SETMI)
• meetings and assemblies with Mandarin personnel
• field visits to monitor working conditions
• conference calls with the Independent Monitoring Group and with representatives from The Gap
• responses and follow-up to complaints about conditions at Mandarin International

Getting Access and Building Trust

The monitoring group has regular access to the workers both inside and outside the factory. More importantly, they have the trust of the workers and have won the trust of the factory management. GMIES has also been instrumental in facilitating the return to work of several fired union executive members and 75 fired union supporters. It admitted to going beyond its monitoring role to act as a conciliator between the workers and management.

Challenges to Independent Monitoring

Mark Anner, a former member of the monitoring group representing CENTRA unpacked what monitoring could not do. Highlighting how independent monitoring has not been able to affect the manufacturing system as a whole. However, the monitoring groups hope to be able to expand their right to track conditions in other El Salvadoran factories.

Independent monitoring has not been able to touch, in this one factory, the logic of how the industry works or the intensity of the work which is linked to the production goals. Local factories producing under contract for big US retailers like The Gap or Eddie Bauer have set deadlines they have to meet to fulfill their orders. Profit margins are very low. For the maquiladora owners to survive under this system, they try to keep the pace of production up. They keep a small workforce and demand a lot of overtime when orders are heavy […] We can only achieve so much in one isolated factory. The next great challenge is to see to it that all the companies are feeling the same pressure to improve conditions.

– Mark Anner