Nicaragua's Ortega says
foreign textile firms
`enslaving' workers
Nicaraguan President
Daniel Ortega has
accused foreign textile
companies, mostly
Taiwanese, of
"enslaving" workers and
leaving the country
instead of paying higher
wages.
Ortega said several
industries closed in
free zones following the
government's recent
decision to increase the
minimum wage by 18
percent.
"There is talk that the
companies are going to
leave the free zones,
that people are going to
be left unemployed," the
leftist Ortega said in a
speech late on
Wednesday.
"When they find that
they have to pay more,
it is no longer
worthwhile and they
leave," he said.
The president said the
owners of textile
industries "enslave"
Nicaraguan female
workers, forcing them to
work long hours in
exchange for "the lowest
salaries in all of
Central America."
"When they see that they
should increase their
employees' wages by 18
percent, they decide to
leave for places like
... China and Vietnam,
although they are
Taiwanese," Ortega said.
The Nicaraguan president
said his country needed
"long-term investment
and not this kind."
Free zones, which offer
incentives to foreign
companies by cutting
tariffs and quotas,
started to operate in
Nicaragua in 1990 and
have become an important
source of jobs. More
than 83,000 people work
in 112 firms, most of
them from Taiwan, South
Korea and the US.
Miguel Ruiz, secretary
general of the
Sandinista Workers
Union, which is close to
the government, said on
Wednesday that at least
five factories have
closed this year.
He attributed the fact
to "a 30 percent
reduction in work
orders."
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