First Breakthrough on Union Rights Propels Countrywide Transformation

In 2009, Fruit of the Loom signed a historic agreement with the Central General de Trabajadores (CGT), an important labor union in Honduras that represents garment workers. This unprecedented agreement came as a result of a WRC investigation and a year-long struggle by workers to require Fruit of the Loom to respect workers’ right to organize following the company’s illegal retaliation against workers by closing a unionized factory.

The agreement signed between Fruit of the Loom and worker representatives paved the way for thousands of garment workers in Honduras to organize their workplaces and negotiate with their employers to improve working conditions at more than twenty garment factories. The Center for Global Workers’ Rights at Penn State published a report in 2022, Bargaining for Decent Work and Beyond, which documents the notable gains made by Honduran workers over more than a decade following the signing of the agreement with Fruit of the Loom. The report demonstrates that garment workers successfully used collective bargaining to win increased wages and benefits and a reduction of labor rights abuses, such as verbal harassment and gender-based violence.

The achievements that have been made in Honduras—where workers historically encountered significant repression from employers colluding with government officials—demonstrate the power of binding agreements to secure effective remedies for workers whose associational rights have been violated.