Canadian t-shirt manufacturer Gildan Activewear is closing two factories in Mexico, two Montreal textile plants and a cutting operation in New York. An estimated 1,365 Mexican and 465 Canadian and U.S. workers will be laid off. Workers at the Mexican factories were particularly hard hit, as the region is already reeling from Hanesbrands' laying-off of 1,700 workers in December 2006. With MSN’s assistance, our local Mexican partner organization in Monclova, SEDEPAC, put forward a series of proposals to Gildan.

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The US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was signed on May 28, 2004 by the U.S., Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. On August 15, 2004 the Dominican Republic was incorporated into the agreement. Read about its anticipated effects on the Central American garment industry. PDF Format

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A Needle in a Haystack examines Canadian investment and sourcing practices in the garment assembly-for-export industry in Mexico and Central America, and labour practices and working conditions in those factories. This report includes case studies on two Canadian manufacturers -- Nygard International and Gildan Activewear; country labour "vignettes" for Canadian homeworkers and maquila garment-for-export workers in Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico; and corporate profiles of prominent Canadian retailers and manufacturers.

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