Almond Campaign Update

Almond Campaign Update

On October 25, CLR alerted you that twenty workers at the Almond gold jewelry factory in Bangkok, Thailand were being sued for $1 million (USD) for speaking out about labor rights abuses they have suffered. In that Alert, we asked you to write letters to the Home Shopping Network, the fourth largest retailer of Almond jewelry in the U.S. Over 1,300 letters were written in all (that we know about)!

Last week, the Home Shopping Network (HSN) contacted CLR and asked us to stop the flow of letters to their offices! HSN promised to respond to your letters asking them to use their influence as an Almond retailer. The company has written a letter to the sole US distributor of Almond jewelry, Michael Anthony Jewelers, urging them to do something about the situation in Thailand.

At the same time, the situation at the Almond factory is getting steadily worse:

**In addition to the million dollar lawsuit against twenty union leaders and members, the Almond company has filed another criminal lawsuit against Junya Yimprasert of the Thai Labour Campaign.

**Almond still refuses to recognize the workers' union.

**Forty-five (45) workers, illegally fired for participating in union activity, have still not been allowed to return to their jobs.