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On January 12, 2010, the country of Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake resulting in a significant number of fatalities, dislocation to survivors and damage to the physical infrastructure of the country. Gildan wishes to express its deepest sympathy to the people of Haiti and pledges its support and commitment to playing an active role in the relief and reconstruction efforts in the country.
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| GILDAN'S RESPONSE TO THE EARTHQUAKE |
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Accounted for the safety of all Gildan employees in Haiti, all of whom were finally reached on Tuesday, January 19, 2010. |
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Established and maintained a direct line of communication with the Canadian government, and assisted in the coordination of search and rescue operations in the country, and particularly to one of our contractor facilities, Palm Apparel, which was seriously damaged. |
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Immediately contributed to relief efforts with an initial donation of $50,000 to the Canadian Red Cross Haiti Earthquake Emergency Fund. |
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Conducted a company-wide fundraising campaign with all proceeds dedicated to provide aid to the Haitian population. On January 26, 2010, a total of approximately $45,000 had been raised from Gildan employees worldwide. |
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Formed a task force whose main purpose is to identify the immediate and long-term needs of Gildan’s employees, who were all met individually during the week of January 18, and those of our contractors. |
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Coordinated a staging operation in the Dominican Republic to provide supplies and basic necessities to Gildan employees and contractors’ employees. |
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Created the Gildan Haiti Relief and Reconstruction Fund to raise funds to help provide for its employees and their families in Haiti, as well as its contractors' employees in the country. Gildan will contribute to the Fund a sum equivalent to all Gildan employees’ donations gathered worldwide. |
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Established and maintained direct lines of communication with international NGOs, participating in the development of reconstruction initiatives. |
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Volunteered at a Benefit Concert “L’Union fait la force” organized in Montreal to raise funds to aid Haitians. Gildan donated T-shirts that were sold to raise funds during the concert. In total, the Benefit Concert raised close to $100,000 for Haiti. |
| GILDAN'S OPERATIONS IN HAITI: |
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Gildan does not have vertically-integrated manufacturing facilities in Haiti however maintains a small administrative office with approximately 40 employees who oversee the production, social responsibility practices and quality of products at our third-party contractor facilities, which sew the majority of the fabric produced at our Dominican Republic textile facility. |
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Gildan's Code of Conduct, which principles are based on the ILO conventions as well as FLA and WRAP codes of conduct, is requested to be followed in all Gildan and contractor facilities. |
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Gildan has a business presence in Haiti spanning more than ten years. |
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Gildan fully intends to continue its production through third-party contractors in Haiti. |
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| THE EARTHQUAKE'S IMPACT ON GILDAN IN HAITI: |
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All Gildan employees in Haiti have been accounted for and are safe. |
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One contractor facility used by Gildan was destroyed by the earthquake resulting in a significant number of fatalities. |
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A second contractor facility suffered some structural damage. However all its employees are safe and all equipment is intact and operational. |
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Gildan is currently assessing all contractor buildings to ensure that they can be occupied safely before restarting production, as contractors are implementing plans to resume a portion of their production shortly, which will be a first step to allow workers to begin to resume their normal lives. |
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