…Calzado Sandak, a Bata subsidiary, closed its doors illegally four years ago claiming that the plant was unviable. It has now brought criminal charges against the workers who have been picketing outside the plant ever since, accusing them of ‘extortion’. The General Secretary of the union…is currently in jail and seven of his colleagues…could be arrested at any time…The company claimed it was forced to close the plant because of low productivity, but here again the workers tell a very different story…Calzado Sandak was one of the few manufacturing plants where workers had both an independent union and a collective agreement...IndustriALL Global Union has called on top executives of the Swiss-based multinational to recognize the workers as Bata employees, to drop all charges against them…