Settlement Over
Saipan Sweatshops
By Dara Akiko
Williams Associated
Press Writer Wednesday,
Oct. 6, 1999; 8:21 p.m. EDT
LOS ANGELES –– Five clothing
retailers including Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan on Wednesday agreed to
settle a class-action lawsuit over poor working conditions at sweatshops
in the U.S. territory of Saipan.
The companies join four other retailers that have already agreed to pay
for independent monitoring of Saipan's garment industry in an effort to
comply with American labor laws and international human rights treaties.
Litigation is pending against factories in Saipan and several other
U.S. companies including The Gap, Tommy Hilfiger and Wal-Mart, said Al
Meyerhoff, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
"Nine of the nation's premier fashion houses have agreed to do the
right thing in Saipan," Meyerhoff said. "The other retailers have some
explaining to do why they don't agree to this plan to clean up intolerable
factories in Saipan."
The agreement requires the approval of a federal judge.
The companies agreeing to the terms on Wednesday were Ralph Lauren,
Phillips-Van Heusen, Bryland L.P., Donna Karan International and The Dress
Barn Inc. The retailers who agreed to the settlement in June were
Nordstrom Inc., J. Crew Group Inc., Cutter & Buck Inc. and Gymboree
Corp.
Also Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder ruled that the
case would be transferred to Honolulu. Some defense lawyers had argued the
case should be heard in Saipan, while Meyerhoff countered that an
impartial jury would be difficult to find there.
The settlement calls for retailers to establish a fund to finance the
independent monitoring program, provide money to the workers, create a
public education campaign and pay attorneys' fees.
Workers will be protected from what Meyerhoff described as indentured
servitude.
Young women are often recruited from China, the Philippines, Bangladesh
and Thailand with promises of good wages and agree to be brought to Saipan
for a fee, sometimes as high as $10,000.
The women then agree to pay off that fee with their wages, he said. The
settlement requires factory owners to ensure that employees have not paid
a recruitment fee and to pay the fee if workers have been brought to them
through recruitment fees.
About 14,000 sweatshop workers, mostly young women, are currently on
the island, but the class-action lawsuit represents about 50,000 women,
including past workers, Meyerhoff said.
Representative of the five companies agreeing to the settlement
Wednesday did not return phone messages after business hours or were
unreachable for comment.
Saipan is a 13-mile-long Western Pacific island in the Northern
Marianas. Labor activists claim that 32 Saipan factories – mostly owned by
Chinese, Japanese and Korean subcontractors – stamp clothing with "Made in
the USA" tags, which makes consumers believe the items were made in
compliance with U.S. labor laws.
The Northern Marianas, seized from Japan in World War II, negotiated a
commonwealth relationship with Washington that left control of immigration
and minimum wages in local hands. It also exempted Saipan's exports from
U.S. duties and quotas that limit imports.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
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