Saipan's garment industry

Sweatshop lawsuits slam Saipan's garment industry

AN alleged

sweatshop industry on the North Pacific island of Saipan has been hit by a 25 per cent drop in orders since human rights

lawsuits were launched in California against buyers and retailers, it was report

ed late-February.

The Saipan Tribune daily newspaper also quoted a Filipino diplomat as saying Filipinos involved in the work, and now out of work because of the fall in orders, should go home.

Around 40,000 mainly Filipino and Chinese workers work on Saipan which is part of the US territory of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Its garments have a “Made in USA” label and enter America without tariff control.

They earn US$l.2 billion (Asl.B bil lion) annually which, since the collapse of CNMFs tourism industry in the wake of the Asian crisis, has been virtually its only income.

Many major brand name clothes are made there.

Human rights groups in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Saipan have filed a US$l billion (A 51.55 billion) class action law

suit alleging clothes were being made under labour conditions that violated US laws. Claims were made of workers being locked into factories, beaten and of forced abortions.

Many major brand name

clothes are made there.

It is claimed many of the workers are indentured which is against US law.

The Tribune said garment manufactur ers had warned the Commonwealth of a 25 per cent plunge in user fees as a result of reduced orders from apparel buyers.

The decline is expected to bring down to US$3B million (A 558.9 million) the total user fee collection anticipated in the current fiscal year which is US$5.l million lower than original projections.

Michael Sablan, special advisor to Governor Pedro Tenorio, said he did not know what the fall would do to the budget.

“The recent filing of the lawsuit... was not part of the variables that were taken

into consideration when the FY 1999 projections were pre pared,” Sablan said in an interview.

“We’re concerned about its impact on our revenue codec -

tions going forward”.

User fees is the amount equivalent to 3.7 per cent of the total gross value of fin ished garment products shipped to the United States by local apparel makers.

In 1998, the combined gross income of garment manufacturers in the Northern Marianas topped US$l billion (A 51.55 bil lion) making the industry the single biggest provider of revenues to the financially troubled government.

Meanwhile, Philippine Consul Julia Heidemann said Filipino contract workers whose contracts were not renewed should explore opportunities in their homeland instead of staying as illegal residents on the Marianas.

She made this appeal in the wake of reports that some Filipinos who are due for renewals were told that their contracts were disapproved by the Department of Labour and Immigration because local res idents qualify for their jobs.

“Let’s try to explore the job market in the Philippines,” she said. (AFP) ■