RIGHTS-US: Activists Step Up Pressure on Saipan Retailers

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Apr 30 1999 (IPS) - A US campaign to investigate labour conditions on the island of Saipan picked up steam this week with subpoenas being issued against 17 retailers who subcontract work there and plans for nationwide protests.

US activist groups will stage a series of events Saturday in several US cities, including New York, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco to draw attention to The Gap company – one of the 17 retailers involved in Saipan.

According to the Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based rights group, “activists will continue to hold similar protests until the US minimum wage and immigration laws apply to Saipan”.

The companies involved in Saipan – including such major retailers as The Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, J. Crew, Nordstrom and Wal- Mart – are also facing mounting legal pressure ever since 17 of them were named in two lawsuits filed in January on behalf of some 50,000 current and former Saipanese workers.

The workers had claimed that they faced unfair labour conditions, including 12-hour days and seven-day workweeks without overtime pay; cramped working conditions and confinement in barracks; and summary deportation and termination of those who complain.

This week, lawyers representing the Saipanese workers served more than 150 subpoenas to the 17 firms, asking for all documents “relating to the consideration, determination or decision” by the retailers to place orders for Saipanese-made apparel.

“These subpoenas for the first time seek complete disclosure of what and when retailers know of the abusive working conditions in Saipan,” said Al Meyerhoff, attorney with Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes and Lerach, the lead firm representing the Saipanese workers.

The companies, Meyerhoff said, “have claimed for years to know nothing about what goes on inside these factories. Those ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ excuses will now be put to their proof.”

The retailers involved have been swift to issue statements denouncing any improper practises by Saipanese manufacturers – who have been hit by more than 1,000 citations over the past five years by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for providing substandard living conditions.

“The Gap does not tolerate this type of conduct in the factories where (its subcontractors) do business,” The Gap said in a statement recently. Similarly, Wal-Mart asserted that it has a “zero-tolerance position with regard to illegal or unethical working conditions”.

Yet, even though Saipan is part of the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, US labour agencies like OSHA have faced numerous difficulties in investigating working conditions there.

In February, OSHA inspectors seeking to determine the facts behind reports that more than 1,200 garment factory workers fell ill in three Saipan factories were blocked by a local judge. OSHA issued several citations charging labour violations, including contamination of the drinking water in several factories with e.coli bacteria.

“OSHA almost always has a difficult time trying to inspect the factories in Saipan,” said Carmencita Abad, a former Saipanese worker who was fired for trying to form a union. She argued that the island’s judges and manufacturers are often unresponsive to monitoring from US federal bodies.

In several other ways, Saipan – an island in the Pacific Ocean – is notably different from the US mainland.

It has long been exempt from US labour or immigration laws in order to encourage economic activity, and is also exempt from any US import tariffs or quota restrictions since it is part of the United States.

With a minimum wage of 3.05 dollars/hour – compared to 5.15 dollars/hour on the mainland – and the presence of some 70,000 “guest workers”, mainly from the Philippines and Bangladesh, Saipan has served as a lure for many US firms.

Since January, however, the island’s poor labour conditions and wages have generated a backlash, with several US legislators proposing to remove the disparity between the Saipanese and mainland minimum wages.

The poor labour practises are “inexcusable”, argued Representative George Miller of California, who has sponsored legislation requiring Saipanese factories to comply with US labour laws.

Two prominent Democrats – Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and House Minority Whip David Bonior of Michigan – are trying to boost Saipan’s minimum wage to mainland levels in new legislation designed to raise the overall US minimum wage.

Some of the legal pressure has already yielded results. One subcontractor, Micronesian Garment Manufacturing Inc., was required last week to pay nearly one million dollars in back wages to 336 workers who were not paid overtime. The US Department of Labour also fined the manufacturer 336,000 dollars in civil penalties.