Saipan: $20 million victory for sweatshop workers

Submitted by Anon on 2 May, 2003 - 1:21

By Mick Duncan

On Thursday 24 April a US court on the Pacific island of Saipan approved a $20 million pay-out to garment workers. The settlement will give compensation and back pay to 30,000 workers and set up an independent monitoring system to regulate wages, overtime pay, working conditions and living conditions at factory barracks.

Saipan, about 3,800 miles southwest of Honolulu, is notorious for the use of cheap labour. Transnationals make clothes on the island for the US garment market.

All but one of the 55 retailers and manufacturers involved in the Saipan garment industry signed the settlement. The exception is Levis, who says it stopped buying garments from Saipan factories in 2000. The retailers in the agreement include Target, Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch and 22 others.

The lawsuit was filed by US unions on behalf of garment workers from Bangladesh, China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, who worked 12-hour days in disgusting conditions. Most of the workers are Chinese women.

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