Lawsuit challenges apparel company sweatshops

By Lucille Whitney

SAN FRANCISCO - Carmencita Abad, a Philippine national, knows what she is talking about when it comes to sweatshops in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the South Pacific.

And well she should. She once was one of 450 workers making clothing for The Gap in a factory owned by Sako Corporation in Saipan.

Abad was in the Bay Area drumming up support for a class action lawsuit recently filed against companies exploiting thousands of women "guest workers," for the sake of billions in profits.

The suit seeks to hold 18 major U.S. retailers and clothing manufactures - among them The Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, J.C. Penny, May Company, Sears and Wal-Mart - accountable for mistreatment of garment workers.

With no U.S. import tariffs, no U.S. quota restrictions and lax immigration laws, the Northern Mariana Islands have attracted foreign investors who produce clothes for some of the biggest name-brand labels, garnering billions in profit at the cost of super-exploited workers. The labels of these clothes indicate they were "Made in the USA."

Abad described a life of near-slavery: 11- and 12-hour days, seven-day weeks, filthy barracks and $3.05 an hour wages.

She told of working in an unsafe and unsanitary factory - of no clean drinking water and a bucket of cold water sufficing for a shower. Fire hazards, overheated workspace and air pollution were the norm, she said.

There was no medical insurance or maternity leave until she filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which led to medical insurance provided by Sako Corporation.

In order to cope with these nightmarish conditions, Abad began to organize a union, working with Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 5 in Honolulu.

The company threatened the workers working to form a union with discharge and eventually fired Abad.

"I was fired, but I was not defeated," she told a meeting of community and labor activists who had come to plan a campaign to tackle sweatshop abuse.

Abad told the World that "her greatest satisfaction" was working in a campaign is "to let the whole world know what is going on there."

A later meeting, sponsored by a coalition including the Asian Law Caucus, Global Exchange, Sweatshop Watch and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), followed up on Abad's visit with plans for street action on March 6 at 12 noon at The Gap store at Powell and Market in downtown San Francisco and in Berkeley at Telegraph and Bancroft Streets.

Demonstrations are planned across the country. Further information may be obtained from Global Exchange, (415) 255-7296, or infoatglobalexchange.org.