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(Please read
the update from July 2002)
06 Feb 2001, Urgent appeal:
Troubled Garment Factory on American Samoa Shuts Down Leaving
Workers Stranded without Work or Food
Dear Friends, Please find below a request for action in a case
involving garment workers in American Samoa. This information
comes from Vietnam Labor Watch and Sweatshop Watch in the United
States. Please contact Sweatshop Watch if you have any questions
on this case. E-mail: sweatwatch@igc.org
ACTION ALERT!
Troubled Garment Factory on American Samoa Shuts Down Leaving Workers
Stranded without Work or Food
Court Trial Continues for 250 Vietnamese Women Alleging Sweatshop
Conditions on American Samoa
DONATIONS and LETTERS needed (see here)
Information provided by Vietnam Labor Watch and Sweatshop Watch.
250 courageous Vietnamese women garment workers began their court
trial in American Samoa (a US territory in the South Pacific)
seeking justice for the sweatshop conditions and human rights
violations they endured. As the trial began, the workers learned
that the company they sew for ? Daewoosa Samoa ? shut down, announcing
it had only $500+ in its bank account and could not continue operating.
The Vietnamese women live in a compound owned by Daewoosa, which
also provided their meals. Local charities have stepped in to
provide the workers with food, but some fear these charitable
sources will not last much longer. The company’s other workers,
who are Samoan, are also left without work.
The workers sewed garments carrying the J.C. Penney, Sears and
MV Sport labels, among others. None of the corporations are known
to have taken any action to guarantee the workers their unpaid wages.
Advocates say American Samoa may become the next Saipan, another
U.S. island littered with sweatshops, where young immigrant women
are also toiling for poverty wages under slave-like conditions.
The retailers who profit off the backs of these women workers must
ensure they are paid fairly, and they must protect against this
type of abuse.
Daewoosa Samoa opened in late 1998; it is currently the only garment
factory on the island. The factory contracts with a "management"
company in Vietnam to provide labor. Young Vietnamese women pay
recruitment fees of up to US$5,000 for the opportunity of a job;
and their families sometimes mortgage their houses or farms to send
their family member to work in Samoa. The company withholds money
for inedible, substandard food and crowded, pest-infested housing.
At times the workers labor for several months without any pay at
all. Yet, because American Samoa is a U.S. territory, the clothes
these workers sew carry "Made in the USA" labels.
Vietnam Labor Watch released a new report which describes the conditions
that the Vietnamese garment workers experienced while working for
Daewoosa Samoa. The report was compiled from interviews with over
70 workers, and can be found at http://samoa.saigon.com
or http://www.vlw.org.
Some of the report's findings include the following:
* As a result of company’s refusal to pay the workers and
not honor the terms of the contracts, many workers reported that
their family’s homes and farms have been repossessed by creditors
because they were not able to repay the loan for the recruitment
fee to come to American Samoa.
* A Christian missionary witnessed the abuse at Daewoosa first-hand:
"Upon arriving at Daewoosa, we observed three or four girls
sitting immediately inside the security gate. The Korean guards
began kicking and hitting the girls. About five minutes later, approximately
thirty Vietnamese girls came to the gate crying and begging for
help. Many of the young women were scratched, bruised, and bloody.
When I asked what was going on, the guards started hitting the girls
again."
* Another worker described the retaliation they have faced. "Those
who know some English to protest these treatments or talk back become
targets for harassment and intimidation. Those who took part in
the trial, [the boss] ordered work not [to be] given [to] them."
* Even though the bank account of Daewoosa showed a balance of
$538, on December 7, 2000, according to a Department of Labor report
(Dec 14, 2000), during a meeting with OSHA & DOL investigators,
Mr. Kil-Soo Lee, the owner of Daewoosa, "produced a paper bag
of money and proceeded to spread stacks of bills across the front
of his desk."
The workers' struggle began in March 1999, when the women organized
a work stoppage after enduring nearly 8 weeks without pay. Four
women were labeled as "trouble-makers" and fired. The
compound was locked, but one woman was able to escape and begin
raising awareness about their plight. In December 1999, the workers
filed a class-action lawsuit against Daewoosa seeking unpaid wages
of over $325,000 and justice for the violations of human rights
and labor law they endured. The workers are represented by attorneys
Virginia Sudbury and Christa Lin, based in Samoa. The trial, which
began on January 18, is expected to continue into February.
Daewoosa’s labor problems are well known to the U.S. Department
of Labor (DOL). In 1999, the DOL investigated the factory and fined
Daewoosa $24,140 and ordered them to pay $151,500 in back wages.
In June 2000, the DOL fined Daewoosa $213,000 for repeated violations
of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which includes minimum wage
& overtime standards, and ordered them to pay $367,000 to 213
workers. In December 2000, the DOL confiscated Daewoosa’s garments,
under the "hot goods" provision of the FLSA, which prohibits
the selling or shipping of goods made in violation of the FLSA.
The DOL investigation is continuing, and the Justice Department
recently began its own investigation.
Daewoosa is in a receivership, and may be taken over by another
company, New York-based Morgan Cooper. Some workers may continue
to stay in Samoa and work if the factory re-opens. Other workers
wish to return home to Vietnam, but face retaliation if they break
their three-year work contract. Vietnam Labor Watch and Sweatshop
Watch are working to ensure the workers’ safety and well-being
and are raising funds to help provide for their basic needs, including
food.
WEB SITES: Additional information is available at http://samoa.saigon.com,
http://www.vlw.org,
and http://www.sweatshopwatch.org.
LIST SERV: The samoaviet list serv provides regular updates on
the Vietnamese workers’ situation in Samoa. To subscribe, visit
http://www.egroups.com/subscribe/SamoaViet.
To view the archives, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/samoaviet@egroups.com
DONATIONS NEEDED
Vietnam Labor Watch is organizing direct relief for the workers
(food and other basic necessities) as well as translation for the
court trial. Donations can be sent to:
Sweatshop Watch/Vietnam Labor Watch 310 8th Street, Suite 309 Oakland
CA 94607, USA Phone: (510) 834-8990 Fax: (510) 834-8974 Email: sweatwatch@igc.org
Web site: www.sweatshopwatch.org
ACTION REQUEST
Please send letters to the following retailers, urging their immediate
attention to resolving the workers' situation. The workers are demanding
to be fairly paid for their work, and some wish to return home to
Vietnam.
* J.C. Penney Company, Inc. * Sears Roebuck & Company
---
SAMPLE LETTERS
J.C. Penney Company, Inc.
Allen Questrom, Chief Executive Officer
6501 Legacy Drive Plano,
TX 75024
Fax: (972) 431-1362
Tel: (972) 431-1000
Dear Mr. Questrom:
I am writing to express my concern about sweatshop conditions and
labor abuses on the island of American Samoa. I understand that
workers at the Daewoosa Samoa garment factory sewed J.C. Penney
clothing without receiving minimum wage or overtime pay, and in
some cases, no pay at all. I urge you to make sure these workers
are fairly paid and to protect the rights of all workers who sew
your clothes. Because Daewoosa has shut down, leaving workers stranded
without work, food or the means to return to their homeland of Vietnam,
I also urge you to ensure the safety and well-being of these workers.
I thank you for your attention to this urgent matter and look forward
to hearing your response.
Sincerely,
---
Sears Roebuck & Company Arthur C. Martinez, Chairman/CEO
3333 Beverly Rd. Hoffman Estates, IL 60179
Fax: (847) 286-7829
Tel: (847) 286-2500
Dear Mr. Martinez:
I am writing to express my concern about sweatshop conditions and
labor abuses on the island of American Samoa. I understand that
workers at the Daewoosa Samoa garment factory sewed Sears clothing
without receiving minimum wage or overtime pay, and in some cases,
no pay at all. I urge you to make sure these workers are fairly
paid and to protect the rights of all workers who sew your clothes.
Because Daewoosa has shut down, leaving workers stranded without
work, food or the means to return to their homeland of Vietnam,
I also urge you to ensure the safety and well-being of these workers.
I thank you for your attention to this urgent matter and look forward
to hearing your response.
Sincerely,
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