[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 49 (Thursday, April 5, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      WAGE AND LABOR RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE AMERICAN TERRITORIES

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 4, 2001

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak 
against the ongoing wage and labor rights violations in factories 
operating in some of our American territories, and I ask that my 
colleagues join me in creating reforms that will finally ensure that 
all workplaces that operate under the American flag do so in compliance 
with federal law. I have been involved for a number of years in an 
effort to reduce the well-documented exploitation of temporary foreign 
workers, particularly Asian women, in the U.S. Commonwealth of the 
Northern Mariana Islands (US/CNMI). In the past few months, I have been 
troubled to leam that the practice of exploiting temporary workers has 
now spread to American Samoa.
  According to a recent Department of Labor investigation, the Daewoosa 
factory in the American Samoa employed 251 Vietnamese ``guest 
workers''--more than 90 percent of them women--for nearly two years 
under conditions of indentured servitude. These workers took on a debt 
of up to $8,000 dollars each in order to qualify for what they believed 
would be good jobs in America, but instead they were constantly paid 
less than the Samoan minimum wage of only $2.60 per hour. Sometimes the 
workers of the Daewoosa factory were not paid at all. Many workers also 
faced verbal, physical and sexual abuse, including a severe beating 
that caused one young woman to lose an eye. As a result of these 
violations, Daewoosa owner Kil Soo Lee now faces charges of forced 
labor in federal court.
  While I applaud the Federal Government for prosecuting this 
particular violator of labor laws, I believe we must take steps to 
ensure that these injustices never happen again. I urge my colleagues 
to read the following article from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and 
consider whether they would ever tolerate such conditions and 
exploitation in their own districts. I also invite my colleagues to 
join me in cosponsoiing legislation to bring all of the U.S. 
territories into compliance with the federal laws that protect workers 
throughout the United States.

            [From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Mar. 31, 2001]

  Hawaii Should Lead Fight To End Abuse of Workers in U.S. Territories

       The issue: Allegations that Asian workers were forced to 
     work at an American Samoan garment sweatshop under inhuman 
     conditions have resulted in federal charges here.
       Human rights and labor abuses uncovered on the Northern 
     Marianas island of Saipan three years ago embarrassed U.S. 
     garment manufacturers, resulting in lawsuits and federal 
     legislation targeted for the islands north of Guam. Sweatshop 
     conditions as bad if not worse in American Samoa have 
     prompted criminal charges in federal court.
       The two cases suggest that U.S. territories in the Pacific 
     have been vulnerable to such abuses far more than had been 
     assumed. Reform legislation that failed in the last Congress 
     should be rejuvenated and broadened to include all U.S. 
     possessions.
       About 14,000 workers, mostly young women, from China, the 
     Philippines, Bangladesh and Thailand were lured by promises 
     of good wages to pay fees of up to $10,000 to enter the labor 
     force in the Northern Marianas. In 1998, federal lawsuits 
     accused 32 contractors on Saipan of beatings, forced 
     abortions and rat-infested quarters in essentially a prison 
     environment surrounded by barbed-wire and armed guards.
       Major clothing retailers in the United States that had 
     bought garments sewn on Saipan settled lawsuits by agreeing 
     to establish a $1.25 million fund to finance monitoring, 
     compensate workers and create a public education program.
       Senator Akaka last year won Senate approval of a bill to 
     extend U.S. immigration and minimum-wage laws to the Marianas 
     and allow ``Made in the USA'' labels only on garments on 
     which more than half the work had been done by American 
     citizens. The measure died in the House.
       More recently, a Labor Department investigation has 
     uncovered similar abuses in American Samoa, with work and 
     living conditions so horrid that some garment workers, mostly 
     women from Vietnam, looked like ``walking skeletons.''
       Similar to the situation on Saipan, up to 250 workers had 
     borrowed $2,000 to $7,000 each to acquire their jobs and fly 
     from Vietnam or China to Saipan. Investigators found frequent 
     violations of the Samoan minimum wage ($2.60 an hour) and 
     numerous abuses, including the beating of workers and 
     withholding of meals as a form of punishment.
       Daewoosa, a Korean-owned clothing manufacturer that had 
     made apparel for J.C. Penney Co., closed the plant in 
     January. A judge in Samoa placed Daewoosa under receivership 
     after it failed to pay $600,000 in back wages and fines 
     resulting from the Labor Department investigation.
       Penney had canceled contracts with the factory immediately 
     after learning of the abuses. Daewoosa owner Kil Soo Lee now 
     faces charges of involuntary servitude and forced labor in 
     federal court in Honolulu.
       While the semiautonomous status of U.S. territories in the 
     Pacific may vary, the conditions that were found on Saipan 
     and Samoa should be condoned on none of them. As leaders of 
     the U.S. community in the Pacific, Hawaii's congressional 
     delegation should promote legislation to end these human-
     rights abuses.

     

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