SGMA welcomes La Mode

At a general membership meeting of the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association (SGMA) last week, a unanimous vote was given to extend membership to La Mode, Inc. The American-owned sportswear manufacturer becomes the 32nd member factory in SGMA.

La Mode opened in As Lito, Saipan in June of this year with 120 employees manufacturing top quality polo shirts, casual pants and windbreaker jackets. Before a ceiling on new garment licenses, it was originally approved by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands government to do business on Saipan in 1996.

“We are very pleased to join SGMA, which symbolizes a mark of quality to our company and others in our industry,” said La Mode vice president Patrick Tong. “We are willing to comply fully with SGMA’s Code of Conduct and all applicable local and federal laws in order to be a member of the association in good standing. As a new business, we will be working closely with SGMA’s Code and will participate fully in their independent monitoring program.”

Internationally recognized for their work to improve business excellence, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) has recently been hired by SGMA to provide monitoring compliance for the SGMA members with the “Standards for the Treatment of Workers and Working Conditions and Standards for Living” set forth in the SGMA Code of Conduct.
Inspections will begin at the end of November for all of the member factories.

Thirty-two of the 34 factories on Saipan have joined SGMA to learn from international experts in labor law enforcement. All of the SGMA member factories will accept monitoring inspection visits by PWC.

SGMA executive director Richard A. Pierce welcomed La Mode into the association as its newest member: “We are very comfortable in adding La Mode to our membership and we hope everyone truly appreciates the significance of this welcoming.” “It is our best way to insure that the factories’ customers, our community and consumers are satisfied that the products manufactured in the CNMI – and in this case, La Mode – are made with the utmost regard toward compliance with all local and federal laws and the high standards we have set forth for our members.”

Employing nearly 15,000 people, garment manufacturing is a driving economic force in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands — the only other major industry being tourism.

SGMA has worked to improve its factories’ compliance record: recent OSHA statistics show that in Fiscal Year 1998, Saipan’s apparel factories had a 70 percent better compliance rate than apparel factories elsewhere in the United States, despite the fact that they were among the most frequently inspected.