Beating the wrong victim

Detractors from the US Congress are slated to stage a “Pride In America” campaign against perceptual sweatshops in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the usual political rhetoric that purposely ignores the obvious: they too live in far larger and fragile glass houses.

We might wish to note that as recently as last Monday (April 19th) the LA Times ran an editorial saying “There’s no denying the brutal conditions of some garment sweatshops in California. State and federal inspectors have documented pay far under the legal minimum, pervasive failures to pay overtime and unsafe working conditions, fueled by intense competition and immigrant labor”.

There is before the California State Assembly the so-called underground economy bill backed by unions and other workers rights organizations. “Backers of the bill agree persuasively that state and federal regulators have failed to improve sweatshop conditions” in California because of the perennial problem of understaffing. As such, “many contractors are unregistered and the state registration procedure has little bite. An industry self-monitoring project has had only a minor positive effect. When employees try to make claims against the worst contractors, the employer may declare bankruptcy and reopen the next day or week under a new name”.

Now, the majority of sweatshops are located between New York and California. But it seems that union-backed members of Congress have conveniently looked the other way to ensure that the special interest of the US textile unions are soundly protected by picking at the wrong victim for purposes of inflicting politically correct rhetoric ignoring the factual aspects of where sweatshops really abound.

If detractors really have any sense of responsibility, then they would turn the planned campaign on “Pride in America” towards sweatshops in California and New York. And if they wish to turn their campaign into a meaningful one, then it is obvious that they must clean out their own backyards first before engaging in any shameful preaching of their incoherent sense of “Pride in America”. Sweatshops in the NMI is history. It boasts the most technically modern and safest apparel industry when compared to California’s or New York’s or the rest of the world.

What we have done to rectify abuse and employee safety should be a model for California’s garment industry. We would be more than happy to share our experiences in this matter for it was the premise of “Pride in America” that pushed us to impose corrective measures in the interest of both employees and employers. Si Yuus Maase`!