Perspective on lawsuit vs. apparel industry
I am writing this letter in order to give a personal perspective on the class action lawsuit against the garment industry on Saipan.
I serve as Vice President for Special Projects for the Luen Thai/Tan Holdings family of companies. My duties include systems development and process reengineering, and supporting the group’s change management initiatives. As part of my duties, I have been involved in Luen Thai setting up world class human rights and worker care systems and conditions at Tan Holdings/Luen Thai’s world-wide manufacturing facilities.
In early March of this year, I was invited to attend a settlement conference in relation to the Saipan garment class action suit in Honolulu. The purpose of this conference was to discuss in good faith a possible settlement. We at Luen Thai (or Tan Holdings????) took this meeting very seriously and prepared documentation, including video footage of our facilities and conditions, to show what we had achieved in this area. While admitting no wrongdoing, and proud of our commitments and achievement in worker care, we attended with the intention of stretching as far as reasonably possible to resolve outstanding issues. We wanted to try to settle the case to restore normal operation to this now wounded industry before irreversible damage is done to the livelihood of our workers with spillover effect on the welfare of the whole Saipan community.
On a behalf of Luen Thai, I made a presentation detailing the steps the we are taking, over nearly a decade, to insure that the workers, who enable us to be successful in our garment manufacturing business, have a level of human rights protection, health and safety and overall worker care that is among the best in the world. I described documented evidence that shows how we comply with all applicable Saipan and federal law, illustrated our investments in facilities which in many cases go beyond OSHA requirements, showed our leadership in participating in many initiatives including OSHA’s Excellence 20000, detailed our validation of payroll and compensation by Deloitte and Touche, and presented our development of an integrated work management system which includes worker care and welfare as an integral part. I documented how this world class benchmark system has enabled us to not only received ISO 9000 certification, but to be awarded a Certificate of Compliance based on the SA8000 international social accountability standard from the world’s largest independent certification body, SGS of Switzerland.
Unfortunately, it became readily apparent that the plaintiff’s attorneys were not interested in discussing the merits of the case at all. What we had done as a world-wide leader in worker care in the garment industry, whether or not we had actually ever done any of the things of which they accused the industry in general, and ourselves by association, was of little or no interest to them. We offered to bare the record, invited them again to visit our facilities and let the facts of reality speak for themselves, but again our invitation was not taken.
The facts seemed irrelevant, but even more strikingly, so did the welfare of the workers whose interest the class lawsuit was supposed to protect. For me, the negotiations were the functional equivalent of a street robbery in which the proverbial “Your money or your life?” was replaced by “Your money or your business”. The most senior attorney for the plaintiffs even threatened two of our lawyers with the statement to the effect that, yes, Luen Thai might very well eventually, after dragged on and expensive litigation, win the case on its merits, but it would be a hallow victory, that long before that they would have destroyed our business. So much for social justice! So much for the welfare of the workers and families to whom we provide livelihood! So much for the contract workers on whose behalf the case is supposedly initiated, and who during their employ with us make not only a living wage but a lifetime savings!
In a big money, class action lawsuit like this, maybe facts, what is right, and responsibility for the consequences of one’s business decisions don’t seem to matter. I find this a striking and unacceptable paradox. If garment factories should be held accountable for the consequences of their business decisions, then why not hold the law firm which is arguing this position accountable for theirs. The workers, investors, and people of Saipan who are damaged in this matter, to borrow a phrase from that short-lived genius, John Donne, “should not go gentle in that good night, but rather “rage, rage at the dying of the light”. They should stand up and fight, and seek the redress which is their right.
Dr. John Romagna
