Need information on efforts to repeal Saipan's "Made In USA" status

Any websites or organizations advocating that products manufactured in Saipan be required to have "Made In Saipan" printed? I tried a Google search, but I wasn't able to locate any. Thanks in advance.

Is this what you were looking for? George Miller has been on then forever. There was a serious effort in 1997 to remove their ability to use the logo, but Delay has defended them since then. He has actually held them up as model for the "Guest Worker" facilities, according to an article I found while looking for these. I limited myself to lawsuits in these searches.


Made in the U.S.A.?
The Story of the Northern Mariana Islands, Where Human Rights Abuses of Foreign Workers Flourish Under the US Flag

by Phil Kaplan
Free Press Contributor

Editor's Note: Phil Kaplan is the former Human Rights Advocate for the Catholic Diocese of Chalan Kanoa, which serves the peoples of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Kaplan was asked by the Church to help document human rights abuses on the Islands. He met with and/or advocated for numerous alien contract workers from the People's Republic of China, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka during the mid-1990s.

http://www.washingtonfreepress.org/28/Rights.html


Sweatshop Conditions Alleged on U.S. Island
Retailers sued for selling `Made in USA' garments

William Carlsen, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, January 14, 1999

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/01/14/MN19190.DTL


Lawsuit charges slave labor goods 'Made in USA'

WASHINGTON - In the first-ever attempt to hold U.S. retailers and manufacturers accountable for mistreatment of workers in foreign-owned factories operating on U.S. soil, litigation was filed Jan. 13 in California and Saipan against 18 high-profile U.S. clothing manufacturers and retailers.

These include The Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, The Limited, J.C. Penny, May Company, Sears and Wal-Mart.

These companies are accused of violating federal law by engaging in a "racketeering conspiracy" using indentured labor - predominantly young women from Asia - to produce clothing on the island of Saipan. (Saipan is part of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. Commonwealth in the South Pacific.)

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A third companion lawsuit was filed in California state court by four labor and human rights groups (Sweatshop Watch, Global Exchange, Asian Law Caucus, and UNITE). The lawsuit accuses the retailers and manufacturers of using misleading advertising and trafficking in "hot goods" manufactured in violation of U.S. labor laws.

http://www.pww.org/past-weeks-1999/Lawsuit%20on%20slave%20labor.html


MIGRATION NEWS 1997
********Northern Mariana Islands. ************The governor of the Northern Mariana Islands, since 1976 a US commonwealth in the western Pacific, came to Washington in October 1997 to argue against an administration proposal to extend federal immigration and minimum-wage laws to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and restrict the use of "Made in U.S.A." labels by its $625 million-a-year garment industry. Most of the garments are made by Filipino and Chinese workers who are paid the islands' $3.05 per hour minimum wage in foreign-owned factories on the islands.

The commonwealth is a US territory and therefore garments made in the Northern Mariana Islands carry the "Made in the USA" label and enter the US without duties or quotas.

Foreigners hold 90 percent of the private sector jobs in the 16-island Marianas, and are a majority of the islands 60,000 residents.

Before the Chinese workers leave for the Northern Marianas, they must sign a contract that violates some of the rights they possess when on US soil. Some of the contracts say that the worker is "forbidden from engaging in any political or religious activity," "must not request a raise or go on strike," and "cannot fall in love or get married." Violators of the contract face penalties when they return to China.

http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=1365_0_2_0

http://migration.ucdavis.edu/MN/more.php?id=1450_0_2_0


American dream lures Saipan workers - sweatshops
National Catholic Reporter, Sept 7, 2001 by Margot Patterson

But lawsuits describe grim working conditions

The label "Made in USA" as drawn greater scrutiny since three lawsuits were filed charging retailers with the abuse and exploitation of garment workers in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the south Pacific.

According to U.S. government reports and information contained in lawsuits, garment workers from China, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Thailand and elsewhere pay $2,000 to $7,000 per worker to obtain jobs in the Mariana Islands that frequently have them working 12 hours a day, seven days a week for $3.05 an hour, often without overtime pay. The largely female work force is usually housed in prison-like barracks, six to eight people to a room. Inward-facing barbed wire surrounds the barracks. In many cases workers are prohibited from leaving the compound.

The United States acquired the Northern Mariana Islands, a chain of 14 islands near Japan, after World War II. The islands assumed commonwealth status in 1975, when they negotiated exemption from U.S. minimum wage and immigration laws. A $1 billion garment industry was built during the 1980s with its center in Saipan, the largest island. Dozens of Asian-owned apparel factories opened in Saipan, eager to take advantage of favorable tariff rights with the United States. U.S. retailers are able to avoid $200 million a year in duty and to sell goods produced in the Marianas under the "Made in USA" label.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_38_37/ai_78728651