Interior says magazine's CNMI article Ms-es the point

The Marianas Variety alerts us to the Spring issue of Ms. Magazine which has an expose of the garment factory business in the CNMI, putting things in an unflattering, if perhaps prima facie, light.

Its story is "Nat’l magazine reports on NMI’s exploited alien workers" and because MV doesn't seem to archive its stories online, I'll provide it here.

“I’m glad that the article creates awareness about the plight of women who are being exploited,” said Deputy Interior Secretary for Insular Affairs David Cohen. “However, I am disappointed that the article does not give credit to the CNMI for making a great deal of progress in recent years to improve labor conditions,” he said.

A NATIONAL feminist magazine has documented the abuse of alien workers’ rights in the CNMI, the existence of sweatshop conditions in garment factories here, the islands’ low minimum wage, abortions, forced prostitutions, and the role played by disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, former House Republican Leader Tom Delay and the commonwealth government in ensuring that these problems remain unaddressed more than a decade after the national media reported them.
Ms. Magazine’s Spring 2006 issue carries the story “Paradise Lost,” referring to the exploitation of women, mostly Chinese and Filipinos, in the CNMI’s garment and sex tourism industries.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has been aware of the Ms. Magazine article for a few weeks although he has not actually read the article, according to Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr.
“We understand that it negatively portrays the CNMI,” he said.
Big red letters on the cover of Ms. Magazine read, “Sex, Greed and Forced Abortions in ‘Paradise.”
Ms. Magazine staff reporter Rebecca Clarren and photographer Martin Von Krogh came to Saipan in early February to work on the story.
Ms. Magazine has offices at the Feminist Majority Foundation in Los Angeles, Calif., and Arlington, Va.
CNMI residents can view the cover and the contents of the magazine on its Web site, msmagazine.com.
The full story, however, is not available online but a few copies of the magazine found their way to Saipan this week.
Reyes said the Fitial administration “clearly has no tolerance for labor law violations and will vigorously prosecute the case to set a clear example to all,” referring to the Starlite Club case, whose owners were arrested for hiring minors as strip dancers and for other violations.
“We cannot afford to allow the CNMI’s image to be further besmirched,” Reyes said.
Cohen said there are still serious abuses going on in the CNMI that cannot be tolerated, but he said local government leaders and responsible business leaders are aware of that “and are working with us, not against us.”
The greatest challenge for the CNMI government, according to Cohen, will be to ensure that sufficient resources are available to address the backlog of labor complaints.
“Resources are hard to come by in these difficult times, but it’s extremely important to ensure that legitimate complaints of workers are investigated thoroughly and adjudicated without excessive delay,” said Cohen.
He added, “It makes me sad that people will read this article and conclude that the CNMI is a horrible place. The CNMI is actually a wonderful place that is struggling to deal with some very serious challenges.”
Labor Secretary Gil M. San Nicolas earlier told Variety that the Department of Labor was doing its best to reduce their backlog of labor complaints. Last week, Labor finally issued an administrative order on a labor case filed 10 years ago.
‘Paradise lost’
Ms. Magazine’s story begins with a scene inside the Rifu garment factory where mostly Chinese women “cut, sew, iron and fold blouses with such efficiency and focus that they seem like machinery themselves.”
It mentions the workers’ hefty payments to recruiters, which can amount to $7,000, so they can work on Saipan.
As this newspaper has reported in the past, these workers hardly earn enough money to pay back recruiters within their one-year contracts.
The CNMI’s minimum wage has been $3.05 an hour since 1996 after the gradual wage hike law was repealed at the behest of the garment industry.
The CNMI is home to about 40,000 nonresident workers, mostly from China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Thailand.
Jeff Schorr, Saipan field representative for the Office of Insular Affairs, said the article “provides no balance and largely rehashes many of the problems rampant in the mid-90s.”
“There is no credit given to the efforts and progress made in contract worker conditions made by local government officials in recent years right up to the present; and no mention made of the efforts made by the Office of Insular Affairs, the Department of Labor, (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and other federal agencies for almost 10 years now,” said Schorr.
The story mentioned the “chronically underfunded” CNMI Department of Labor which takes six months to a year to complete reviews of complaints, and the absence of labor unions in the CNMI.
It also noted the lack of authority to investigate or prosecute by the Federal Labor Ombudsman’s office, which is under the U.S. Department of the Interior.
“There are serious problems here and everybody knows it…. There isn’t anyone who would say there aren’t worker abuses,” Federal Labor Ombudsman Jim Benedetto was quoted as saying. Benedetto is off-island.
Schorr said the labor ombudsman pointed out to Ms. Magzine that progress has been made in addressing labor problems in the CNMI.
“To be quoted out of context is unfair, inaccurate and an example of why there is increasing lack of respect for journalism today by the public, as studies and polls have shown,” said Schorr.
The story then narrated how, in 1995, the CNMI government hired Washington, D.C. lobbyist Preston, Gates, Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds law firm of which Abramoff was a part. Abramoff, because of his close ties to Republicans in the House, including then-Majority Whip Tom Delay, was able to block attempts to end the CNMI’s exemption from U.S. minimum wage and immigration laws.
Chinese garment workers, wanting to stay on their jobs, ended up having abortions at Saipan’s abortion clinics posing as acupuncture clinics, the article stated.
A few years back, the CNMI government conducted sting operations on establishments believed to be underground abortion clinics but it is unknown whether they succeeded in putting a stop to the practice.
The article also discussed the $20 million garment industry settlement agreement after two federal class-action suits were filed on behalf of garment workers alleging violations of U.S. and CNMI laws that included forcing workers to work under hazardous conditions.
However, a number of these garment factories continue to violate U.S. and CNMI labor laws and engage in illegal termination and discrimination.
Funds from the $20 million garment settlement agreement are almost wiped out.
The closure of seven Saipan garment factories since the lifting of international trade quotas on Jan. 1, 2005 have displaced thousands of workers, most of them with pending labor cases. Only a small percentage have chosen to go back to their home country, while most of them have sought temporary work but remain unsuccessful.
Ms. Magazine noted that the inability of these workers to find other jobs has led them into the “sex tourism” industry. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Hawaii regional director Timothy Riera was quoted as saying that women recruited to work on Saipan as waitresses or in other legitimate jobs often end up being forced to become strippers or prostitutes.
One of the women interviewed by Ms. Magazine said she was recruited as a waitress but said her employer forced her to work as a prostitute. She added that they were expected to have sex with as many as four men per day and given but one daily meal of noodles.
In recent weeks, Variety has been running stories about night clubs that employ minors and other workers who are forced to do sexual acts. The victims are usually fearful of their supervisors or employers who can readily send them home. While the employment of minors and sexual servitude have long been known of in the CNMI, only recently have arrests been made.

As we so often find, to our joy or dismay, the blogosphere is already "on it".

Vague Nihilism has this (and more, including links):

Former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay (shown here with President Bush) has a long history in the politics of the Commonwealth of the North Mariana Islands. These Islands, under the flag of the United States, have numerous clothing factories staffed by Asian guest workers (you know, like in Bush's plan for guest workers instead of immigrants) who are paid below the U.S. minimum wage.

For years, reports have depicted these women's lives as closer to slavery than freedom.

Wal-Mart and other major U.S. retailers are currently facing a multi-billion dollar lawsuit filed on behalf of 50,000 female workers from China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Thailand. These women allege that they were lured to Saipan with the promise of good jobs and a good life and arrived to find prison-like conditions were factories and living spaces were surrounded by barbed wire and guards.

The women allege that they were forced to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in unsanitary factories, were not compensated for overtime, and were paid very poorly. Some of the women were also asked to sign contracts that forbade them to date or marry or otherwise risk pregnancy. There are also allegations of forced abortions.

Tom DeLay, whose involvement with CNMI businesses ran through Jack Abramoff and Seattle law firm Preston Gates, overlooked such practices, never bothering to investigate them. According to The American Prospect:

Many observers have looked at Saipan and seen ugly manufacturing sweatshops and sleazy bars where girls as young as 14 are forced into prostitution. But not DeLay. To DeLay, Saipan was an inspiration, not an embarrassment. Indeed, the United States, DeLay told the Houston Chronicle in 1998, ought to create a mainland guest-worker program just like the one Saipan offered Chinese citizens, where “particular companies can bring Mexican workers in” and pay them “whatever the market will bear.” The Saipan solution, he added, was “a shining example of a free-market success.”

Look for the full article in the Spring 2006 issue of Ms. Magazine. The article is not posted at the moment, but here is an excerpt of the story:

With few economic options, pregnant workers often feel they have no choice but to visit one of Saipan's underground abortion providers. At least four acupuncture clinics offer pills to induce abortions, according to a local translator and former garment worker.

"I've driven four Chinese women to get abortions here," he says, pointing to an inconspicuous cement building with red Chinese lettering and an English sign that reads "Acupuncture, Herbs, Massage Oils." "I see girls whose bleeding did not stop, and on two incidents I had to take the girls to the hospital."

I must say that much of the language used in these reports is a bit sensational. That there was, and perhaps still is, abuse and exploitation, I have little doubt. Saipan can certainly be a bit of a frontier town in some respects, as are many places throughout the Pacific; but from my experience the people of Saipan are good, pleasant folks, and it is easy to visit that Micronesian island paradise and not come away with filth in your mouth.

Still, I do wonder if the place would not have been a better place if the garment factories had never come.