American Sweatshops: A Look Into the Situation in The Northern Mariana Islands

Although the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or CNMI, is a U.S. territory, it is excluded from the usual American labor and immigration laws and is not represented by the U.S. Congress; yet, according to an article in Ms Magazine, clothing sewn there is allowed to carry the "made in the USA" label. The CNMI’s garment manufacturers were clients of Jack Abramoff, the infamous lobbyist who, with the help of former House Majority leader Tom Delay, blocked all of the legislation that would have eliminated these exemptions. This has allowed garment manufacturers to import thousands of foreign female workers who work up to 20 hours a day in sweatshop conditions. The picture to the right shows a sweatshop in Saipan, one of the islands that comprise the CNMI. On February 8th the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing on the labor and immigration conditions of the CNMI and, with the newly elected Democratic Congress, passed a proposal to increase the CNMI minimum wage to the federal level as part of the nationwide minimum wage increase legislation. This is a notable first step to improving the situation in the CNMI; however, it is not enough. The CNMI is a U.S. territory and it is unacceptable that these types of human rights violations have been allowed to remain for so long. This week I will join the discussion of this issue in two other blogs. The links can be found below along with my comments.


http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2007/02/08/mariana/index.html
Thank you for bringing attention to this issue. Sadly, because The Northern Mariana Islands are able to set their own immigration policies, women are being tricked into contracts of servitude in U.S. territory. I agree with you that raising the minimum wage is not going to solve everything but it is a positive first step. I am very pleased with the fact that under the new Democratic leadership in Congress, the labor and immigration reforms in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are finally going somewhere. The Senate actually passed a bill federalizing the island's local laws six years ago but, as you know, special interest groups lobbied Tom Delay to stop the bill from becoming a law. For this reason it is critical that the CNMI be allowed a seat in Congress. Unfortunately they are currently not represented as Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands are. They need to have a say in the making of policies that affect them.



http://washingtonwoman.blogspot.com/2007/01/worn-in-usa.html
The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources finally held a hearing on February 8 regarding the current situation in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The hearing focused on whether the CNMI should be brought under U.S. labor and immigration law enforcement jurisdiction. Fortunately labor reform in the CNMI is heading in the right direction. The proposal to increase the minimum wage to the federal level passed with ease as part of the nationwide minimum wage increase legislation. I truly hope that this is only the beginning of more good things to come. Unfortunately, a lot more still needs to be done. David B. Cohen, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs, said that “Federalizing the CNMI's immigration system needs to be done in a manner that would not cause needless economic or fiscal harm.” Fifty percent of the residents there are foreign employees and that fact must be taken into account when reforming the immigration laws. We certainly do not want to harm the individuals we intended to help. It must also be considered that the people there currently have no way to change policies that may be detrimental to them because they are not represented in the U.S. Congress. Consequently, they turn to hiring lobbyists, and as we have seen, lobbyists are not representing the interests of these people.

Slave Labor: Brazilian Slave Workers Produce Pig Iron Used In Our Cars

Nearly one million men, women and children work for little or no wages as forced laborers in Latin America. They are modern-day slaves that are lured from their impoverished towns by slave camp bosses promising high paying jobs. This is the case of many people working in the Amazon jungle of Brazil as slaves are forced into hard labor such as clearing trees, mining for gold and most importantly, making charcoal that will be used to make pig iron. According to an article in Observatorio Social, "the Brazilian Amazon produces the world's best pig iron," a key ingredient of steel that is used in the production of automobile parts. This steel then ends up in cars and trucks made in the United States by Ford, General Motors, Nissan and Toyota.

A 2006 news story by Bloomberg News reported that “in the past decade, Brazilian labor inspectors and prosecutors have freed hundreds of slaves working in degrading or inhumane conditions and without pay in charcoal camps that supply pig iron plants.” The slaves in these camps lived in small wooden shacks surrounded by miles and miles of jungle where they had no electricity, no toilets or any other kind of plumbing, no safety goggles, shoes, gloves or tools needed for work, and all drank unsanitary water that was filled with dust, tadpoles and insects. The slave camp bosses had lured them in with promises of jobs but then once there the workers were charged hundreds of dollars for food, transport, and clothing which was held as debt and then forced, sometimes by gunpoint, to be worked off. The lack of money, miles of dangerous jungle, a long distance from home, sometimes hundreds of miles, and intimidation, make it impossible for the hopeless slaves to leave.

After the investigation by Bloomberg News was released exposing these companies, Toyota Motor, the world’s second largest auto-manufacturer, did not join Ford Motors, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors and Honda when they announced plans to work together to train suppliers to avoid buying materials made by slaves. The Bloomberg findings reported that U.S Customs’ records showed that Toyota Tsusho America in New York, known as TAI, "was named as the importer of 13,699 metric tons of pig iron from Usina Siderurgica de Maraba SA or Usimar," a company that purchases its charcoal from Brazilian slave camps, on November 4th, just two days after the Bloomberg article was published.

Toyota continues to deny any wrong doing. In fact, Toyota Tsusho America Senior Vice President Mike Lavender said that to the best of TAI’s knowledge all Brazilian pig iron producers that TAI purchases from do not buy charcoal from slave camps because they have written assurances from their suppliers. The fact is that, as the Bloomberg article reports, it is well documented that Usimar had dropped out of a Brazilian association of pig iron producers that sponsors programs to combat slavery in charcoal camps. “It’s very clear that Toyota is in denial.” says Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves, the U.S. branch of the oldest human rights group in the world. “They’re being disingenuous. That just doesn’t wash. Just a hint of slavery in a supply chain is unacceptable” he added.

It is truly a disgrace when a large company, such as Toyota, simply looks the other way and ignores the inhumane practices of its suppliers just to make a bigger profit. The products of slave labor enter our economy because corporations like Toyota Motors do not ask their suppliers enough questions. It is irresponsible and these companies must be held accountable by consumers for their actions. Americans must be alerted to their practices. One would hope that most Americans would be appalled by this immoral behavior and discouraged from buying cars that were made from parts involving slave labor. Consumers need to be informed in order to make knowledgeable decisions when making purchases so that they can exert a certain amount of influence on companies’ behavior and policies. It is our moral duty to do so.