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NORTHERN MARIANAS ISLANDS SWEATSHOP LAWSUIT ADDS MORE DEFENDANTS
The ongoing class action lawsuit filed on behalf of immigrant garment workers in the US territory of the Northern Marianas Islands has expanded with the addition of six new defendants, Levi Strauss & Co., Calvin Klein, Inc., Brooks Brothers, Inc.  Abercrombie & Fitch Co., The Talbots, Inc. and Woolrich, Inc.  This brings the number of defendants to ten, following the settlement last year of nine companies.  
Under the US relationship with the Islands, they are not bound by US labor laws.  This arrangement was originally intended to allow the Islands to reach a point of economic self-sufficiency.  However, it has been taken advantage of by US manufacturers who can advertise products made there as “Made in the USA” without having to comply with US laws.  Products made in the Islands are also not subject to US import duties. 
According to the lawsuit, manufacturers lure workers, mostly young women, to the factories with promises that they will live in the US.  Once there, the lawsuit alleges, they are forced to work 12-hour days, seven days a week in unsafe conditions.  They are also paid less than the Islands’ stated minimum wage, and lawyers say they are kept in barracks surrounded by barbed wire. 
The trial is not scheduled to occur until February 2001.