November 23, 1999 Press Release

Protests expected as the World Trade Organization set meets late this month in Seattle have inspired a local protest to a Seattle newspaper by the Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association.

SGMA Executive Director Richard A. Pierce told Seattle Post-Intelligencer Business Editor Don Smith in a letter, "you will have noticed by now, the industry represented by [SGMA] has been targeted for attention by the Clinton administration and the activists planning protests in Seattle."

Pierce said that most national media coverage has come down on the side of those who want to present the CNMI as islands of sweatshops and labor abusers and that responsible local media should look deeper. He cited a recent Associated Press story which printed allegations in a current class action lawsuit as proven fact because some retailers agreed to settlements.

Nordstrom, a Seattle-based retailer was among those who settled. "Those who settled made it clear they did so to save themselves a lot of money rather than continue to defend their interests against rapacious law firms such as Milberg, Weiss, the masterminds behind this effort."

Pierce reminded the business editor that Milberg, Weiss successfully pioneered the tactic of suing the management of high-tech firms on behalf of stockholders, collecting millions when managers chose to settle instead of defending their performance, in effect surrendering to blackmail.

"In this case," Pierce said, "Milberg, Weiss has used the interests of labor unions–to kill us as a competitor–and the human rights groups, not always the same by the way, as the means to create yet another stream of revenue."

Pierce asked the Post-Intelligencer to give more thought to the real motives of various parties who favor federalizing CNMI labor and immigration controls. Are they truly concerned with the welfare of overseas workers, or are they simply being used to pursue the agenda of U.S. labor unions and the Clinton administration?

"How would it will help the situation if the WTO could be persuaded to pass rules that will effectively redirect manufacture of our production to, say Honduras or Bangladesh, the kind of places where it is being driven in any event? It certainly won’t help the worker interests that so concern the human rights folks," Pierce said.

Pierce suggested that more fair and even-handed coverage of the issue would improve public understanding of the issues involved but, "probably the World Trade Organization meeting or even the streets outside aren’t the right place for that discussion."