BY HARRY RING
LOS ANGELES - A federal suit has been filed against garment manufacturers and retailers who illegally profited from the labor of 72 Thai garment workers who were held in near-slavery at an El Monte apartment complex for several years. They toiled there as long as 22 hours a day for a fraction of the minimum wage.
Initially, the suit targeted the operators of the El Monte sweatshop. They are also under federal indictment for smuggling undocumented immigrants.
Recruited in Thailand and flown to Ca-lifornia by the sweatshop gang, the workers were forced to remain in the El Monte compound assertedly until they worked off their travel expenses.
Released when officials raided the place in August, they were promptly jailed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Hit by protest, the INS released them on bond to remain here as potential material witnesses in the federal trial.
Sixty-eight of the workers have joined in the civil-
rights suit.
At a news conference, attorney Julie Su of the Asian
Pacific American Legal Center said that in addition to the
$7 million in back wages owed the workers, the suit seeks
to win $10,000 a day in punitive damage for each of the
workers.
Su declared the garment companies and retailers who marketed the clothing made by the Thai workers were complicit in perpetrating forced labor and peonage. She charged that they "knew or reasonably should have known" of the illegal conditions the workers were subjected to.
She said they labored 18 hours a day or more "behind razor wire, sharp fences and armed guards. They slept six to ten in a bedroom made for two. [They] lived and worked under the constant threat of harm to themselves and their families in Thailand." Su angrily declared, "The horror of the El Monte slave labor camp brought to the public's attention conditions that garment workers live with - and garment manufacturers profit from - every day.
"With this law suit, the Thai workers say, `No more.' The days of garment manufacturers and retailers cheating workers and taxpayers alike throughout this corrupt industry must end.
"Exploited immigrant workers," she continued, "are being blamed for a whole host of the social and economic ills that plague our society. Today, these Thai workers are fighting back and placing the responsibility where it belongs."
Other participants in the media conference included Cristina Vasquez, an official of the garment workers union, UNITE, which is supporting the action, and American Civil Liberties Union attorney Mark Rosenbaum.
Speakers pointed to the rampant abuses by garment shop bosses. Attorney Della Bahan cited a survey by state and federal inspectors of 69 California manufacturers and contractors, chosen at random.
They found that 92.8 percent violated health and safety laws; 68.1 percent violated overtime payment laws, and 50.7 percent violated minimum wage statutes.
In an interview after the news conference, Chanchanit Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center, discussed the present situation of the El Monte workers. The Center has taken primary responsibility in helping them adjust to their new situation.
Housing and jobs have been found for all of them, she said. Some are doing domestic work or child care. A majority are working in the garment industry - a dozen of them in union shops. They appreciate the change in their job situation, she added, "the ventilation and light." And, she chuckled, "They go home at night."
Meanwhile, in Bangkok, 14 workers who had earlier been entrapped in the El Monte setup, filed suit for back wages. All of them will be interviewed by Randall Grimes, an INS officer there.