We write to you with great joy today to spread the good news that justice has prevailed for Saipan workers. GAP Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch, Target, J.C. Penney Company, Inc., Lane Bryant, Inc., The Limited, Inc., and Talbots, Inc announced yesterday that they would join the 19 other retailers in settling the Saipan Lawsuits. Levi Strauss and Co is the only company that has not settled.

Read all the details below and CALL Levis. CALL Robert Haas, the Chairman of Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&CO.) and the great-great-grandnephew of the company's founder, Levi Strauss to pressure him to live up to the American values his company is "supposed" to symbolize. Demand that Levis SETTLE THE SAIPAN LAWSUIT!

CALL Bob Haas, or his assistant Mi Tas at (415) 501-6000 or 1-800-USA LEVI

You can also call Albert Moreno, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, who continues to reccomend that Levis not settle. You can reach him at 415-501-7650 or e-mail him at amoreno@levi.com

Thank you so much for the years of support on this campaign. Victory could not have been achieved without you!

In peace and solidarity,
Global Exchange www.globalexchange.org/economy/corporation/saipan
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September 26, 2002

U.S. Clothing Retailers on Saipan Settle Landmark Workers' Rights Lawsuit

Retailers and Manufacturers to Fund Groundbreaking Independent Monitoring Program To Improve Labor Conditions on U.S. Territory

The remaining U.S. clothing retailers that buy garments manufactured on Saipan in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, and twenty-three Saipan manufacturers have settled claims against them in a federal class-action lawsuit alleging violations of wage and hour laws and other workers' rights.

"These settlements open a new chapter in Saipan - for workers and factories alike," said Al Meyerhoff, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs and partner at Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP. "We are delighted with the outcome and look forward to swift court approval."

The seven U.S. retailers - Abercrombie & Fitch, Target, Gap, Inc., J.C. Penney Company, Inc., Lane Bryant, Inc., The Limited, Inc., and Talbots, Inc. - join 19 other retailers that had previously settled. The agreement adopts a code of conduct and funds independent monitoring of factories on Saipan. The parties have agreed to explore using the International Labor Organization (ILO), an adjunct of the United Nations, as a monitoring body.

Each company will make a one-time contribution to a fund that will finance the monitoring program and compensate more than 30,000 garment workers, and cover administration costs and attorneys' fees. Today's agreement brings the total settlement fund to more than $20 million. $8.75 million will come from the previously settled retailers and the remainder, $11.25 million, will come from the remaining 23 manufacturers and 7 retailers. The settlement requires court approval and does not involve an admission of wrongdoing by the defendants. Milberg Weiss Hynes & Lerach LLP, one of the law firms representing the workers, agreed to waive all of its attorneys' fees as part of the agreement.

Today's settlements, if approved by the Federal Court in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, will bring to a close more than three years of hard-fought litigation between the plaintiffs and the settling defendants alleging that Saipan's garment industry violated U.S. labor and human rights laws.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of immigrant workers from nearby Asian countries who, the plaintiffs alleged, were drawn to Saipan with promises of high pay but then allegedly encountered a pattern of long hours, low pay and other objectionable working conditions. The Saipan garment factories produce more than one billion dollars worth of clothing sold annually in U.S. stores.

The manufacturers agree as a condition of the settlement to comply with strict employment standards, including a guarantee of extra pay for overtime work, safe food and drinking water, and other basic workers' rights. Workers who want to return to their home countries also will be eligible for up to $3,000 in relocation fees.

"This agreement sets up an independent monitoring system that assures that workers will be treated with dignity. A policy of human rights has arrived in Saipan," commented Medea Benjamin, President of Global Exchange.

A panel of three retired judges will be set up to oversee monitoring. The panel will have the power to conduct unannounced inspections of the factories and investigate worker complaints. The judges can order payment of back wages, establish cures for violations found by the monitors and, in worst cases, place manufacturers on probation for repeated and systematic non-compliance with the code of conduct. "Consumers who buy clothes labeled 'Made in the U.S.A.' assume that American law protects the workers who sew them. This historic settlement makes that assumption a reality, fully guaranteeing legal rights for all Saipan garment workers. The result is a victory for American consumers and for the workers themselves," said Michael Rubin, a lead attorney for the workers and a partner at Altshuler Berzon Nussbaum Rubin & Demain in San Francisco. "This case breaks new ground" said UNITE head Bruce Raynor. "Under this agreement, defendants have established a program that will assure the rights of garment workers are fully and effectively protected. This has been a long road and we're pleased it has come to a successful conclusion."

"While we have far to go to protect the rights of garment workers internationally, this settlement is a significant victory because it makes clear that manufacturers will be held accountable for their actions," according to Joannie Chang, Employment and Labor Director, Asian Law Caucus of San Francisco.

"We're happy that this long fight has finally reached an agreement," said Victor Narro, Co-Director of Sweatshop Watch. "We believe that defendants are responsible to the workers. Levi's - which incomprehensibly is still opposing this settlement - especially needs to heed this advice."

One final defendant, Levi Strauss & Co., has not agreed to the settlement, but stopped purchasing garments from Saipan after the lawsuit was filed.
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Friday, September 27, 2002 (SF Chronicle) Clothiers fold on sweatshop lawsuit/Saipan workers to get millions; Levi holds out Robert Collier, Jenny Strasburg, Chronicle Staff Writers

Ending a three-year legal battle, 26 of America's biggest clothing retailers have settled a class-action lawsuit over alleged sweatshop abuses on Saipan, a U.S. island in the western Pacific.

In the agreement, announced Thursday, San Francisco's Gap Inc., six other U. S. firms and 23 local manufacturers on Saipan joined 19 retailers that had previously agreed to a settlement. The deal creates a $20 million fund to pay back wages to workers and create a monitoring system to prevent labor abuses.

Levi Strauss & Co., a $4 billion company that sells jeans, khakis and casual separates under the Levi and Dockers brands, refused to settle and will continue to fight the lawsuit.

The groups that brought the suit -- Asian Law Caucus and Global Exchange, both of San Francisco, Sweatshop Watch of Oakland and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees -- said the settlement would bring new pressure to end exploitation in the vast network of foreign factories that cater to U.S. consumers' fashion appetites.

"This is a significant victory because it pushes the envelope on how far workers and consumers can press retailers to be responsible for the conditions under which our clothes are made," said Nikki Bas, co- director of Sweatshop Watch.

Bas and other plaintiffs said the deal would rejuvenate the nation's anti-sweatshop movement, which has been a cause celebre on college campuses but has been struggling to turn its noisy protests into concrete results. The deal's provisions include:

-- Code of conduct: Companies agree to comply with basic employment standards, including extra pay for overtime work, safe food and drinking water.

-- Monitoring: A panel of three retired judges will be set up to oversee a program of factory monitoring, which the parties tentatively agreed would be carried out by the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency. The inspectors will conduct unannounced inspections of the factories and investigate worker complaints. The judges can order payment of back wages, establish cures for violations found by the monitors and, in worst cases, place manufacturers on probation for repeated noncompliance with the code of conduct.

-- Compensation: An estimated 30,000 current and former garment workers in Saipan are eligible to share about $6.4 million for unpaid back wages.

-- Repatriation: Workers who want to return to their home countries will be eligible for up to $3,000 in travel and relocation costs.

In addition to Gap, the companies settling this week are Abercrombie & Fitch, Target, J.C. Penney, Lane Bryant Inc., The Limited Inc. and Talbots Inc.

Firms that settled previously include Gymboree Corp. of Burlingame, Sears Roebuck and Co., Nordstrom, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Polo, Ralph Lauren and Liz Claiborne.

The settlement does not involve an admission of wrongdoing by the defendants.

In explaining Levi's refusal to join the settlement, spokeswoman Linda Butler said that the company had its own factory-monitoring program, which was among the first and most far-reaching to be introduced by a global apparel retailer.

"As we've said in the past, the allegations in the lawsuit are just not true against our company, and we feel that settling untrue claims is a compromise of our company's values," Butler said.

Gap Inc. spokesman Alan Marks shrugged off the effect of the settlement, saying it would not change the company's internal monitoring process, in which about 80 inspectors oversee the contractors that make its clothes in about 50 countries.

At least one company that settled, however, reacted bitterly.

"It is a sad fact that these lawsuits were never about the public good," said James Hale, executive vice president for Target Corp. "They were simply one more instance of class-action lawyers acting as publicity profiteers by using the media to smear a company's reputation without regard for the truth."

Saipan is one of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth that is exempt from American labor, immigration and customs laws.

As a result of these exemptions, Saipan's billion-dollar-per-year apparel industry is allowed to stamp its clothing with "Made in the USA" tags and thus avoid the complex system of quotas that limits U.S. imports from foreign nations.

In addition, the commonwealth's apparel and tourist industries are allowed to bring about 20,000 workers annually from East Asian nations, mainly China and the Philippines. The plaintiffs say these workers are trapped in a kind of modern-day indentured servitude, in which workers are forced to pay recruitment fees of as much as $5,000 each, forced to work overtime and kept in debt with paycheck deductions for housing and food.

"If they complained, they would be fired," said Michael Rubin, the plaintiffs' lead lawyer and a partner at Altshuler Berzon Nussbaum Rubin & Demain in San Francisco. "They would then be deported. They did whatever they were told to do, with whatever conditions existed."

The Marianas' minimum wage is $3.05 per hour, far less than the $5.15 per hour minimum nationwide and $6.75 per hour in California.

Democrats in Congress, led by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, have tried to end the commonwealth's exemptions from U.S. law and bring it under full federal control. But reform legislation has been repeatedly blocked by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas.