What brand of Jeans are you wearing ?

                                                                                                                                      ( August 2008)

   Saipan Is an Island in the south Pacific that is part of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and although is part of the US Commonwealth  laws and policies in the US do not extended to federal immigration, labor, and minimum wage laws of these islands' industries, allowing them to continue manufacturing goods with the "Made in the USA" label,
while permitting sweatshop conditions.

Are you wearing Levis:  In 1991, Levi Strauss was embarrassed by a scandal involving six subsidiary factories run on Saipan by the Tan Holdings Corporation. It was revealed that Chinese laborers in those factories suffered under what the U.S. Department of Labor called "slave like" conditions. Cited for sub-minimal wages, seven-day work week schedules with twelve-hour shifts, poor living conditions and other indignities (including the alleged removal of passports and the virtual imprisonment of workers), Tan would eventually pay what was then the largest fines in U.S. labor history, distributing more than $9 million in restitution to some 1200 employees. At the time, Tan factories produced 3% of Levi's jeans with the "Made in the U.S.A." label. Levi Strauss claimed that it had no knowledge of the offenses, severed ties to the Tan family, and instituted labor reforms and inspection practices in its offshore facilities.

In 1992, The Washington Post exposed the company’s exploitation of Chinese prison labor to make jeans. Levi Strauss responded by creating a code of labor standards. But when the venerable American brand shifted all of its manufacturing overseas in 2002, laying off thousands of workers, it resorted once again to relying on labor from China, Bangladesh and nearly 50 other countries. Many of these factories, including a Levi Strauss supplier in Durango, Mexico, have been accused of violating the company’s ethical code by not allowing labor organization, forcing workers to work more than 12 hours a day and withholding overtime pay. In 2005, workers fired from the Durango supplier for organizing successfully won their jobs back, with overtime and back pay.

Wages: Factory workers in Saipan making Levi’s blue jeans earned three dollars an hour in 2001. That same year, Levi Strauss CEO Philip Marineau made 25.1 million dollars—amounting to 11,971 dollars an hour

What About Guesse Jeans:

In the 1990s, Guess was a notorious labor rights violator in the U.S., with an estimated 80 sweatshops in Los Angeles. Workers, mostly Latina and Asian immigrant women, made less than the minimum wage and often worked 10 to 12 hours a day.

Guess ran full-page ads in major daily American newspapers, proclaiming that their contractors were “guaranteed 100 percent free of sweatshop labor.” It even sewed “sweatshop free” labels into their jeans. The reality was In 1992, the U.S. Department of Labor accused Guess? contractors of failing to pay their employees overtime or the minimum wage. Guess? paid the back wages and promised to more carefully monitor its operations. But soon the company was busted for illegal sweatshops. In 1996, the company fired workers attempting to organize a union, shut down their California plants and moved its sewing operations to Mexico and Latin America in order to avoid labor abuse citations.

Wal-Mart Jeans:

Wal-Mart gets its garments from supplier factories around the world. In one Nicaragua factory, a garment inspector for Wal-Mart jeans inspected 20,000 jeans each week, earning less than 40 cents an hour. Another worker in a garment factory in the Philippines was forced to work 24 hours straight. In Bangladesh, children between the ages of nine and 12 have been found working in Wal-Mart sweatshops. In Honduras, children worked up to 13 hours a day for 25 cents an hour

More than 80 percent of Wal-Mart’s merchandise suppliers are in China.In 2004, Wal-Mart earned more than 250 billion dollars, making it the world’s largest corporation. Its earnings accounted for two percent of the U.S. annual gross domestic product.Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott, Jr. made more than17 million dollars.