WORLD NEWS MHI72 1 1 I THE EHREND _• 1 7: Despite years of crackdowns, sweatshops continue to thrive by Paul Pringle Knight-Ridder Tribune March 12, 2000 LOS ANGELES The clothes may be labeled "Made in the U.5.A.," but the people who sew them earn as little as eight cents to hem a cuff, six cents to stitch a zipper. It doesn't add up to much after a long day's drudgery. Many of Los Angeles' 140,000 garment workers earn less than minimum wage, never mind the law. As for health insur ance, overtime pay, and other benefits well, they're a dream that rarely comes true. "I see the clothes in the store win dows with high prices, and it's not right," said Hilda Guerrero, 26, who makes $3.75 an hour for piecework all those cuffs and zippers at a downtown garment factory. California's minimum wage is $5.75. "It's hard what we do. A hard life." Fashion-obsessed Los Angeles leads the nation in apparel manufac turing. It is also the country's sweat shop capital. The region may be en joying an economic boom, but the Angelenos whose toil helps dress America have been left far behind. Sweatshops continue to thrive de spite years of government crack downs, industry pledges to closely monitor manufacturers and subcon tractors, and mounting protests by union activists and campus organiza tions. "When you hear about sweatshops, you think of the most egregious ex amples in Indonesia and China," said Nikki Bas, program coordinator for Oakland-based Sweatshop Watch, a coalition of labor, civil-rights, and student groups. "People would be outraged to learn about the conditions here in the United States," Bas said. Federal and state officials estimate that Los Angeles sweatshops employ tens of thousands of workers. Sweat shops also flourish in New York and San Francisco and are found in smaller numbers in Dallas, Chicago, and the Southeast, the officials say. Most of the workers are undocu mented immigrants exploited by fly by-night companies, according to the U.S. Labor Department. The govern ment defines a sweatshop as a fac tory that flouts wage laws and sub jects employees to squalid, unhealthy, Pope's trip to Holy Land spotlights tensions among major religions by Nomi Morris Knight-Ridder Tribune March 13, 2000 JERUSALEM Pope John Paul IPs pilgrimage to the Holy Land next week threatens to expose tensions among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in this region as each group competes for his attention. "Everybody's going to try to trump the other. Everybody wants their pic ture with the pope," said Father Michael McGarry, rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute near Bethlehem. The Vatican is trying to avoid po litical minefields during the pope's visit, after his apology Sunday, March 5, for the sins of the Roman Catholic Church against Jews, Muslims, women, and native peoples. The pope's visit is being described as a personal pilgrimage and his meetings with Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are being called "courtesy calls.' "It's not an accident that this apol ogy comes this week, before the Holy Land visit," said Father Jerry Murphy- O'Connor, who teaches at the Do minican Ecole Biblique in East Jerusalem. "It's not just the Jews of Europe, it's the Indians of South America. The church was a teaching institution and its teaching was often defective." Father Murphy and other Catholics here note that the church long ago abandoned its conversion efforts in the Holy Land, mindful of the pain it caused Jews, Muslims, and non- Catholic Christians. Only 2 percent of the Holy Land's population is Christian, and of those only half rec ognize the Vatican as their religious authority. But the pope's visit is already fuel ing controversy. Jerusalem's Mayor Ehud Olmert has complained that he was not invited to accompany the pope and Jerusalem's Mufti, or Mus lim religious authority, to Muslim holy sites on Temple Mount, known and sometimes life-threatening work ing conditions. Representatives of California's $3O billion fashion industry acknowledge that "bandit" factories abound in Los Angeles. But they say well-estab lished manufacturing contractors and retailers have nothing to do with sweatshops, though the Labor De partment has re peatedly linked big clothing out lets to the gar ment under- ground The industry representatives contend that sweatshops sur vive because of failed immigra tion policies, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and consumer de mand for the in expensive clothes. Ilse Metchek, executive direc tor of the Califor nia Fashion Asso ciation, said she would be de lighted if shop pers insisted on KRT PHOTO BY EMILIO FLORES buying and A building in downtown Los Angeles, California, houses garment factories on floor after floor. Many of the paying more for workers earn less than minimum wage and have no benefits "sweat-free" clothes. She isn't holding her breath, however. "Does the consumer really care about anything except price?" Metchek said. "The consumer doesn't care." Guerrero is a consumer herself, but she can't even afford the clothes she sews and trims. A Mexican who crossed the border illegally, she has worked in the downtown fashion dis trict for three years. In a good week, she grosses $lBO for 48 hours of stitching and cutting. She receives no benefits. "Sometimes we have to work until ten at night because thy owner wants to finish an order," Gyerrero said in Spanish, her weary` eyes belying a game smile. She was collecting her two daughters at a charity day-care center on Skid Row, where wild- by Muslims as Haram al Sharif. Olmert says the lack of an invitation is a slight to Israel's sovereignty over all of Jerusalem. Israel's political leadership is also worried that the Palestinian Author ity will use the pope's visits to "For the pope this is not easy. We have to change 2000 years of history . . . It's clear this is his dream, to celebrate the millennium here. He's been talking about it since 1994." Bethlehem, the Dehaishe refugee camp, and the Muslim-controlled Temple Mount as a platform to press Palestinian claims to statehood, con trol of disputed Jerusalem, and the right of return of millions of Pales tinian refugees. Many rabbis in Israel have objected to the pope's Saturday program, say ing it will cause Jews to desecrate the Sabbath, even though the Vatican made a point of scheduling the Mass in Nazareth, an Arab town populated by Christians and Muslims. Some Israelis have even taken of fense at the Vatican's request that ambulances traveling with the pope be stripped of the Star of David in signia, the local equivalent of the Red Cross. A plain ambulance is the usual procedure for papal visits around the world. Environmentalists have gotten into the act, too, protesting the clearing of a nature park for parking lots and a huge stage for the youth mass. In Nazareth, a municipal garbage strike has suddenly taken on international implications, for fear the piles of rub- haired panhandlers peered through the windows. "We never get paid for the extra work." Guerrero's husband sews at an other downtown factory. They live in a single-room apartment one floor above her workplace, in a sooty brick building near sidewalks that reek of urine. They share a bathroom and kitchen with three other families "I expected to find a better house and a better job," said Guerrero, the smile fading. She added that her lack of English and a green card has made it impossible to climb the employ ment ladder. "I keep hoping, though." She pulled a pair of trimming scis sors from her jeans pocket, display ing them as she might a stone re moved from her shoe. "My fingers hurt all day," she said. Her story is common. A 1998 La bor Department study determined that 61 percent of Los Angeles gar ment factories violated wage laws. The department's 40 investigators in Los Angeles raid and fine roughly 200 sweatshops a year. "It doesn't seem to change the sweatshops' behavior," said Gerald bish won't be cleared by next week. Although it may be billed as a pri vate visit, an event that is attracting 2,000 journalists and 50.000 pilgrims is anything but. An estimated 2 bil lion people are expected to tune in to live television coverage March 24 of -Father Michael McGarry, rector of Tantur Ecumenical Institute near Bethlehem a youth Mass for 100,000 on the Mount of Beatitudes by the Sea of Galilee. Israel's foreign ministry has as signed 88 information officers to the visit, and has a senior diplomat on call 24 hours a day to handle sensitive is sue that might arise. Palestinians are elated about the pope's visit, and a Gallup poll earlier this month showed that nearly 60 per cent of Israelis also see it in a posi tive light. Still, the poll showed that only 44 percent of Jews are aware that the Vatican officially overturned anti- Jewish teachings as early as 1965 and only 35 percent know the pope apolo gized in 1998 for the complicity of Catholics in the Holocaust. " There is generally abysmal igno rance among Israelis and world Jewry about Christianity and this pope," said Ron Kronish, director of the Interre ligious Coordinating Council in Is rael, which commissioned the poll. In fact, this pope has gone further than any other to mend relations strained by centuries of church-in- Hall, the department's deputy re gional administrator for the Western Hall said the federal government would have to field hundreds of in vestigators to make a sizable dent in the sweatshops. Even then, he added, enforcement measures would he hampered by silence in the factory. Few workers are willing to complain, usually because of their immigration status, Hall said. The majority of the workers arrive illegally from Mexico, Central America, China, and Southeast Asia, according to the Labor Department and the California Division of Occu pational Safety and Health. The state agency reports that nearly all Los Angeles garment factories it inspects are cited for running afoul of its standards. Many of the offenses are deemed serious hazards. They in clude poor ventilation, exposed elec trical wires, and locked fire exits. "I felt like I was being transported back in time," said Julia Figueira- McDonough, an attorney for the Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation, which files back-pay lawsuits for gar ment workers. Her cases have taken spired persecution of Muslims and Jews, from the Crusades to the Span ish Inquisition to the Holocaust. In 1986, the pope made a historic visit to a Rome synagogue. On Sun day, he apologized for all the sins of the Catholic Church over the past two millennia. "For the pope this is not easy. We have to change 2000 years of history," said McGarry. "There is still anti- Semitism and contempt. But the ship has left port. We have benefited from a pope that has kept Christian-Jewish relations front and center." Despite religious and political sen sitivities, the Vatican and the Israeli government are eager to showcase the papal pilgrimage as a historic moment of reconciliation between the Catho lic Church and the Jewish people. "It's clear this is his dream, to cel ebrate the millennium here," said McGarry. "He's been talking about it since 1994." John Paul will meet with Chief Rabbi Meir Lau in the Chief Rabbin ate in Jerusalem -- a first for the Vatican, which established relations with Israel in 1993. The pope and Lau both grew up in wartime Poland. Their meeting is in contrast to the last papal pilgrimage here in 1964, when Pope Paul VI refused to set foot on the Jewish side of Jerusalem and the chief rabbis refused to meet him else- John Paul also will visit the West ern Wall, Judaism's holiest site, and Yad Vashem, the national Holocaust museum, where he will meet 30 Is raeli Jews from his hometown who survived the war. He is trying to or ganize an interfaith meeting of top Jewish, Christian, and Muslim cler- ics a rarity in the region. His visit comes as the country is on high alert for a terrorist attack. John Paul's visit will involve the largest security operation the Jewish state has ever mounted, far exceeding the ar rangements for the December 1998 visit of President Clinton. her into the bowels of the nastiest sweatshops "I saw women Kent over, no venti lation, dirty floors, darkened rooms, piles of clothes," she recalled. "Workers eating. with rats and cock roaches at their feet." r e( . (•n t() do/en dm% ntown 101111(1 gears. There was barely a murmur of conversation. Plowing through the heaps of fabric required nonstop hustle. Attempts to interview several of the factory owners who lease space at the building were unsuccessful. They either declined to answer ques tions or did not return telephone calls. Others had unlisted numbers. Government investigators have un covered tar worse conditions than those on Hill Street, and the problem is not limited to Los Angeles. The San Francisco area is home to about 400 sweatshops. federal officials say. In New York, a Labor Department survey concluded that three-quarters of the city's 3,000 garment factories hn)kc wage laws last year. In Dallas. the ranks of sweatshops have al \\ ays been comparatively thin, and they , ha \ c declined by half to Key reformer seriously wounded by gunmen in Iran by Drusilla slenaker Knight-Ridder Tribune March 13, 2(X)0 CAIRO, Egypt —A key strategist be hind Iran's democracy movement was shot and seriously wounded Sunday by two men on a motorcycle in central Tehran. Saeed Hajjarian. credited with put ting together the February election campaign that led to reform candidates taking control of the parliament, was shot in the face at close range. He was under intensive care at a Tehran hospi tal with a bullet lodged in the back of his neck. Hajjarian has been an important ad viser to Iranian President Mohammed Khatemi, whose upset election in 1997 set off a reform movement that has challenged the hold on power of hard line clerics. Hajjarian is also a Tehran City Coun cil member and editor of a new inde pendent newspaper that has examined human rights abuses with unprec edented frankness and implicated rogue intelligence agents and politicians in the killings of dissidents. On the eve of the Feb. 18 elections, Hajjarian spoke enthusiastically of the voter-powered change under way in Iran. Rejecting anti-Western rhetoric, he described poring over American political science reviews to better un derstand the mechanics of electioneer ing, coalition building, and opinion polling. read hooks because we don't have this experience in Iran," he said in an interview. But he said his country's democracy had to be "localized," noting conser vatives' allegations that the reformers' exuberant rallies violated social codes against young men and women danc ing together. "These are things you don't have to consider elsewhere," he said. Hajjarian, 46, also correctly predicted that an outpouring of support in the elections for Khatemi's allies would wrest a two-thirds majority from the conservatives, and he looked forward about 150 since the mid-19905, said Bruce Cranford, a Labor Depart ment supervisor in the city. Most employ five to 10 workers, Cranford said. The reduction in Dallas sweatshops is thought to he partly due to the 1994 adoption of NAFFA. Industry ana lysts say the treaty's easing of trade restrictions has made it tougher for many U.S. garment factories to com pete with Latin American companies. That is the situation in Los Ange les, which has witnessed a slow exo dus of factories to Mexico, said Metchek of the fashion association. She asserted that NAFTA and Los Angeles' huge population of job-hun gry undocumented immigrants have forced sweatshops and mainstream manufacturers alike to hid low for contracts and keep salaries down. "Cheap labor is being sought after by everyone," she said. vermin, but the `CC tics were e.tim. In one building on 11111 Street, dimly lit corri dors led to rooms packed with sewing tables. The floors were peeling and the walls stained. Bleachv odors seeped from a bathroom down the hall. Two of the five Metchek also accused the Labor Department of exaggerating the ex tent of wage violations. She said le gitimate manufacturers and retailers' scrupulously vet subcontractors for law breaking. Federal officials agree that the in dustry has expanded its self-policing initiatives. But they say much more needs to be done. "Some of the moni toring I've seen is pretty good, and some is pretty had," Hall said. Early in the Clinton Administra tion, the Labor Department began turning up the heat by publicizing the names of retailers that bought from sweatshops. In September, the gov ernment collected $247,000 in back wages from a Los Angeles factory whose manufacturing contractor sup plied clothes to Eddie Bauer, North Face, Reebok, Jones New York, and Gap. Representatives for the factory, Emeraldtex Inc., could not be reached for comment. toilets were blocked. T h e workers mostly Latino and Asian im- migrants, were jackknifed over the buzzing machines. Their hands moved as if driven To increase pressure on retailers, the Labor Department intends to step up seizures of garment shipments from sweatshops and their contrac tors, said John Fraser, a deputy ad ministrator for the department in Washington. A new state law also provides a mechanism to impose penalties on manufacturers and retailers that con tract, directly or indirectly, with il licit factories. It is the strictest stat ute of its kind. to a parliament that would endorse free speech, a liberalized election law, and other reforms leading to "the consolida tion of democracy." President Khatemi, who was touring a province Sunday, condemned the at tack by "enemies of freedom" who "have no place among the people." No one claimed responsibility for the 8:35 a.m. attack outside the City Coun cil offices. Witnesses said that a power ful motorcycle, the type used by the se curity forces and police, pulled up and that one of the two helmeted men aboard got off, pointed a handgun at Hajjarian, and fired two shots, one of which hit him. " Everyone is in shock," said Shirzad Bozoigmehr, editor of the Iran News, an English-language daily. But he added that rumors of death threats against re formers were circulating in the wake of the hard-liners' dramatic election defeat. "We all expected something," he said. Government ministers and other ac tivists came to Hajjarian's bedside at a central Tehran hospital. Hundreds of Iranians, some holding the front-page headline from his newspaper reading "Hajjarian Terrorized," stood outside, some praying. A command center was established to coordinate the manhunt. Checkpoints were set up around the capital, and other prominent reformers were given extra protection, something Hajjarian had re fused, according to security officials quoted by the Iranian news agency. A meeting of the Supreme National Secu rity Council was called. No public protest was reported, and pro-Khatemi officials cautioned that the attempted assassination was likely an attempt to create a destabilizing sense of crisis in Iran. Student demonstrations last August, apparently provoked when thugs invaded university dormitories, were quelled by warnings that they could generate a backlash from hard-liners with allies within the security forces. The death-squad murders of five writ ers in late 1998 is one of the grievances most frequently mentioned by Iranians. Khatemi has made reining in the secu rity forces under "the rule of law" as one of his main missions.
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