Take Action for Women in Mariana Islands

At long last, Congress is acting to stop the exploitation of guest workers in the Northern Mariana Islands, a territory of the U.S.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold hearings on February 8th on whether or not the labor and immigration abuses in the Northern Marianas warrant additional legislative reform by Congress. Write your Senators to extend all U.S. labor and immigration law protections to these guest workers and put an end to the unjust treatment of women workers in the Marianas.

February 09, 2010

Subject:

I am writing to ask you to support the long-exploited guest-workers of the U.S. territory of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands by passing legislation to stop their exemption from full coverage of U.S. labor and immigration laws.

On February 8th, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on whether or not to enact legislation that would increase protections for these workers, who for far too long have fallen victim to the excesses of an unregulated guest-worker program.

Congress has made the first step towards reform by including the workers in the Mariana Islands under the federal minimum wage increase.  Now is the time to take the second step by bringing this U.S. territory under U.S. labor and immigration laws, something that should have been done over 30 years ago when these islands joined our nation.

For too long, U.S. clothing companies contracting with garment factories in the Northern Marianas have been able to attach “Made in the USA” labels to their clothing, although they have been exempt from U.S. minimum wage, labor, and immigration laws. This has led to appalling abuses of the mostly-women guest-worker population. Women from poor Asian countries being transported to the Mariana Islands find themselves in a situation of indentured servitude as they try to support themselves while repaying human traffickers as much as $7,000 for a one-year work contract in the Northern Marianas. Unable to make ends meet working as many as 20 hours a day at a sub-minimum wage, many have been forced to work in the islands’ sex tourism industry in order to survive.

I am urging you to fully correct this contemptible labor exploitation of women guest-workers in a U.S. territory.

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