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Garment industry lauds OSHA’s support
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Posted on May 25 2000
The joint partnership agreement between the Saipan Garment Manufacturer’s Association (SGMA) and U.S. Department of Labor-OSHA Division has now been pledged by two-thirds of Saipan’s factories, according to SGMA officials.
The partnership, entitled Excellence 2000, now has the voluntary participation of 21 of the associations’ 31 members.
“We believe our industry has moved to a new level of safety and health compliance here in Saipan,” stated SGMA executive director Richard A. Pierce. “OSHA’s baseline verification inspections, which is the second step toward acceptance by the federal health and safety office into the Excellence 2000 program, show the rewards of our Code of Conduct and its emphasis on compliance with these federal laws.”
OSHA officials have been conducting inspections since the conclusion of SGMA’s recent Code of Conduct Training Conference held earlier this month. For the conference, SGMA joined with the U.S. Department of Labor’s OSHA and Wage & Hour Divisions, the CNMI Department of Public Safety, the Saipan Chapter of the American Red Cross, and Safety 1st Systems to train approximately 80 company representatives in SGMA Code and federal law compliance.
At a separate meeting also this month, OSHA’s Region 9 Administrator Frank Strasheim told members of the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands that his organizations’ main focus on Saipan is the garment industry: “We’re beginning to see a change in that industry. We’re seeing a change in capital improvements being made in the factories and also a change in attitude. I believe it is signal that this will become a model industry not only here in Saipan, but also worldwide.”
“To tell you the truth, this partnership and these inspections by federal officials actually mean more to us than the independent third party monitoring by PricewaterhouseCoopers,” commented Mr. Pierce.
“We are definitely finding things we need to work on, more in the way of systems and management staying on top of training, but these guys open the book during their verification inspections. Some of our companies may not make the grade the first time around, but they’ll know what they have to do to come on board,” he explained.
