Garment makers in New York under fire

“Despite increased federal monitoring of garment factories in New York City, 65 percent of them violated labor regulations during the past two years”, according to a Newsday story by Elaine Wu based on a US Labor Department survey of the garment industry.

“This is a two percent increase from the 1997 survey. These factories have sweatshop-like environments, paying employees below the minimum wage and providing no extra overtime hours worked.

“The survey showed that garment shops that were previously investigated and closely monitored by the government are more likely to comply with labor regulations than those that not closely watched.

“The survey, the second one done, was part of a Labor Department campaign in several cities called No Sweat intended to reduce violations in the industry through the monitoring companies.

“The campaign also encourages employers to closely monitor compliance themselves. Two garment shop operators in Chinatown where most of the factories are based, were arrested last week for giving false statements to investigators about underpayments to employees and making cash payments and about their records on employees’ hours.

“What these arrests show is that we’re very serious about changing the conditions,” said a department spokesperson. “The overall message we’re giving is that it doesn’t pay to break the law”. Linda Dworak, director of Garment Industry Development Corp. in Manhattan, said that competition from manufacturers overseas is one of the reasons factories violate labor laws”.

Gee, this article reconfirmed that our detractors have simply neglected to clean their own backyards before heading out to the islands to hurl rocks at our glass house. They sported arrogance, if not, amnesia as to brave denying that they too live in glass houses. I quiz whether the federal government would work up a storm for a takeover of New York State, yeah? Has anybody seen Congressman George Miller, former OIA helmsman Allen Stayman or ABC’s 20/20 Brian Ross? Fair is fair, you know?

Political immaturity still around

If there’s anything I’ve learned in this business of nearly 30 years, it’s that your detractors would resort to mudslinging when they no longer can employ reason to state their case.

Such seems to be the agenda of a ghost-writer who recently released a scandal sheet in hopes of derailing the candidacy of former Speaker Benigno R. Fitial. Nice try. But the fact that such lowly tactic, used to the hilt mostly in communist countries, has found its way into these isles where freedom abounds only depict the personal immaturity, menopausal frustration and insecurity of the author. It has no legitimacy nor credibility either.

Fitial’s success in business isn’t necessarily rooted in the industry he guided into these isles some sixteen years ago. He started in 1964, when he sacrificed instant gratification to invest his last savings in various stocks as a student in finance and banking at the University of Guam through the insistence of a classmate.
He wasn’t sure whether he should hold or roll. He took the latter option. His classmate too became a highly successful businessman owning the largest jewelry shop in one of the shopping malls in the country. Fitial continued to reinvest his meager $2000 in stocks.

While most of us were too busy trying to look cool with Bossa Nova shoes and loose tail shirts, he was busy learning the very essence of investment, trashing form for substance. Do you really blame his vision and success in this regard? Friends, there’s an Oriental philosophy that we need to learn forthwith: Learn to ride on the success of others!

For the immature ghost-writer who hides behind the shield of his insecurity, step forward and state your case clearly, or I will ask political science professors to include your ill-founded strategy as a seminar course in Poli.Sci. Eh?