PAGO PAGO, American Samoa Doan Phan Cat Tuong kissed her parents and sisters goodbye and boarded a plane from Vietnam to American Samoa.
The 25-year-old brought little with her except a passport, a round-trip ticket issued by Vietnam’s state Tourism Company 12, pocket change saved from her $50 per month schoolteacher’s salary, and the dream of working in a relatively highly paid job and perfecting her English.
The contract she signed with Tourism Company 12 and Kil-soon Lee, owner of the garment factory Daewoosa Samoa Ltd., guaranteed her $408 per month for three years and three meals a day. By implication, it also provided the worker-safety standards of an American territory operating under the protection of U.S. law.
The promotional video of Daewoosa’s facilities had shown a spacious, air-conditioned residence facility beside a shimmering Olympic-size swimming pool. Miss Tuong paid a fortune for the opportunity: $5,000 she borrowed from family members and paid to the Vietnamese government.
Reality set in quickly when she arrived in the tropical heat of American Samoa and immediately had her passport and return ticket confiscated.
Barbed-wire compound
Federal agencies step in
Regulations not ready
‘Institutionalized violence’
Factory has been closed
Cops get special deals
Finger-pointing is rife
“At a minimum, Daewoosa should have been required to post a bond that would have covered airfare costs for workers in case of business closure.”
Rep. Faleomavaega said that Daewoosa and the Vietnamese contracting agencies “failed to establish a firm, clear and legal understanding of employees’ rights, privileges and/or benefits; issues of which party would assume responsibility for wages, food, lodging and airfare to and from American Samoa,” and that there was no local government oversight.
Lt. Gov. Tulafono would not comment about his or his wife’s involvement with Daewoosa or the bond requirement that was waived. The High Court of American Samoa cleared the couple’s involvement with the company.
However, high-placed sources in the federal government say a federal criminal investigation should be opened into Mr. and Mrs. Tulafono’s ties to Daewoosa.
Numerous Vietnamese employees interviewed didn’t know who sold the clothes they made. The workers do recall, however, sewing on “By Design” labels on clothing. The By Design Web site boasts that the company has $116 million in sales worldwide an 80 percent increase over 1999 to such high-volume retailers as JC Penney, Sears, Target, Casual Corner, May Co., Allied/Federated, Montgomery Ward and Dress Barn.
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