First, you said your office gave $5,000 to a Filipino garment worker who had a serious medical condition when the Philippine Consulate General approached your office. What about the Chinese garment workers? Two weeks ago, one of our former co-workers at Michigan garment factory sent your office an application, asking your office for assistance since she needed immediate surgery. She asked for an immediate response and provided you a contact phone number, but had not received any word from your office. Do we need our country’s government office to approach you? Unfortunately we don’t have that here; the only office here to represent China is CEDA, which is a shame and useless. If no one lobbies for us, just forget us?
Second, you were quoted as saying that “the money will only be disbursed to those with emergency needs and not to make life comfortable and luxurious.” Do you think we are having a comfortable and luxurious life here? Since the garment industry left, most of the garment workers have gone back to their home country, for different reasons. We are still here; some of us are lucky to find new work; some of us are not due to the economic downturn.
There are garment workers here who have been jobless for more than six months without getting any social assistance. There are garment workers here who get sick but don’t have money to go to hospital. There are garment workers here who won unpaid backwage claims but have nowhere to collect the award. There are garment workers here who have U.S. citizen children and having a hard time to feed them. There are garment workers here who wish to go home but couldn’t get a plane ticket because their employer and insurance company abandoned them. Is this the “comfortable and luxurious” life you were talking about?
Third, you were also quoted as saying that the remaining money from the $600,000 will be donated to charity. Donations to charities are essential to every society. But before you donate the money to charity, think about priorities first. This $600,000 is the left over from the $20 million settlement money that was supposed to be used to compensate the garment workers for their unpaid overtime and the abuses they encountered at work. You know in detail how much the garment workers got in total from the $20 million, and you know how much of the $20 million went to non-garment workers. But the $20 million is gone and only $600,000 remains. With the hardship the garment workers are facing now, why is the priority charity? If you are tired to handle the money correctly, we can ask Judge Munson to appoint another trustee.
MA HUI
CHEN QIUXIANG
FENG XIAOQING
LIU WEIYONG
ZHAO YUNJIE
Koblerville, Saipan
