By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 14, 1999; Page A14

In a battery of lawsuits filed on behalf of more than 50,000 foreign workers, major U.S. retailers were accused yesterday of engaging in a "racketeering conspiracy" to produce clothing in sweatshop conditions using indentured labor on a U.S. island territory.

Two federal class action suits and a companion suit in California state court seek more than $1 billion in damages, unpaid wages and returned corporate profits. Among 18 U.S. retailers and manufacturers named in the suits are The Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Sears, Wal-Mart, Oshkosh B'Gosh and the companies that own various department stores, including Lord and Taylor's, Hecht's and Mervyn's.

In addition, 22 garment factories in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are charged with failing to pay overtime and imposing intolerable work and living conditions on their employees. The factories are owned predominantly by Chinese and South Korean interests and employ mostly women from China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Thailand.

Tracy Mullin, president of the National Retail Federation, the trade association of the retailers named in the suits, said they "seek to do business only with the most reputable manufacturers" and favor "vigorous enforcement" of labor laws by federal authorities. Spokesmen for the factories, located on the commonwealth's main island of Saipan, deny the existence of sweatshop conditions there.

The two federal suits were filed in U.S. district courts in Los Angeles and Saipan on behalf of current and former garment workers, who allegedly were forced to work at least 70 hours a week without overtime in unhealthy and sometimes hazardous conditions and were often confined to crowded, vermin-infested "barracks" while off duty.

A third suit, filed in California state court by labor and human rights groups, accuses retailers of violating a state law against fraudulent and unfair business practices.

"On an island where thousands of American soldiers died during World War II, thousands of young Asian women are forced to endure slavery so that . . . corporate profits can be higher," said William S. Lerach, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

Representative George Miller (D-California) said the suits mark "a critical step toward ending years of human rights and labor violations that are sanctioned by the local government, taken advantage of by American companies and protected by Republican leaders of Congress . . . who have blocked bipartisan reform legislation."

Carmencita Abad, a former garment worker from the Philippines who worked on Saipan for six years, told a news conference in New York that she suffered retaliation for trying to form a union and help Chinese co-workers.

She said many workers pay as much as $7,000 to recruiters to get the jobs, often live eight to a room, must buy bug-infested food from thefactory owners and routinely earn much less than the local $3.15-an-hour minimum wage because they are forced to "donate" up to 20 additional working hours a week to the factory. "If they complain," Abad said. "Chinese workers can be beaten or punished."

"This abuse occurs while U.S. retailers watch," she said. "I have seen many times the Gap inspector come into the factory, look at the garments and fabric, then turn and walk out the door." She said the retailer's "code of conduct" is posted, but only in English, which the Chinese workers cannot read.

"We are deeply concerned by the allegations," the company said in a statement. "Gap Inc. does not tolerate this type of conduct in the factories where we do business."