Five days earlier, 200 people demonstrated at the California State Office Building waving picket signs and chanting in Cantonese outside a hearing held by the California Labor Commission.

Yu Chiao Che Weng, a sewing machine operator for eight years at Wins, showed Militant reporters uncashed paychecks from May to August. "I can't cash the checks," she said. "The bank says the company has no money."

Wins of California, one of San Francisco's largest garment manufacturers, employed almost all immigrant Chinese women. Linda Ng, a seamstress, explained that Wins has three shops that employed up to 300 people. The company manufactured clothing for Sears, Wal-Mart, Kmart, J.C. Penney, and the U.S. Army and Air Force. "Before, the employer [Anna Wong] was very nice," Ng explained. "We had no problem." Ng was a new worker at Wins. She worked one month, went to Hong Kong for two months and returned to work the last four months the plant was open without pay.

A handmade sign in Chinese held up by sewing machine operator Liqin Yang said, "Wins garment factory. Protest Anna Wong's bad behavior. Give me back my wages."

During the protest, Wong came outside the plant and passed out leaflets to the workers that said the government, not her, was responsible for the fact that the workers hadn't been paid. A half dozen others, including supervisors, joined Wong in badgering the picketing workers. The pickets all stood their ground and some answered back with passion and determination.

Instead of wages, workers were sometimes given check stubs without paychecks attached. Other times they were instructed to wait weeks before cashing their checks. The protests this past week has also been sparked by the inaction and stonewalling by city, state, and federal agencies in the case. Despite promises of fast action, nothing has been done for two months.

"They are passing the ball," each blaming the other, said Zenobia Lai from the Asian Law Caucus, which together with Sweatshop Watch, has helped initiate the protests. Officials from UNITE, the garment and textile workers union, joined the protest at the state building.

In a memo dated July 16, George Wedemeyer, an investigator with the U.S. Department of Labor, wrote, "Wins owes approximately eight weeks of wages to the employees. They continue to operate and ship even after being told and given a letter not to ship in interstate commerce."

The company told investigators they used a "slow pay" system to improve their cash flow. Earlier in March the company's business license was not renewed because of nonpayment of taxes. Nothing happened until the San Francisco Chronicle printed a story about it on August 17. That day the plant was shut down and all the workers fired. Garment workers interviewed by the Militant said they have been without jobs and income since.

U.S. labor secretary Elaine Chao was in San Francisco three days after Wins shut its doors in August. Asked about the closing of the plant, Chao said, "I am just so sad. I could not sleep last night. It just broke my heart to think that these are new immigrants, most likely who didn't speak the language and who were not being told the truth. And they need to have justice." The federal government has done nothing since the plant shut its doors.

Anne Hipschman, assistant chief counsel for California's Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, said in August that the Wins case is "the most egregious failure to pay wages in Northern California history." The state has done nothing except complain that reduced staffing levels and budgets cuts have hampered any investigation.

City treasurer Susan Leal announced an investigation in August of local garment manufacturers to see whether they have underreported their payroll expenses and misused a special tax credit geared toward their industry. She said an audit of Wins is underway. No results have been announced since.

Bernie Senter is a garment worker and member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.  
 
 
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