39 Garment Workers File Suit to Recover $1.8 Million in Wages

Thirty-nine former employees of two downtown Los Angeles garment factories run by the same family that operated an infamous Thai sweatshop in El Monte filed a legal claim with state labor officials Thursday seeking $1.8 million in back wages.

The workers, all legal Latino immigrants, claim they were paid as little as $1.63 an hour, toiling up to 13 hours a day.

“It is clear that they also faced substandard and sweatshop conditions,” said Paul S. Lee of Sweatshop Watch, a workers’ advocacy group, at a press conference at the downtown offices of the state Division of Labor and Standards Enforcement.

Even as the Latino workers seek redress, they said they continue to work at other sweatshops under essentially the same conditions, earning two to six cents for each piece they sew.

Still, the media coverage of the El Monte sweatshop may have improved the situation somewhat, said Lilia Giron, one of the people filing a claim. Through an interpreter, Giron said of her current employer: “She feels almost pressured to be nice to the workers.”

In February, operators of the El Monte and downtown sweatshops--all from Thailand--pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, indentured servitude and harboring illegal aliens.