Sweatshop workers organize and win.

The sweatshop is back with a vengeance. From maquiladoras in Mexico and Central America to a slave-labor factory in El Monte, California, poor young women trapped in desperate conditions are making designer clothes for upscale consumers.

Because subcontractors--not the clothing manufacturers themselves--employ these workers, the industry has managed to fend off traditional organizing efforts. But a recent victory demonstrates the value of using strategies that go beyond usual labor-organizing practice.

The Asian Immigrant Women's Association (AIWA) announced in April that it had reached a settlement with millionaire fashion designer Jessica McClintock. AIWA had been mobilizing community pressure for three years to win justice for a dozen women who lost their jobs while making clothing for McClintock, Inc. An Oakland, California, garment subcontractor for McClintock called Lucky Sewing Company declared bankruptcy in 1992, leaving its workers unpaid. Lucky owed the women more than $10,000 in back wages.

AIWA launched the Garment Workers Justice Campaign against McClintock, arguing that it had a moral responsibility to reimburse the workers even though the company was not legally liable for Lucky Sewing's financial problems. AIWA conducted a creative, multi-faceted campaign in cities across the country, which included several full-page ads in The New York Times portraying McClintock as a heartless Marie Antoinette saying to the starving workers, LET THEM EAT LACE. McClintock is a purveyor of frilly prom dresses and other "romantic" clothing, an image that does not fit well with pictures of sweatshops filled with underpaid women workers.

The settlement with McClintock includes back wages for the laid-off workers, a garment-workers' education fund and scholarships, an outreach campaign to inform garment workers of their rights, and a toll-free hotline in English and Cantonese that can be used to report illegal wages and working conditions. The break in the campaign came last fall when the Department of Labor published a list of "fair labor fashion trendsetters"--corporations notable for their commitment to upholding worker protections. McClintock, Inc., was listed. AIWA contacted the Department of Labor, notifying them of the Garment Workers Justice Campaign and the glaring contradiction between McClintock's verbal commitment to worker protections and the company's use of sweatshop labor. Faced with the prospect of removal from the list, McClintock gave in.

"The clothing manufacturers are vulnerable," says Charlie Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee. "They've gotten fat and lazy, and with the right strategy we can beat them, even though we can't match their resources."