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Posted at 11:24 a.m., Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Foreign workers protest factory closing on Saipan

Associated Press

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands — Hundreds of Chinese workers who are facing the loss of their garment factory jobs complained of police harassment Tuesday, the day after they took some management staff hostage during a protest.

Officers had used pepper spray on the protesters at Top Fashion Corp.'s factory. Several female protesters were taken to the hospital for treatment. Seven male Chinese workers were arrested.

Department of Public Safety Commissioner Rebecca Warfield defended the actions of the police.

"The safety of the officers and the people are at risk," she said. "That's why they resorted to that."

On Tuesday afternoon, protesters marched several miles from the company's factory in Tanapag village to Saipan to meet with U.S. Labor Ombudsman Jim Benedetto to complain about their situation.

Dozens of them said they were recruited from different parts of China about six months ago.

They said they each paid $3,000 to $4,000 to recruiters in China who promised them lucrative factory jobs on Saipan. Some of the women said they got the money from loan sharks. Others said they sold their houses to raise the money.

All of them will lose their jobs July 2 when the factory closes.

Top Fashion manufactures clothes for major retailers in the United States.

It has an estimated 300 Chinese workers, 37 Filipinos and more than a 100 local residents.

Top Fashion will be the 15th garment factory to shut down operations on Saipan since the World Trade Organization lifted the quota on garment export products to the U.S. on Jan. 1, 2005.

Since then, thousands of migrant workers, primarily from China, have lost their jobs.

The Northern Mariana Islands is a U.S. commonwealth located about 3,800 miles southwest of Hawaii.