From Chinatown to China: Chinese American Garment Workers Travel Back to Protest WTO

Dec. 2005

OAKLAND & SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- A national delegation of over 50 people of Chinese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Korean and South Asian descent, called WT-No!, is headed to Hong Kong this December. They are not going holiday shopping. The delegation is part of a broad coalition of Asian & Pacific Islanders, including former garment workers, youth, immigrants, activists, organizers, artists, teachers and students, who will connect with organizations in Hong Kong, sharing experiences of the impacts of globalization and trade liberalization.

They plan to show solidarity with workers worldwide, and of course, protest the WTO.

Lisa Zhou was one of nearly 240 garment workers abruptly terminated in 2001 after having worked for months without pay. In 2002, nearly all of the former garment workers received close to $1 million in back wages. Initially, intimidation tactics by her former employers made the workers fearful of taking any public action. Now, three years later, she and over 20 other people from the Bay Area are preparing to protest the Sixth World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference.

According to Colin Rajah of the Oakland-based National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), will increase the abuses by employers of workers like Zhou.

"Through its 'Mode 4' deal, the WTO is proposing to create a global guestworker program that will enable corporations to dictate the flow of temporary workers -- whose rights and immigrant status would be tied to their employer, exposing them to significant abuse such as those endured by Braceros and other guestworkers, with no possibility of permanent residency," said Rajah. "We want to highlight how trade agreements struck by the WTO have caused communities to lose their livelihoods and forced people to migrate, while using immigrants as cheap, disposable labor for corporations."

WT-No! is a collaboration between Bay Area-based organizations including Chinese Progressive Association, Chin Jurn Wor Ping, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, and the Korean Community Center of the East Bay ; and nationally, with the Garment Workers Center in Los Angeles, Organizing Asian Communities in New York, and Community Organizing Committee (CYOC) in Philadelphia.