Wins Garment Workers Want Action and Wages from Chao

by Michael Liu
9/19/02

About 100 immigrant garment workers and supporters rallied outside the elegant Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco Sept. 17. A continuation of their struggle to retrieve $1 million in back wages, they were there to press Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, who had promised to support them a year ago. Chao, who was scheduled to speak to the Commonwealth Club, canceled out of her Fairmont Hotel engagement, citing "personal reasons."

The workers formerly worked for garment jobbers, Wins of California, Win Fashion and Win Industries of America, all owned by Anna Wong and her husband Toha Quan. Wins contracted with Walmart, Sears, J.C. Penney, the Army, the Air Force, and Kmart. These factories swindled two hundred workers into working without pay for months. (see previous articles Justice for Wins Workers, No to Wins) It is the biggest labor scam in Northern California history, according to a California Department of Industrial Labor spokesperson.

Wins Protest 2 - Food or Profit