RIP Saipan Garment Industry

On January 31st Saipan’s last garment factory will shut its doors. At its height the industry’s 36 factories employed some 15,000 workers, mostly imported workers from Asia.

Saipan’s advantage was that worker’s wages were low and the garments produced could still be labeled Made in USA. Now that many of the quotas have been lifted the factories have closed down and moved closer to their labor force in Asia.

For a good glimpse of the industry check out John Bowe’s Nobodies.

“Opinions vary,” Goodridge editor of “Chicken Feathers and Garlic Skin: Diary of a Chinese Factory Girl” told the Saipan Tribune, “but most workers feel it was a benefit to earn the money they did. When the Uno Moda closes in a few days, it will mark a significant turning point for the island’s now primarily tourist-based economy.”

A video from inside a garment factory in Saipan: