Captive Thai workers
Captive Thai workers refers to a group of seventy-two Thai laborers, primarily women, who were subjected to exploitative conditions in a makeshift garment factory in El Monte, California. From 1989 until a government raid on August 2, 1995, they were confined to apartment buildings, working excessively long hours for meager wages, while living in unsanitary conditions. The workers had arrived in the U.S. on tourist visas with the promise of fair wages and reasonable work hours, but upon arrival, their passports and personal belongings were confiscated, and they were effectively trapped in an abusive labor situation.
Their plight came to public attention when a tip from an escaped worker led to a law enforcement raid, resulting in the arrest of the family responsible for the factory. Following the raid, the workers were granted back pay and permanent residency status, and many eventually found new opportunities in various jobs. The incident, known as the El Monte case, highlighted severe labor abuses and played a significant role in the establishment of legal protections for workers, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. In 2023, some of the former workers were honored for their resilience and the case's far-reaching implications for labor rights in the garment industry and beyond.
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Captive Thai workers
THE EVENT: Government raid of a factory in Southern California where employers held seventy-two Thai workers in slavelike conditions
DATE: August 2, 1995
LOCATION: El Monte, California
SIGNIFICANCE: Thai laborers were forced to toil in a makeshift garment factory in a Los Angeles suburb for more than six years until the operation was busted. Workers were eventually given back pay and permanent residency status.
Starting in 1989, seventy-two rural Thai villagers, mostly women, were confined in apartment buildings in El Monte, California, where they were forced to sew garments for less than two dollars per hour, working sixteen-hour-plus workdays, seven days a week. After arriving at Los Angeles International Airport on tourist visas, the laborers were transported to work compounds, and their passports and possessions were confiscated. Promised $1,000 monthly wages and a ten-hour workday, they had signed contracts before their trips pledging to pay back $8,000 to $15,000 in travel and other expenses. Workers’ living quarters were infested with cockroaches and rats, and razor wire outside the compound deterred escape. They were denied communication with the outside and medical care, and they were forced to pay inflated prices for their food. Although most did not know their rights had been violated, at least seven escaped.
Acting on a tip from an escaped worker’s friend on August 2, 1995, California and federal government officials, who had gathered sufficient information to obtain a search warrant, broke into the compound and arrested members of the Thai family who ran the factory, except for one who was absent that day and fled after being tipped off by his girlfriend. Federal authorities took the workers into custody until Asian activists had them released from detention.
Suni Manasurangkun and her five sons and two daughters-in-law were in charge of the facility. In 1996, seven defendants pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, requiring indentured servitude, and harboring illegal immigrants. Manasurangkun received a seven-year prison sentence. Five others were sentenced to between two and six years The seventh, who cooperated with the prosecution, was deported to Thailand, as were the rest after serving their sentences.
A civil lawsuit filed by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in 1996 against the retail companies that purchased the garments recovered approximately $4 million in back pay, with awards ranging from $10,000 to $80,000 depending on the workers’ time in confinement. The center also won permanent residency status for them in 2002.
Most of the freed workers remained in the Los Angeles area, cleaning homes or working in restaurants, massage studios, or garment factories. By 2008, a few had become prosperous owners of busy massage studios or Thai restaurants, and dozens had been granted citizenship. The incident became known as the El Monte case. In September 2023, twenty-five of the workers were inducted into the United States Labor Department's Labor Hall of Honor in Washington, DC. This case is remembered as marking a significant legal precedent in holding manufacturers and retailers accountable for the actions of their labor contractors. The El Monte case was also influential in the passing of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000 and is remembered as bringing attention to the problem of labor abuse and wage theft in the garment industry and beyond.
Bibliography
Huang, Josie. "28 Years After Being Freed From Modern-Day Slavery, El Monte Sweatshop Captives Are Honored." LAist, 19 Sept. 2023, laist.com/news/la-history/el-monte-sweatshop-workers-honored. Accessed 29 Aug. 2024.
Jung, Jia. "Once Enslaved, Thai Garment Workers Now Honored." AsAmNews, 19 Sept. 2023, asamnews.com/2023/09/19/el-monte-thai-garment-workers-honored-by-us-labor-department-julie-su. Accessed 29 Aug. 2024.
Human Trafficking and Forced Labour Exploitation Guidance for Legislation and Law Enforcement. International Labor Organization, 2005.
Kang, K. Connie. "Once Virtual Slaves, Seventy-One Thai Workers Win U.S. Residency." Los Angeles Times, November 18, 2002, p. B-1.
Richard, Amy O’Neil. International Trafficking in Women to the United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime. Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, 1999.
Su, Julie A. "Making the Invisible Visible: The Garment Industry’s Dirty Laundry." In Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge, edited by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic. 2d ed., Temple University Press, 2008.
Yam, Kimmy. "Former Enslaved California Sweatshop Worker Recalls Captivity, Honored by Labor Department." NBC News, 22 Sept. 2023, www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/former-enslaved-calif-sweatshop-worker-recalls-captivity-honored-labor-rcna111463. Accessed 29 Aug. 2024.