An open house was held on Jan. 20 at the Garment Worker Center (GWC), an independent, non-profit, community-based organization whose mission is to empower garment workers in the Greater Los Angeles area to work collectively for an end to sweatshop abuses in the industry.

The open house starts off the GWC? work through organizing, advocacy, and service to address the needs and promote the interests of garment workers. The new hotline for garment workers to call if they need help collecting wages or get more information is 1-888-449-6115. Messages can be left in Thai, Mandarin, Spanish or English.

"With 4,500 of the 5,000 sewing shops in the greater Los Angeles area classified as sweatshops, this center is desperately needed to create a space for garment workers to learn more about their rights and to organize," says Kimi Lee, organizer with the GWC.

GWC will also work in solidarity with other low-wage immigrant workers and disenfranchised communities in the struggle for social, economic and environmental justice. GWC is a collaborative effort of Sweatshop Watch, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Korean Immigrant Workers Advocate (KIWA), and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC).

The Open House program highlighted presentations by:

Kimi Lee, Garment Worker Center Organizer;

Nikki Bas, Executive Director of Sweatshop Watch;

Garment Workers from recent victories against retailers and from the 1995 El Monte case;

Leone Hankey, Southern California Free Trade Network;

Lina Paredes, Liberty Hill Foundation; and Representative from SEIU Local 1877

The program was simultaneously translated into Spanish and Thai.