In August 1995, 78 Thai garment workers were freed from a sweatshop in El Monte, California, where they were enslaved behind barbed wire for up to seven years. The story of their enslavement made national and international news at the time. Within days, PII was retained by civil rights lawyers and lead attorney Julie Su, to investigate on behalf of the Thai workers. What followed were successful lawsuits against the major department stores and retailers who sold the garments produced by slave labor.

Julie Su is now the Acting Secretary of Labor in the Biden administration, and she arranged for the workers to be honored this week by having their names entered into the US Department of Labor Hall of Honor. She invited Keith Rohman of PII to attend the ceremony yesterday at the DOL offices in Washington, D.C.

It was an extraordinary experience and an honor. Pictured is Keith Rohman and Secretary Su along with the workers. Rohman also met with Su in the East Room of the White House, and he brought along some of PII’s analog files from the case to share. In her remarks, Secretary Su specifically mentioned PII’s work, calling out the “public interest investigator who helped us find our star witness.”

It was an honor and a thrill to be part of this moving and historic event.