On the afternoon of July 9th, nearly one hundred Chinese garment workers protested in front of Wild Cat Service Corp, an occupation training center. They protested that the center did not complete the curriculum. After they attended eight weeks of classes, they were suddenly told to stop and not finish the rest of the five weeks of computer classes. After three hours of protest, the students finally got a satisfying response from the center. The center agreed to finish the remaining five weeks of classes.

At one o’clock in the afternoon, workers held up signs in front of the building and requested to meet with the center’s staff. As a result, the building’s security officers blocked the entrance. Ten police officers came to maintain order. The Wild Cat Service Corp. is located a block from Battery Park. Many people were passing by and a small outdoor concert was going on.

Those who participated in the training classes were mostly female garment workers. After 9/11, those workers either lost their job or much of their income. As victims of 9/11, they were qualified to get compensation from the September 11th Fund and receive one year of free health insurance, in addition to attending occupation training classes. Those who attended could receive a weekly compensation of three hundred dollars.

According to protestors, they were going to classes last week as planned by the curriculum. On Monday, when they came to class on time, they were told that classes had ended. The students were very surprised and demanded to talk to the administration. The next day, the administration told them the same thing. The students were furious and they refused to leave. They said that the staff even threatened to turn off the air conditioner, lock the bathroom, and call the police if they would not leave. They also blamed the students for cheating. The school administration denied these claims.

A few representatives of the protestors presented a petition letter requesting a meeting with the center’s director on the fifth floor of the building. The staff would not take the letter and wanted them to go to the office directly. Yet, at one entrance, the building’s staff blocked and prevented them from entering. They claimed that all classes were being cancelled. One protestor replied, “You are lying. I saw myself that students of other classes were going to classes.”

Angry protestors in front of the building kept shouting out “Wild Cat!” They shouted at the center for unfairly cutting out the planned training, going back on their words, violating the training contracts, and depriving 9/11 victims the opportunity for occupation training.

They demanded the center restart the computer training classes. Many reporters arrived at the location to conduct interviews, including NBC. At around 2 p.m., the administration from the center finally came out and said that Ms. Myra Page-Msibi, the director, agreed to meet with representatives and reporters.

The center’s director attempted to clear the matter. She said that the training program did not necessarily have to finish all thirteen weeks of classes. After completing eight weeks of English classes, students would take a test. If they pass, they could attend the following five weeks of classes. If not, then they would stop taking classes.

The students responded that this was the first time they had heard of these regulation. The administration insisted that they clearly stated the rules before enrollment. Tsin-Kuan Yen, a student, said, “If I knew that I had to take tests, I would not have chosen this class.”

The director also said that she once saw students cheating by photocopying the exam and passing it to other people. They realized that the cheating happened on a wide scale and announced that the results of that test would not be counted. She said that the center was preparing another exam, and she asked the students if they wanted to take it. The representatives replied that their class had already passed the test before the alleged cheating occurred. So why were their results not being counted?

According to Yeh, who has been in the United States for eighteen years and worked in garment factories all that time in order to provide for her two small children, said she did not have the opportunity to learn English and this program gave her one. For the past eight weeks, she was very serious about learning, and she learned how to ask for directions and prices. She really wanted to continue to learn. Yet, even though the center claimed that the test was only meant to check the progress of the students,” in reality those who failed the test were not allowed occupation training. Therefore, students really cared about the scores.

More and more students then joined the demonstration with the total number being 200 to 300 hundred people. By 4 p.m. the administration came to meet with the demonstrators. The adamant demands of the protest pressured the center to restart the classes and finish the remaining five weeks of class without having the students retake the test.