It's difficult enough to get the concept across to the average consumer, who's more interested in price, style and even color. Forget about then stopping to check the label--and putting it back on the shelf even though everything else is perfect.

After all, with some products, including most clothing and shoes, it's pretty darn difficult to even find American-made goods, much less an American-made version of the exact outfit you want. Add on a union-made requirement and the pickings get even slimmer.

But now there is an extra impediment that really could cause socially minded consumers to throw up their hands in dismay and frustration. You can't believe the label.

A commonwealth of the United States, the Northern Mariana Islands (for those needing a geography lesson, that's about 1,500 miles east of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean), is allowing manufacturers to deceive and mislead consumers with labels that imply an American workforce ... with labels that imply a workforce that receives decent wages ... with labels that imply proper working conditions.

Instead, these islands have allowed thousands of foreign "guest workers" into their territory. These "guests" now comprise more than 90 percent of the private-sector workforce.

The workers slave away in sweatshop conditions with low wages. They themselves are tricked into paying thousands to job brokers so they can "go to America." The promise of a new "American" home is as fraudulent as the promise behind the "Made in the USA" label they sew onto clothes.

It's a step back to the early industrial age. The workers live in factory-owned housing, often under shameful and inhumane living conditions. They don't earn enough to pull themselves out of poverty and leave the islands. It's a vicious cycle.

Moreover, American taxpayers in effect subsidize the profits earned by the Chinese and other Asian investors who are behind these factories. Because the products escape import duties, the U.S. Treasury loses an estimated $200 million per year.

The labor movement is calling on Congress to put an end to the sham. By allowing the islands to use the "Made in the USA" label, Congress is encouraging the exploitation of these low-wage workers.

And, workers in this country suffer too from unfair competition against products that are actually made in the United States, in plants operating under U.S. wage and hour and safety and health laws (we hope!).

We can't allow cheap, foreign-made goods to undermine the validity of the "Made in the USA" label. Nor, can we sit by and allow workers to be abused so investors can hawk their goods for the prestige the U.S.-made label brings.

Congress must act immediately to end this outrageous abuse of immigrant workers in the Northern Mariana Islands and to outlaw the use of the "Made in the USA" label on products made with foreign materials by imported workers.

It's the only decent--and American--thing to do.