NEW YORK�For the past 17 months anti-sweatshop groups have asked clothing retailer Donna Karan to end the "abusive treatment of workers." They accuse the designer of ignoring Third World conditions endured by garment workers in U.S.-based DKNY factories and ignoring pleas to help workers get back pay.

Standing in front of a now-closed clothing factory in midtown Manhattan Nov. 29, immigrants from China, Mexico and Ecuador said they once endured 80-hour work weeks sewing clothes at sub-minimum wages. Bathrooms were padlocked, workers were frisked daily for stolen garments and fired for challenging working conditions, activists said. Instead of making things better, the Donna Karan Corporation closed the factory to intimidate workers, they charged.

With a class action lawsuit still pending in federal court, activists have planned a series of nationwide protests, with rallies scheduled for Dec. 17 in San Francisco and Los Angeles in front of Donna Karan�s corporate headquarters. They also allege clothing factories owned by Donna Karan, but managed by outside contractors, cheated workers out of millions of dollars in overtime pay.

"I was too scared to miss a day because I was worried that if I did, I would lose my job," said Feng Jiang, a Chinese immigrant, one of five plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Speaking through an interpreter, Ms. Jiang says she sometimes worked 100 days in a row for the Manhattan factory that made gowns and dresses.

The National Mobilization against Sweatshops, the Chinese Staff and Workers Association, and the Asian Legal Defense and Education Fund, which filed the lawsuit in June, sponsored the protest.

Workers wore masks at the rally, fearful of reprisals if they were recognized. "We are fighting to get our jobs back. We are here to publicly hold Donna Karan directly accountable for the abuses hundreds of workers have endured for years," workers said.

As many fashion houses do, Donna Karan International asserts it is not responsible for wage and hour violations committed by the factories. Donna Karan International had not returned Final Call phone calls at press time. But in a June statement, the company said it expects contractors to comply with labor laws and ethical standards.

"Donna Karan should be considered a joint employer with its contractors," counters Kenneth Kimerling, legal director of the Asian Legal Defense and Education Fund. He estimates each worker is owed about $10,000 in overtime pay.

"The demonstrations are being called because Donna Karan still ignores our demands," Kwong Wu of the Chinese Staff Workers Association told The Final Call. These workers have come forward, but many others are reluctant because they will be fired for speaking out, he said.

Mr. Wu says protesters are giving Donna Karan International 14 days to respond to their demands for justice. "If they do not respond we will wage mass public actions and escalate our national boycott," he said.