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II. Sweatshops Conditions


In China:

At the Tianjin Yuhua Garment Factory in China a young woman earns 23 cents an hour. For over 60 hours, she sews clothing to be sold in Wal-Mart stores across the U.S. She works in a sweatshop, but the profit margins from her sweat are not enough for some. Soon she may be laid off, as Wal-Mat moves its contract to a privately owned factory in the south of China with less regulations and even lower wages.[ From CoopAmerica.org]

In Vietnam:

The Pouchen factory in Dong Nai has production contracts with Nike and other shoe companies. Recently, a Taiwanese supervisor forced 56 female workers to run twice around the two-km (1.2-mile) factory perimeter as punishment for failing to wear regulation company workshoes. Twelve of the women suffered shock symptoms, fainted and were hospitalized -- one of them still unconscious. All 12 spent the day in the hospital. Ironically, this incident took place on March 8th, International Women's Day (March 1997). xx A Korean woman manager was given a three-month suspended jail term last year for hitting Vietnamese workers on the head with a shoe. [From Labor Alerts, a service of Campaign for Labor Rights]

In Indonesia:

Haryanto was the only one of his siblings with a high school education. After graduating from high school, he went straight to work in a shoe factory in Indonesia to help get a better living for his family. xx In 1996 Haryanto lost two fingers because of a defective machine which already had maimed 5 other workers and later would injure still two more before being repaired. [He was] manually insert[ing] the raw material into the metal rollers wearing gloves, when the glove got stuck to the rubber [heated to 45 degrees Celsius [113 Fahrenheit] and was therefore very sticky] and was pulled into the metal rollers and lost two of [his] fingers. The xx emergency switch that could immediately turn off the metal rollers xx was broken. In compensation, he received $150 - the price of one high-end pair of Nike shoes. Seeking justice, Haryanto xx founded a real union in his factory [PT Lintas, a factory that made shoes for Adidas and then later for Nike]. The factory xx had 4,500 workers, [M]ost of them temporary workers. Most xx were paid below the minimum wage and therefore could not live properly. xx In 1998 Haryanto lost his job because of his union activities and [for] distributing Nike's Code of Conduct, xx and educating workers about Nike's Code of Conduct. . [He] was offered a position in another factory if he would leave the union. [His] status currently is still "suspended" and [he has] not gotten a wage since [he] was suspended. [From Campaign for Labor Rights]