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]
