Sweatshops and Labor
Another great human rights problem in China is the issue of Sweatshops and
slave type labor. In these sweatshops, working conditions are subpar, wages
are horridly low, and the cases of abuse are high. In some cases, work areas
are prison-like.
According to a recent Department of Labor report Wal-mart/Qin Shi Factory "workers
are held in indentured servitude as they work 14-hour shifts, 7 days a week,
30 days a month. They bring home 3 cents an hour, a total of $3.10 for a 98-hour
workweek. Because they are charged for room and board (in some cases these dormitories
are fenced and guarded), which consists of 16 people to a dorm room and two
dismal meals a day, some employees end up owing the factory money at the end
of the month". Who are the victims of these sweatshops? Most of the 4 million
of these economic prisoners are women from rural areas recruited by corporations.
Most are between the ages of 16-23 and are often no older than 25. According
to the Washington Post, (women) are often summarily fired when they reach 25
or become pregnant because the employers do not want to pay required maternity
benefits. Most of the companies involved with these sweatshops are US owned
corporations who moved the assembly lines to help maximize profit. According
to that same Department of Labor report, Huffy moved 1800 jobs from Celina,
OH where US workers were paid $17 an hour to China where they are paid 33 cents
an hour to build 15 hours a day seven days a week. This is less than 2 percent
of the wage earned by Celina workers. In a country using a system/political
ideology which heralds the "worker" as the master, who allows such exploitation?
Can blame be focused only on TNCs? Most of these sweatshops are products of
joint ventures 
between
US companies and government owned agencies. Not only that, these workers, when
exploited, do not have representation or a say within the system. According
to Anita Chan’s China’s Troubled Workers, this can be especially seen within
the Chinese Congress, where worker representatives amount to only 11 percent.
Most of which do not represent the true rural worker, but rather a worker of
managerial status. This is Parallel to workers rights in the United States in
the early industrial era.
Cases of laborers being locked in the workplace and being forced to work against
their will have been well documented. Often times, this type of forced labor
has resulted in tragedy, as it did with the Zhili Fire (click below to learn
more about the fire), where 87 workers were killed.
More:
The Zhili Fire