[PEN-L:33368] still sweatin' for santa

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

[ The Independent ]
China's exploited toy workers still toil in toxic sweatshops
By Jasper Becker in Beijing
24 December 2002


In the crowded sweatshops of China's Pearl river delta, the world's toys
are churned out, not by Santa's elves, but by 1.5 million peasant girls
toiling through shifts of 12 or 14 hours, inhaling toxic fumes.

A 10-year campaign to introduce basic workers' rights has barely begun
to improve the shabby treatment of the girls, new research shows.

"The Chinese toy factory workers are more exploited than before," said
May Wong of the Asia Monitor Resource Centre who investigated the toy
industry, with the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee. Another
investigator, Monina Wong, author of a soon-to- be-published report for
the Hong Kong Coalition for the Charter on the Safe Production of Toys,
said: "Wages have actually gone down, there is so much surplus labour.
Conditions have improved a
little, especially in overtime because big buyers are putting pressure
on sub-contractors."

But workers still have no contracts or unions, and little protection
from owners who sometimes withhold part or even all of the wages due.

China makes 70 per cent of the world's toys and its exports, now worth
$7.5bn (£4.7bn) annually, have doubled in eight years. In addition,
China exports nearly $1bn of plastic Christmas trees, ornaments and
lights, tinsel, plastic angels and bells, Santa suits, framed pictures
of Jesus and Bible scenes. Hong Kong and Taiwanese companies that make
goods for the likes of Hasbro (whose brands include Action Man and Bob
the Builder), Mattel (makers of Barbie) and Disney have shifted
production to the Chinese mainland, lured by the plentiful supply of
cheap, unregulated labour.

China has 6,000 manufacturers, largely funded by foreign companies and
clustered in the Pearl river delta, or Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

Dr Anita Chan, an expert on Chinese labour issues at the Austrian
National University, said: "People who buy toys should care, [because] c
onditions in the toy sector are probably worse than other factories."
Sixty per cent of the toy workers are women between 17 and 23 who live
in cramped company dormitories, 15 to a room, earning 30 cents an hour
painting colours with a brush or spraying, or clipping the pieces
together. Most get only two days off a month.

Inhaling the spray paints, glue fumes and toxic dust is a health hazard,
causing dizziness, headaches and rashes. Over time, it can be fatal. The
case of 19-year-old Li Chunmei, who fainted on the production line and
died hours later, was reported by The Washington Post this year and
taken up by trade unions in America. But such deaths are common in the
Pearl river delta. This year, China introduced laws on health and safety
but campaigners say these make the workers responsible for compliance
and are hard to enforce.

Of the remaining $2, $1 is shared by the management and transportation
in Hong Kong, 65 cents shared by the raw materials. The remaining 35
cents is earned by producers in China for providing the factory sites,
labour and electricity.

Although big companies including Disney have drawn up codes of conduct,
enforcing them in China is not easy. Dr Chan said: "My guess is that big
factories might have shown improvement, but not the smaller
sub-subcontractor."

Chinese workers had the right to strike in the 1954 constitution but
this was taken away when it was amended in 1982. Now that the Communist
Party is privatising the means of production, legal experts say the only
logical step is for the workers to be allowed trade union freedoms.


23 December 2002 20:51