Bed Bug Infested Sweatshops

Workers in China who make holiday toys for Disney, Hasbro and RC2 including Bratz dolls are suffering from a serious infestation of bed bugs in their dorms. Workers reported that their bodies are often covered with red welts from the bug bites. These bites can easily become infected if the wounds are scratched. An entomologist said to the National Labor Committee that it would be very possible for bed bugs to make a ride to the U.S. if they hid in the cardboard toy boxes.These Disney toys are produced at the Daewi factory in Dongguan, At these factoriesworkers are at the factory 96 hours a week, work 15 1/2 hour shifts from 8:30 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. Any worker missing an overtime shift will be docked three days wages and workers are cheated of up to 40 percent of the wages that are due them, paid below the minimum wage and shortchanged on their overtime pay. A worker arriving 30 minutes late will also be docked three days wages. Working in 95 degree temperatures, workers are drenched in their own sweat. Eight workers share each dorm room, sleeping in double-level bunk beds which are infested with bed bugs.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article399202.ece

Toy Sweatshops In China

As of December 10, 2005, the rights of the Lungcheong Toy workers continue to be violated. Article 72 of China’s Labor Code requires that companies inscribe their workers in social
health insurance and pension programs. The Lungcheong factory continues to violate this code. No new workers receive health insurance. This is one of the areas where there has been a change in respect for the law. In the past, the factory insured at least the employees working in the most hazardous areas, which are the metal and mold injection units. In order to get a job now, new workers must first sign an agreement that if they are injured on the job they acknowledge that the company bears absolutely no responsibility. In the spray paint department illnesses are common. Workers are constantly working with oil-based paints containing toxic solvents such as benzene and other chemicals. No safety precautions have been taken yet. The workers do not have gloves or a mask. If a worker gets ill, from what they call “poisoning,” They are given a small amount of money by management and asked to leave the factory. Workers who want to keep their jobs have to spend money out of their own pocket to try to cure their job related illnesses.


http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=ind_focus.story&STORY=/www/story/12-11-2008/0004940447&EDATE=

Boycott of DKNY

In 1998 Latina and Chinese women workers spoke out about the sweatshop conditions from long hours, no overtime pay and padlocked bathrooms that they endured while sewing clothes for DKNY in a factory in NYC. DKNY was more abusive to the Latina women who were forced into lower paying jobs, frisked daily, accused of stealing, and barred from sewing with machines because they were too "clumsy" and their "eyes were bigger than the Chinese". After years of mistreatment, the workers couldn't take it any longer. With the support of NMASS and Chinese Staff & Workers' Association, workers came together to organize more workers, take legal action, and launch a boycott. The Boycott DKNY campaign was successful because it organized and relied the garment workers themselves instead of relying on consumers. With this perspective, it was able to bring forth one group of workers after another, and the campaign quickly grew into the national and international arenas.

http://www.nmass.org/nmass/news/11242003%20celebrate%20dkny%20&%20first%20amendment%20victories!.htm

Disney Sweatshops

Reports from international humanitarian groups on Disney sweatshops show that in China young people are forced to work 10-13 hours a day producing Disney’s children’s books six or seven days a week. The workers are paid 33 to 41 cents an hour (below even the Chinese minimum wage of 42 cents an hour). It is common for the workers to be cheated of their overtime pay. 8 to 12 workers are put in bad conditioned dorm rooms sleeping on double level bunk beds and fed horrible food at the factory canteen. Workers often faint from exhaustion and the unbearable heat in the factories. Workers have no health insurance or pension. They have no right to freedom of association or to organize. Factories coach workers on how to answer inspectors' questions when they come to monitor and one factory issued fake time slips while concealing the real ones showing illegal hours.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/18/news/international/disney_china/index.htm

Sweatshops In Jordan

Sweatshops are businesses that has been booming in Jordan. This country has been exporting products to America for the past 20 years. Last year Jordan exported $1.2 billion to the United States. Some franchises in America that have set up shop in Jordan are Target, Wal - Mart and other American retailers. Many of these sweatshops are now complaining of dismal conditions. Workers said that they worked up to 20 hours a day, didn't get paid for months and were hit by supervisors and put in jail if they complained. Majority of workers in Jordan are from Bangladesh and China. Workers from Bangladesh said they paid $1,000 to $3,000 to work in Jordan but when they arrived, their passports were confiscated. This took away their ability to leave, keeping them to jobs that pay less than promised and less than the country's minimum wage. Nargis Akhter, a 25 year old Bangladeshi said "we used to start at 8 in the morning, and we'd work until midnight, 1 or 2 a.m, seven days a week." He also said "when we were in Bangladesh they promised us we would receive $120 a month, but in the five months I was there I only got one month's salary and that was just $50." The National Labor Committee found substandard conditions in more than 25 of about 100 garment factories and is set to release its reports.


http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13567

Child Labor Laws

Child labor is work for children that harms them or exploits them in some way (physically, mentally, morally, or by blocking access to education). Child labor was used for a long time until the emergence of schooling and the concepts of workers and childrens rights. Children working under age is still common in places were the school leaving age is low and in third world countries. Some work that children are employed to do are mining, prostitution, cleaning, assembly llines and many other tedious jobs. Most work done by children are informal. Meaning many things gets sold on the streets and far from labor inspectors and media. They work in all weather conditions and for extremely little pay. There is about 250 million children from the age of 5 to 14 in child labor worldwide.

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/hist8.html

Sean John Sweatshop

Expensive designer clothes are costly to purchase but usually cheap to produce. Customers pay a lot of money for these merchandises. Sean John is a famous brand that is known for its expensive clothing. The public was surprised to hear that Sean Combs aka P. Diddy was allegedly using sweatshops in Latin America for his Sean John clothing line. This is not surprising to hear because it’s hard to imagine someone turning down such a great profit especially when he’s not the one managing and running the factory where the garments are made. The investigation started when a 19 year old Honduran worker came to the United States and said that she worked in a factory producing Sean John clothes which had horrible working conditions and called it a "sweatshop." She also said "Sean Combs was using a sweatshop in Honduras to produce tens of thousands of shirts for his Sean John fashion company. She explained that the factory managers cursed and yelled at the employees and were forced to work overtime. She also stated that some employees were fired for bring pregnant.
The executive vice president of Sean John commented after hearing about the investigation and said " We have absolutely no knowledge of this situation. However, we take these matters very seriously, and will have our director of compliance look into the matter immediately." Later Charles Kernaghan, president of the National Labor Committee tried contacting Sean Combs many times and never received a response. A political statement was made that the people involved in the Sean John clothing line had no feelings toward the situation and investigation that was being done.


http://www.playahata.com/pages/papi/seanjohnsweatshop.htm