Reply #77: China's besieged factories (meet the competition)

[54anickel]

Activists aim to expose unscrupulous labor practices to shame companies

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/2007/02/14/0214bizchinalabor.html

SHENZHEN, China — Lei Huang could be a poster child for China's laboring classes.

For each 60-hour week he works on an assembly line for Foxconn, a manufacturer of electronics and computer parts in this south China manufacturing hub, he earns $32 and a bunk in a dormitory room with 19 other laborers.

At the factory, managers forbid workers from talking or resting outside of two 10-minute breaks, he said.

Labor rights groups have long documented low pay and strict management in Chinese factories. But as Western firms increasingly move manufacturing to China to cut costs and raise profits, activists are adopting a strategy of publicizing conditions at globally recognized companies including Foxconn, which supplies dozens of international brands, including Apple Inc., from its Shenzhen facilities.

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Last month, China Labor Watch, a New York-based nonprofit watchdog group, issued a report stating that several Chinese suppliers to Wal-Mart routinely fail to pay wages and provide health insurance as required by Chinese law.

The survey of 16 Wal-Mart suppliers found that some pay as little as half the minimum daily wage, provide no health insurance or require mandatory overtime. One company provided only one bathroom for its 2,000 employees, the group said.

The report prompted Wal-Mart to investigate the factories, and auditors found instances of underage workers and violations of overtime laws, though not all of the companies mentioned in the report were "direct Wal-Mart suppliers," said Jonathan Dong, a Wal-Mart spokesman.

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