stopsweatshops.org

Another Wal-Mart BargainMade In China December 18, 2007 Some pictures speak a thousand words. The women in this photograph make goods for Wal-Mart at the Zhifeng factory in China. There is no factory cafeteria or any proper place for the women to eat, so they take their lunch sitting on the ground by the side of the highway in front of the plant. All the workers can afford to spend is 33 to 46 cents per meal, but some of the women try to get by eating just two steamed buns, which cost just 13 cents but have little nutritional value. The workers purchase their food at informal fast-food stalls that line the highway. They are cheap, but lack even the most rudimentary hygiene standards. Working seven days a week, the women are so exhausted by the grueling hours that after eating, they sleep sitting crouched along the highway, resting their heads on their knees or in their hands. It is a sad and disturbing sight. Imagine working a seven-day, 68 ½ hour week, including 28 ½ hours of overtime, while earning as little as 54 cents an hour and $36.73 for the entire week. Exhausted workers sleep on the side of the highway during their lunch hour. Such dismal conditions for the workers do not end there. For housing, all the workers can afford are primitive, tiny one-room apartments, which still cost $48.10 a month including water and electricity. This means that even half-starving themselves, the workers must spend $1.25 a day to eat, which comes to $38.13 a month. The combined cost to eat and house themselves poorly still amounts to $86.23 a month, which consumes 93 percent of their base wage of just $92.84 a month. Of course, workers cannot afford carfare, so they walk to work, with the fortunate ones riding on bikes. And these expenses do not even begin to account for other necessary purchases, such as toilet articles, medical care, clothing, shoes and phone calls to their families in the North…let alone sending money home. This is the flip side of the bargain Wal-Mart is pitching to the American people. This is the reality they do not want us to see.

Links to Television Coverage: CNN, December 13, 2007. "Sweatshop Christmas Ornaments." ABC News, December 12, 2007. "Sweatshop Ornaments on your tree?" AP Video, December 12, 2007. "Christmas Caution: Ornaments from China." Links to Print Coverage: New York Times, January 5, 2008. "Reform Stalls in Chinese Factories." By David Barboza New York Times, December 12, 2007. "Report Cites Labor Infractions by Wal-Mart Supplier in China." By Jennifer Lee Reuters, December 12, 2007. "Christmas Ornaments Made in China Sweatshop-Report." By Karey Wutlowski ABC News, December 12, 2007. "Report Cites Holiday Abuse in Chinese Factory." By Tom Shine and Z. Byron Wolf Bloomberg News, December 13, 2007. "Chinese Christmas Ornaments Made in Sweatshop, Labor Group Says." Mark Drajem

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, December 12, 2007 Contact: Barbara Briggsoffice: (212) 242-3002cell: (412) 417-9384 Wal-Mart Christmas Ornaments Made UnderIllegal Sweatshop Conditions in China Wal-Mart Christmas ornament workers toil 10 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week, going for months without a day off. Many workers earn as little as 26 cents an hour—just half of China’s legal minimum wage. Workers handle toxic chemicals without protective gear. Some children as young as 12 worked in the factory. Senator Byron Dorgan holds a simultaneous press conference in the Senate Gallery in Washington, DC. At a press conference at Rockefeller Center in New York City, in the shadow of the Christmas Tree, the country’s leading labor rights activist, National Labor Committee director Charles Kernaghan, released a 58-page report, documenting the horrific conditions under which Wal-Mart’s Christmas ornaments are made in China. The release includes unprecedented photographs and video footage of child laborers and workers in the Spray Painting department handling potentially dangerous chemicals without the most rudimentary safety gear. The National Labor Committee’s report, “A Wal-Mart Christmas Brought to You from a Sweatshop in China” provides a rare inside view of the giant Guanzhou Huanya ornaments factory in Guangdong, where every single labor law, not to mention internationally recognized worker rights standards, are being grossly violated on a daily basis. The report can be accessed on the NLC’s website: www.nlcnet.org Among the abusive conditions documented in the report are: Five hundred to 600 16-year-old high school students were employed last summer, along with some children as young as 12 years of age, toiling 10 to 12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week, and going for months on end without receiving a single day off. Wal-Mart Christmas ornament workers are at the factory a minimum of 84 hours a week, while at least half the workers are at the factory 105 hours a week. Anyone daring to take a Sunday off will be docked 2 ½ days’ wages. Some workers earned as little as 26 cents an hour, just half China’s legal minimum wage of 55 cents an hour, which itself is not close to a subsistence level wage. Pay sheets smuggled out of the factory show workers earning a median wage of 49 cents an hour, including overtime, and $42.29 for 110 hours of work, while they should have earned $74.77. Workers were cheated of one-third of the wages legally due them. Factory pay sheets showed just eight percent of the workers earning the legal minimum wage, while 92 percent fell below that. Workers in the Spray Paint department who develop skin rashes and sores while handling potentially dangerous chemicals have no choice but to leave the factory, as management does not pay medical bills or sick days. For quitting on short notice, workers are docked one month’s pay. By July, the high school students were so exhausted from the grueling 12 to 14-hour shifts, seven days a week that they went on strike and brought a legal suit against the factory, denouncing the grueling, illegal hours and seven day workweeks for which they were paid below the legal minimum. The students also reported to the Labor Bureau that some 12-year-olds worked at the factory. “With its expensive PR campaign, and masquerading as Tiny Tim, Wal-Mart is glorifying the virtue of buying cheap goods in its stores, claiming this is the real holiday spirit,” said Charles Kernaghan, “But, especially at this time of year, no American would knowingly purchase a product in Wal-Mart if they knew that bargain was based on the exploitation of children and teenagers forced to work grueling hours, seven days a week, who are stripped of their rights and paid pennies an hour. Wal-Mart will remain a Scrooge, so long as its bargains are based on the cheapening and immiseration of the lives of the young workers in China who make 70 percent of the goods sold in Wal-Mart.” U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said in a statement released in Washington, D.C., “Chinese sweatshops now produce not only the toys under our Christmas trees, but even the ornaments that hang on those trees. It is completely against the spirit of Christmas to produce ornaments in sweatshop factories where the workers are physically abused and financially cheated. We need to get serious about keeping the products of foreign sweatshops off American shelves. And we shouldn’t wait until next year’s holiday season rolls around before we take action.”

VIOLACIONES A DERECHOS DE LOS/ LAS TRABAJADORES/AS Y ABUSOS EN LA FABRICA STAR EN HONDURAS QUE PRODUCE PARA NIKE, NFL Y ANVIL. STAR S.A.ZIP El PorvenirEl Progreso, Yoro, Honduras Teléfonos: (504) 648 2256 / 57 / 58 / 60 Fax: (504) 648 2259 Correo electrónico: dalel@anvilknitwear.com Sitio web: www.anvilknitwear.com Gerente: Dale Lockamy Propietario: Propiedad de Anvil. La fabrica Star inició operaciones en Febrero 2000. Tamaño: 2,000 trabajadores, 800 maquinas Producción: T-shirts. Actualmente produciendo mayoritariamente para Nike y Anvil También NFL, Reel Legends Gerencias: Carlos Humberto Zelaya, Administrador de planta Wendy Aguirre, Jefe de recursos rumanos Tomas Machado, Ingeniero de producción Jaime Ramírez, Gerente de entrenamiento. Principales problemas de acuerdo a los trabajadores: Abuso verbal y hostigamiento Violación del derecho a organizarse Líderes sindicales y simpatizantes ilegalmente despedidos Los trabajadores que apoyan al sindicato son despedidos, amenazados, e intimidados La gerencia de la compañía no ha cumplido los acuerdos realizados en reuniones con el Ministerio de Trabajo y los trabajadores. Las horas extras no son pagadas apropiadamente.