from video captured by child sweatshop workers

I really hate to bash such a wonderful company like Wal-Mart, considering how many union members still shop there and how vehemently so-called conservatives choose to claim that trying to unionize their stores is in some way Communistic and Marxist (silly todays catch phrase is terrorist if you want us to disappear), I really wouldn't want to offend anyone. Oh yea, the factory also supplies Target and other retailers, but hey what the heck, I'll go cliche and bash Wal-mart, hell they deserve it.

Well considering how well they treat workers, um, I mean associates and their lobbying efforts against unions, homeland security, and efforts to reduce their tax burden and on the backs of communities, not to mention the hidden taxpayer cost for subsidies and for their employees that need to turn to such social programs such as Medicaid, only really stupid people on either side, or obviously those making fortunes by their practices, would spend one slim dime in any of their locations.

Now heres the scoop, this past summer some kids in an effort to earn some extra dough decided to work in a factory that make Christmas ornaments, thats great news considering that China has work standards for children, but somehow not in "(one of the)three Christmas ornament producers in mainland China,”with “long term, friendly, collaborative relationships with industry leaders Wal-Mart…,but leave it to the babes to take the actions that the giant Wal-Mart should, and with lawsuits, strikes and camera phones they did, heres a tidbit of the story from www.nlcnet.org

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Santa’s Helpers Relocated to China

High school students blow the whistle on Wal-Mart—exposing forced overtime, seven-day work weeks, payment below the legal minimum wage and even some child workers

The “Holiday Season” at the Guangzhou Huanya factory in China lasts eight months, stretching each year from March through October (the peak production period for Christmas ornaments) and there is nothing pleasant about it. For one thing, many of the workers are young. In fact, in June and July, the factory even hired 500 to 600 sixteen-year-old high school students, who quickly went on strike and tried to sue the factory decrying the miserable conditions. The students experienced and documented forced overtime, 10 to 12 to 15 hours a day, seven days a week, with payment below the legal minimum wage. They were able to smuggle out of the factory company pay records, which are posted every ten days on bulletin boards. The high school students also reported to the local government that several child workers—some just 12 years old—were employed at the plant.

It is interesting to note that while the high school students were quickly able to discover serious human and worker rights abuses at the Guangzhou Huanya factory, Wal-Mart—the largest retailer in the world—has apparently been unable to find any such violations over the course of many years.

Video footage smuggled out of the factory shows workers sitting on low stools and plastic crates, without backrests or cushions, surrounded by thousands of Christmas ornaments, their backs hunched as they lean over to insert the top pieces into each Christmas ornament, racing to complete one operation every three seconds. Some workers will complete 12,000 to 14,400 such operations in a day. A young woman hand paints a Christmas ornament every 39 seconds, and 93 an hour. In the spray paint department, working without gloves or masks, a young man sprays rack after rack of 32 Christmas balls each, competing between 64,000 and 76,800 ornaments a day.

 

High School Students Blow the Whistle on Wal-Mart:

In the summer of 2007, the Guangzhou Huanya Ornaments factory hired 500 to 600 sixteen-year-old high school students, who were promised they would never be required to work more than 10 hours a day, six days a week, while earning more than 1,000 RMB ($132.63) a month. Once in the factory, the teenagers found themselves forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, for wages nowhere near what they were promised. After a few weeks, many students were so exhausted they could barely walk.

The 12 and 13-year-old workers hired during the summer were required to work the same 10, 12 and 15-hour shifts, seven days a week, as the older workers, including the all-night shifts from 5:45 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. or later the following morning.

Workers Handling Potentially Dangerous Chemicals:

Workers in the Spray Paint department lack even the most rudimentary protective gear—going without gloves or the cheapest disposable respiratory masks—while handling potentially dangerous paints, “gold” dust, thinners and solvents. Workers who develop serious skin rashes or sores have no choice but to leave the factory, as management will not pay medical bills or for days missed.

The Real Ornament is China’s Labor Laws:

The Christmas ornament workers are in a trap. Few workers know the labor law, and even if they do they have no idea what avenues to pursue to seek their rights. Nor are there independent unions to help them. Local labor bureaus are passive at best, and sometimes corrupt. Either way, there is little aggressive monitoring of factories known to be engaging in illegal behavior.

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The real action should be against Wal-Mart, Target, The Gap (you can recap their scarf sweatshop story here), and any other big-box and/or supermarket/company who escapes the accountability and lets human rights and labor laws be violated and allows poisons to be sold through their facilities with or without their brand name attached. Every time something like this is learned, and I'm sure it happens a lot more than is known of, the companies skate and the people who buy their products choose to ignore it. Open your eyes America, not only did we lose the job of making the product you still choose to invest in these type of injustices, have the balls to say no more.

Oh, and did I fail to mention for you, the number one reason that working people should choose not to shop in Wal-Mart, just in case your new to reading about the labor movement, in 2005, Wal-Mart's store in Quebec, Canada was almost unionized, it closed it's doors, that after the elimination of the meat cutting department in Texas in 2000 when 11 workers voted to join a union.

Heres their policy from videos used to train their management staff on what they should know if approached by a union organizer "if a union got in here, every benefit we got can go on the negotiating table, every one of em, and with all our benefits, we risk losing a lot", great choice of an African American male who also says "Wal-Mart respects you," and "back when I was in a union, I was just a number." as he explains to the curious new Asian female.

Heres the videos from human rights watch

 

you can also visit

www.wakeupwalmart.com

www.walmartsubsidywatch.org

all pictures and cut and paste from

www.nlcnet.org

other sources

www.motherjones.com - where i found this news via Labourstart

http://www.hrw.org

www.commondreams.org

http://blog.aflcio.org

 

Oh and let me not forget to mention the 3000 strikers, who work sewing stuff for Gloria Vanderbilt, The Gap and Wal-Mart who have been beaten by police.

 

Original story:
Toxic Toys and Sweatshop Abuses are Two Sides of the Same Coin.

Related links:
http://unionreview.com/gap-kids-kids
http://unionreview.com/search/node/wal-mart