- 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.
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- A 10-year campaign to introduce basic workers' rights
has barely begun to improve the shabby treatment of the girls, new research
shows.
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- "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."
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- But workers still have no contracts or unions, and little
protection from owners who sometimes withhold part or even all of the wages
due.
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- 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.
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- China has 6,000 manufacturers, largely funded by foreign
companies and clustered in the Pearl river delta, or Zhejiang and Jiangsu
provinces.
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- Dr Anita Chan, an expert on Chinese labour issues at
the Austrian National University, said: "People who buy toys should
care, [because] conditions 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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."
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- 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.
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- © 2002 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=364245
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