China toy factory conditions ‘brutal’
How do we compete with slave labor?
(Reuters) — A U.S.-based workers’ rights group said it found “brutal conditions” and labor violations at eight Chinese plants that make toys for big multinationals, and called on the companies to take steps for better standards.
China Labor Watch said in a report issued on Tuesday after several months of investigation that the manufacturers — which served a handful of global players, including Walt Disney, Bandai and Hasbro — paid “little heed to the most basic standards of the country.”
“Wages are low, benefits are nonexistent, work environments are dangerous and living conditions are humiliating,” it said.
This is news? An advocacy group finds evidence to support its cause in order to raise more money to continue toward its goal of wiping out capitalism.
If the same group visited an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, it would report similar to worse conditions…extreme temperatures, low wages, dangerous work environment and cramped living conditions. Should the U.S. Navy be forced to comply with China Labor Watch standards of employment?
Bart
Are you crazy?
John,
Have you ever worked on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf?
At 6 years were you sold off to a factory to make toys? Did you have family members forced into prostitution? If you think that is same as being in the Army you need real help!
John,
Have you ever worked on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf? No you haven’t.
Where in the story does it say anything about 6 year olds “sold off to a factory to make toys”? Where does it say anything about forced prostitution? It doesn’t.
Glancing through the 41 page report, there is no mention of either of your allegations. Wait a minute…..stop the presses….here is why John is upset — (pg. 4 — Workers are not offered insurance as mandated by the law.)
Now I get it. The factories do not comply with John’s vision of mandated healthcare.
Read the report John…or at least glance through the Exec. Summary. You should really refrain from emotional discussions when you know someone will spend a few moments to inject factual data into the debate…makes you look foolish!
Bart
You have lost it!
No John, I found it…the report from a group funded for the purpose of writing bad reports on China labor practices. You might want to read it.
Bart
Give me a break it is no secrete what is going on in China.
Let me help you John:
$24.66 per day
12-14 hours, 7 days a week
No overtime pay
Buy your own uniforms
Temperatures exceeding 100 degrees
One of the most dangerous workplaces in the world
Sleep on 2″ mattress with about 2 feet of space stacked three high in berthing area holding over 300 men
Life of a squid…glad I did it, but I call BS on the China Labor Watch group because the toy factories have nothing on the US Navy…not just a job, a total f’n adventure!
READ THE REPORT JOHN!!!!
http://tinyurl.com/yojruh
Bart
FYI
AP: Authorities in northern China have arrested five people accused of starving and beating workers at a brick kiln to keep them enslaved, state media reported Monday.
The suspects were arrested for “illegally holding and deliberately injuring laborers … and forcing them to do highly intensive manual labor,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.
READ MORE
Mr Konop,
How do we compete with slave labor?
—Why would you want to? What’s so wonderful about working in harsh conditions (any factory) doing boring work? Are you still fixated with bashing metal into smaller bits of metal?
Why would you want land- and labor-intensive, polluting production in America?
Why would you not embrace the benefits of lower prices for American families?
Does your praise of Chinese authorties arresting people for violating Chinese employment laws mean that you are now “pro-China” ?
Mr Konop, you, dear sir, are the one who has lost it.
I, on the other hand, never had it. Never will.
Much like Nuns and 7UP.
John,
So your basis for “six year olds being sold” and “forced prostitution” is the arrest of 5 people (out of 1.3 billion)????!!!!!
Did you read the report?
Bart,
The saddest part of your service and sacrifice to your country is that it didn’t make you a better man.
I find you comparable to a race horse. You were selected to do a job, trained for that job, and you did it.
Only the race horse doesn’t brag or swagger.
MD
It’s not swagger rabid pooch, just making a comparison based on personal life experiences. My service was nothing compared to those in today’s military…in fact, that would provide an even better comparison of work conditions…desert heat, IEDs, low wages, etc. — makes working in a Chinese toy factory look awful good.
David
King of the slaves!
bb,
You’re right.
I was wrong to compare you to a race horse. That insulted race horses which are bred to compete.
You’re just another oxen that pulled a plow.
It’s a waddle and grandiloquence.
did you read the report John? Or are you still just standing on your factless soap box hoping to attract other rabid pooches to your cause?
Mr Konop,
I try to keep personal attacks out of these discussions, and I appreciate it when others do, too.
John,
David is right twice.
Let me get back to you on that.
MD
Go ask the 4 million American workers in the U.S. who lost thier job due and healthcare if David is right.
Go ask the workers in Countries like China if David is right?
Go ask any human rights group if David is right?
Do you feel comfortable that China holds so much of our currency they could destroy us?
John,
The issue isn’t emotional. It’s rational. You’re emotional. You’ll get over it.
Economics isn’t about perfection or emotions or making people wealthy.
Economics is all about conserving limited resources and the use of limited resources for the best, maximum beneft.
China wastes several resources, including as you have pointed out humans.
There is no point in our country or any one in our country wasting the lives of 4 million to recreate wage slavery within the borders of the United States.
That’s from the very fundamentals of economics.
Now in terms of competition.
If Z makes widgets cheaper than A, A should stop making widgets.
If A makes cheese cheaper than Z, Z should stop making cheese.
There are better examples that I could steal from David Ricardo and others on the subject of comparative advantage.
There are problems to comparative advantage. Just as there are problem in competition.
Competition for the sake of competition (winning at any costs) is stupid when country is competing with country.
And, often when company competes with another company.
We ‘could’ destroy 4 million people to compete with China. We ‘could’ strip our land of the remaining natural resources to compete with China.
China ‘could’ destroy 40 million or even 400 million to beat us at that game. Despite having more land mass than China, China might have more natural resources (untapped/undeveloped).
So in fighting to an end game with China, they not only could destroy us by using our currency against us, they could let us destroy what ever remains of our natural resources and merely outlast us in direct competition.
David is right that the U.S. can’t win in the traditional winner take all competition against emerging China. Shouldn’t try.
It’s not what the GOP wants. It’s not what you want. Few people what to hear this ‘defeatist’ attitude.
Tough nipples for them.
The inability to compete and win at the same tired game could and should force changes in behavior.
There will be pain. The wealthy won’t feel it much, thanks to huge and foolish tax breaks for Paris Hilton et al. The poor (the real middle class) will feel it.
This is the lesson of Iraq and post 9/11. The trade offs of immediate gratification versus long term achievement.
National pride just isn’t worth the price of self destruction.
The “Manifest Destiny of the American People” group has always been a bunch of crap eating, crap spewing neanderthals.
A pity they can reproduce.
MD
How do people win a race to the bottom with legal rights and human rights at the work place?
John,
I know you’re an educated man, but you really need to define your terms.
I don’t see how a mix of nationalism and capitalism can be anything other than self destructive.
The eventual outcome is best described as having merchandised yourself back to the stone age.
“I don’t know how a nuclear war might be fought, but the one after that will be fought with spears and clubs.”
I don’t know who will stage the last going out of business sale, but the buyers won’t be paying with debit cards.
I wrote,
Mr Konop,
How do we compete with slave labor?
—Why would you want to? What’s so wonderful about working in harsh conditions (any factory) doing boring work? Are you still fixated with bashing metal into smaller bits of metal?
Why would you want land- and labor-intensive, polluting production in America?
Why would you not embrace the benefits of lower prices for American families?
Does your praise of Chinese authorities arresting people for violating Chinese employment laws mean that you are now “pro-China” ?
Mr Konop, you, dear sir, are the one who has lost it.
The enlightened, educated, informative response was,
David
King of the slaves!
And then, completely off topic,
Go ask the 4 million American workers in the U.S. who lost thier [sic] job due and healthcare if David is right.
Go ask the workers in Countries like China if David is right?
Go ask any human rights group if David is right?
Do you feel comfortable that China holds so much of our currency they could destroy us?
Mr Konop,
If you don’t know enough to argue the issue, pick another one.
This is getting tiring.