China Labor Watch has just released a damning report of
Wal-Mart's labor practices.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. uses Chinese factories that deny workers overtime pay and maternity leave and pays them less than the local minimum wage...Workers at one supplier, the Guangzhou Huasheng crafts factory in southern China, work 14 hours a day seven days a week during peak production season and can earn 22 percent less than the 41-cents-per-hour minimum wage in Guandong Province...
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After automatic deductions for food and housing, workers at Panyu United's factory in Guangzhou Province earn 23 cents per hour, according to one report. They live 12 to a dorm, and spouses can't live together. Lungcheong Toy factory in Guandong Province in southern China employs laborers younger than 16, the legal age limit, another report says.
23 cents per hour works out to about 2 Yuan per hour. If you were to work a forty hour week, that would be around 320 yuan per month, or 3840 Yuan a month, which is
less than half the average of the lowest paid workers in Beijing.
Last year, Wal-Mart made a big deal over letting its employees join the All-China Federated Trade Union. But, as Li Qiang of CLW pointed out then, ACFTU isn't really a Union at all, but a CCP-sponsored organization that works to surpress labor mobilization and organization.
The truly remarkable thing about Wal-Mart is that they are the biggest importer of Chinese goods in America, bringing in 10% of all imports. To me, these despicable labor practices are on par with the torture debates going on right now. Child labor, forced overtime and starvation wages are all forms of torture. And many people in these factories really don't have a choice as to whether or not they want to work there. Non-payment of wages, where companies withhold wages to keep employees from leaving (and therefore losing their withheld paychecks) is a common practice in China, with authorities estimating that 100 million Yuan are currently non-paid to migrant workers throughout China.
We must bring Wal-Mart into the torture debate. This is a damning report and must be brought to the public's attention.