Sweatshops

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Steamed Over Sweatshops; Our probe of Chinese working conditions unleashes fury -- and ideas for reform

Business News
12/18/2006

Many major American retail chains and brand-name manufacturers have
answered criticism that they exploit "sweatshop" labor by adopting codes
of conduct and on-site monitoring of their Chinese suppliers. But a
BusinessWeek investigation found that in China, many factories have just
improved their skill at concealing abuses. Our Nov. 27 Cover Story,
"Secrets, Lies, and Sweatshops," revealed that numerous Chinese
factories keep fake books to fool outside inspectors and distribute

U.S. ignores abuse of Chinese workers

Buffalo News
12/18/2006

Excerpt from article:

 
When I asked Fisher-Price Toys, owned by Mattel, about a recent riot at a Chinese plant where Mattel toys are made, Fisher-Price shunted that and other questions to Mattel headquarters.

Mattel responded with an e-mail listing a number of purportedly do-good organizations it joined or helped found in countries like China.  

Included in the list are Business for Social Responsibility, Governance Metrics International, FTSE4Good and Domini 400 Socially Responsible Investment.

Cancer-Causing Children's Clothes Found In Wal-Marts In China

All Headline News
06/02/2006

By Mary K. Brunskill - All Headline News Contributor

Beijing, China (AHN) - U.S. mega-store Wal-Mart announced on Wednesday several brands of children's clothes will no longer be sold in Wal-Mart stores in China because they were found to contain a dye that may cause cancer.

Nine children's brands sold in Wal-Mart stores in Guangdong province contained clothes that contained a dye that could decompose into toxic aromatic amine compounds, the Beijing News reported.

A Wal-Mart in Beijing was also selling some of the brands, reports the AP.

'Where's my pay package?'

MarketWatch
05/31/2006

By Jennifer Waters

(Corrects reference to the proportional relationship of top-executive salaries to store-worker pay.)

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Along with all the hoopla and grandstanding planned for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s marathon annual meeting Friday, there will be a shareholder proposal aimed at reining in the 1,000-to-1 difference in pay scales between executives and store associates.

Next Chinese Export: Inflation

International Herald Tribune (France)
06/12/2006

By Matthew Benjamin and Nerys Avery Bloomberg News

BEIJING Rising production costs in China might soon turn the smiley- faced Wal-Mart logo on that rack of $7 cardigan sweaters into a frown.

Higher wages and new environmental regulations, along with higher raw- materials prices, are pushing up the costs of manufacturing in China. That will lead to higher prices for the clothing, toys, electronics and other products the nation exports, said economists, manufacturers and others involved in the China trade.

Wal-Mart blocking union in Ghana

UNI Global Union
06/02/2006

The long arm of Wal-Mart has reached Africa and threatens union representation in a garment supplier in Ghana.

UNI affiliate ICU was well advanced with organising and winning recognition for 400 garment workers in Accra when Wal-Mart intervened.

Ghana's fast growing garment industry has become part of the global supply chain to Wal-Mart - the world's biggest retailer that is viciously anti-union on its home base in the United States and Canada.

Bill targets U.S. companies profiting from sweatshops overseas

McClatchy Newspapers
01/23/2007

 

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation Tuesday aimed at preventing American companies from profiting from the use of foreign sweatshops and other unfair labor practices abroad.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, joined four Democrats and independent Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont in sponsoring a bill that would allow U.S. firms to sue competitors that they believe are selling imported products made in overseas sweatshops.

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