SPEEdO PrOduCTIOn In CHInA - Institute for Global Labour and

OLYMPICSWEATSHOP
Speedo Production in China
Breaks Records for Worker Abuse
Toys “R” Us and Carrefour also Implicated
Imagine how powerful it would be
if some, or even one, Olympic athlete
would speak out against the
systematic exploitation of Chinese
workers in plants producing
sporting goods for export to
official U.S. Olympics sponsors
like Speedo. These athletes have
the stature, and voice, to demand
that these Olympics workers be
treated as human beings, with
their rights respected and paid
fair wages.
President Bush, who accepted an
invitation from China’s President
Hu Jintao to attend the 2008
Olympics in Beijing . . .
Michael Phelps.
. . . is also in a unique position, with
enormous power to
SWEATSHOP
,
who have no voice. Producing official
Olympic sponsored goods under humane
conditions and respecting China’s labor
laws and the core internationallyrecognized worker rights standards
would be a terrific place to start.
National Labor Committee
75 Varick Street, Suite 1500
New York, NY 10013
Tel: 212.242.3002
Fax: 212.242.3821
[email protected]
www.nlcnet.org
NOVEMBER
Research:
Charles Kernaghan, Jonathann Giammarco, Barbara Briggs, Alexandra Hallock
Design:
Tomas Donoso
Printing:
AFSCME DC 1707 - Labor Donated
olympic sweatshop
A Real Olympic Sweatshop – Summary
1
Guangzhou Vanguard Water Sport Products Company Ltd. Profile
5
Forced to Work a 23 ½Hour Shift
Producing swim masks and goggles for export to the U.S.
11
Hours
12
Blatant Violation of China’s Laws
13
Wages
15
Workers Paid Less Than Two Cents For Each Speedo Mask They Assemble
16
Workers are Exhausted by Long Hours and Grueling Production Goals
17
Cheating the Workers at Every Turn
18
The Big Cheat Goes On —All of it in Broad Daylight and All of it Illegal
19
Health and Safety Violations: Working with Dangerous Corrosive Chemicals
20
Chinese Workers Kept in the Dark Regarding Toxic Paint and Chemicals
21
Speedo’s Olympic Sponsorship
22
Living in Squalor in Primitive Company Dorms
23
Company Food is Awful, Workers Try to Survive on 38 Cents per Meal
33
Workers Without Hope
35
Is there a Labor Shortage in China?
A different perspective from the viewpoint of the workers.
37
What Speedo and the Other Companies Must Do
38
SPEEDO IN CHINA
A Real Olympic Sweatshop
by
Charles Kernaghan
Speedo may be the top-selling and best-known
swimwear brand in the world, and an official
sponsor of the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in
China. But workers in China producing Speedo
sporting goods are drowning in abuse. Toys ‘R’ Us
and Carrefour are also implicated in this sweatshop
scandal.
Surely among the qualities characterizing a great
Olympic athlete are dedication, endurance, focus
and constant perseverance, especially in the face
of adverse conditions. As Lance Armstrong put it,
“Pain is temporary, while quitting is forever.” But
even with these high standards and commitment,
how many Olympic athletes could endure what
China’s sweatshop workers suffer day in and day
out?
“What lies in front of us,” one worker said, “is a
blanket of darkness. We have no hope.”
Guangzhou Vanguard Water Sport Products
Company Ltd in Guangzhou, China produces
swim gear and sporting goods for Speedo, their
major client, Toys ‘R’ Us, the giant French retailer,
Carrefour and others. There are 400 workers
in the plant, which used to employ several child
laborers, but they were fired this summer.
Forced Overtime: During the peak season, which
can last up to nine months, the routine shift is 14
½ hours a day, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.,
seven days a week. Workers report going for
months at a time without a single day off. All
overtime is mandatory. There are also frequent 15
½ hour shifts to midnight, and even 17 ½ hour
shifts that don’t end until 2:00 a.m. (which are most
common with the Speedo production). There are
also grueling, forced 24-hour shifts. Workers are
routinely at the factory over 100 hours a week. At
a minimum, the forced overtime hours required—44
overtime hours per week—exceed China’s legal limit
on overtime by 430 percent! Standard working
hours during the peak season are 84 to 91 hours per
week.
One worker, forced to toil a 23-hour shift at a
compression molding machine, actually shed tears
as he described how exhausted he was, and terrified
that his hands would be crushed by the relentless
motion of the machine if he slowed down for even a
second.
To appease the gullible North American auditors
from Speedo and the other companies, workers are
prohibited from punching their timecards after 7:00
p.m. or on Sunday.
Grueling pace of production: Workers assigned to
the compression molding machines, which form the
swim masks, must complete one operation every nine
to twelve seconds, 310 to 410 per hour and 3,720
to 4,920 operations during the daily 12-hour shift.
Production line workers are allowed just one-anda-half minutes to assemble each Speedo “Condor”
swim mask for which they are paid less than two
cents.
Supervisors Abuse the Workers: Supervisors
constantly scream at the workers, calling them “idiots”
and “garbage” if they are not moving fast enough.
Workers are prohibited from talking back. One
worker, who tried to defend himself by answering
back to a supervisor in January, was attacked,
choked, beaten and fired. Workers have no voice.
Twenty or so workers who went on strike in response
to rumors that management was going to cut their
already low piece-rate were immediately fired and
thrown out of the factory without their back wages
or severance pay.
Workers Exhausted: Workers are so exhausted by the
long hours and grueling production goals seven days
a week that they often return to their dorms after
work only to collapse into bed and fall asleep with
their shoes and clothes still on—this despite the fact
that the dorm rooms are scorchingly hot.
Workers Cheated of 40 Percent of Their Wages:
The legal minimum wage in Guangzhou is 60 cents
an hour, $4.77 for the regular eight-hour day and
$23.87 for the legal 40-hour week. The Guangzhou
Vanguard Water Sport Products Company factory
however pays by piece rate and pays no overtime
premium—which is required by law—even though
its workers are routinely forced to toil 44 to 51
hours of overtime a week. The legal premium in
China for weekday overtime is 50 percent, 90 cents
an hour, and 100 percent, $1.19 an hour, for weekend
overtime. Working just 84 hours a week, which
is the low end of the spectrum at the Guangzhou
Vanguard Water Sport Products Company factory, the
workers should be earning $70.43. But, Guangzhou
Vanguard factory management pays them just
$41.32, meaning they are being cheated out of
$29.11 in wages legally due them each week—over
40 percent of what they are owed! This is an
enormous amount of money for these poor workers,
whose regular weekly pay is just $23.87. In fact, the
workers are earning on average just 49 cents an
hour—including all the grueling overtime hours—
while the legal minimum wage is 60 cents an hour.
Workers Cheated at
Every Turn
• Despite the fact that the workers are being
cheated of the legal overtime premium due
them, failure to show up for even one overtime
shift will result in the loss of nearly two weeks’
wages. Repeat “offenders” will be fired.
• Workers are forced to sign a “model”
employment contract which they are prohibited
from reading, lest they learn their legal rights.
For example, the workers have no idea what their
piece rate is or how many pieces they complete
each month, leaving them clueless as to how
their wages are calculated or what they are really
owed.
• In another direct violation of China’s laws,
workers are not inscribed in the government’s
mandatory health and work injury insurance.
Injured workers may simply be fired.
• There are no paid maternity leaves, no paid
national holidays, no paid sick days.
Workers Handle Dangerous Chemicals: The
heavy, pungent stench of oil paint in the Spray
Paint Department often makes the workers choke.
The workers have no idea if they are using lead
paint or not. In the Silk Screening department,
where logos are painted on the swim gear, the
workers routinely handle potentially dangerous
chemicals, including a solvent which the workers
say causes their skin to burn and fester if even a
drop of it touches their body. The workers do not
even know the names of the chemicals they use, let
alone their health hazards or how to respond in
case of an emergency.
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Primitive Company Dorms: Seven or eight
workers share each 14-by-19-foot dorm room,
sleeping on double-level bunk beds that line the
walls. There is no other furniture in the rooms—
no chairs, no tables, no bureaus. The rooms reek
of perspiration, since the dorms are scorchingly
hot during the long summer months, especially
because the sheet metal roof draws and holds the
heat. The workers sarcastically refer to their dorms
as “sauna.” The workers are dripping in their own
sweat all day, both in the factory and in the dorm.
The shared bathrooms are filthy. Due to a shortage
of hot water, workers wishing to wash must heat
their own water on a makeshift wood stove they
set up using an old oil drum. Workers carry
small plastic buckets of hot water back to their
rooms where they take a sponge bath.
Eating on $1.52 a day: The food served in the
company cafeteria is so awful that the vast majority
of workers choose to eat in the cheap fast food stalls
that line the busy highway in front of their factory.
The stands are often unhygienic and the food
non-nutritious. Still, for about $1.52 a day, the
workers can purchase three small meals a day and a
nighttime snack.
Without hope—Life is just Work and Sleep:
Workers say they live from day to day, without
security or hope. “What lies in front of us,” one
worker said, “is just a blanket of darkness. We
have no hope.”
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Guangzhou Vanguard Water Sport
Products Company Ltd.
(Also registered under the name: Guangzhou
Sheng Feng Ltd. Company)
Sheng Feng Ltd. Company
16 Haokezhou Dongjie, Shixi Village
Guangzhou, Guangdong Province
China
(There is also a subsidiary factory located in Shiling
Town in Guangzhou Huadu District.)
Production: Swim products such as goggles,
masks, snorkels, ear and nose plugs, boat cushions,
plastic hardware, bathing suits and caps
Labels: Speedo makes up the largest proportion
of the factory production, and it is produced year
round. The giant French retailer Carrefour, is
also prominent with several large orders – 100,000
pieces or more – placed each year. Other labels
include Toys ‘R’ Us, Polyotter (GNC) of the
United Kingdom, Cressi of Italy, and Zoggs of
Australia. The factory’s privately owned label is
called “Wave.”
Number of Workers: Four hundred; aged 16 to
45 years; approximately half men and half women.
According to the workers, some children were
also employed at the Guangzhou factory, but they
were dismissed this last summer as the slow season
began.
Factory entrance.
All factory photographs
and corporate packaging
materials were smuggled
out of the factory.
SPEEDO IN CHINA
SPEEDO IN CHINA
10
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Forced to Work a 23 ½Hour Shift
Producing swim masks and goggles for export to the U.S.
Tears actually fell from this young worker’s eyes as
he described the sheer exhaustion and terrible fear
that his hands might be crushed, forced to work
a 23 ½ hour shift at a dangerous compression
molding machine, racing to complete one
operation every nine seconds.
“I had less than a half hour before I could get off
work, and I was beginning to get excited. In less
than 30 minutes I would be able to rest. However,
the shift supervisor came in from the work room and
hurriedly announced: ‘Today you must finish all of
the products on the overtime shift.’ He turned to me
and said: ‘You. You must finish 6,000 pieces before
you leave.’ Oh God! I thought. I’m not going to be
able to sleep! Our machine can only process a little
over 300 products an hour. If you turn the machine’s
speed up to the highest setting, you can work a little
over 400 pieces per hour, but working at the fastest
speed is dangerous. The machine moves too fast and
your hands may get crushed by the machine if you
cannot keep up, causing a life-long disability. To
finish 6,000 products, I needed at least 12 more hours
of work! Up till now, I had already worked eight
hours.”
“You have to know that being afraid does you no
good. I understand the factory rules. If you refuse
overtime, the factory will take several hundred RMB
out of your wage. Exactly how many hundreds they
take out I don’t really know. Workers at the factory
are not clear on regulations about fines. I just know
that they will deduct a lot, so I obey the factory. I
set my machine at just about the highest speed and
started to work really hard. At 6:00 p.m. I rushed
off the factory floor and went to a small hole in the
wall restaurant for a three RMB (40 cents) portion of
fried rice noodles, and then I rushed back to the factory
to work. I worked to a little after 2:00 a.m. before,
I felt that I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Suddenly,
the thought of a coworker came to mind. He became
sleepy at the machine and crushed his hand. I became
afraid. I was afraid that my two hands would not be
able to keep up with the tireless pace of the machine and
would be lost. I suddenly shut the machine off, and the
supervisor immediately came over. I told him I couldn’t
do it. Not only could I not keep my eyes open, but I was
filled with fear. I had to rest for a little while, otherwise
there would be an accident and I would be injured. The
supervisor really couldn’t help me though. He told me
I could rest half an hour, but I had to guarantee that I
would finish everything before morning. I promised him
I would. I crawled into a corner of the noisy machine
room and I fell asleep immediately. It seemed like
no time has passed at all and the supervisor shook me
awake. I had to continue. That night was absolutely
miserable. I was constantly afraid that I would lose my
hands. Thank God nothing like that actually happened
to me.”
(This occurred in January 2007, when his department
was producing swimming masks and goggles. He
worked from 8:30 a.m. straight through to 8:00 a.m.
the following morning.)
11
12
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Hours
The peak, or busy season lasts up to nine months,
September through May, though sometimes the
months of September and May can be transitional
periods as the work ratchets up at the beginning
or tapers down at the end. The slow season lasts
three months: June, July and August.
During the long peak season the workers are
routinely required to put in 14½ hour shifts,
seven days a week, going for many months at a
time without a single day off. It is even rare for
the workers to be let out “early” on Saturday and
Sunday. It is routine then for the workers to be
at the factory 101 ½ hours a week while actually
toiling 84 hours. All overtime is mandatory.
Even this schedule has the workers toiling 44
hours of overtime each week, and 190 3/4 hours
a month, which exceeds China’s legal limit on
overtime hours (no more than 36 hours per
month) by 430 percent!
Conditions can get even worse. In February 2007,
the workers reported being kept to 12:00 midnight
every night, forced to put in at least a 15 ½ hour
shift, seven days a week. Such a schedule would put
the workers at the factory 108 1/2 hours a week.
But there were also frequent mandatory 17 ½ hour
shifts, and even some 24-hour all-night shifts.
Especially with Speedo production, it is common for
the workers to be forced to stay to 2:00 a.m., putting
in a 17 ½ hour shift, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. the
following day. The 24-hour all-night shifts are rarer,
and are required just several times a year.
As mentioned, all overtime is strictly mandatory,
and failure to remain working during even a single
overnight shift—no matter what the reason—
will result in nearly two weeks’ wages—300
RMB ($39.79)—being docked as punishment.
“Offending” workers can also be fired.
Peak Season Hours
8:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
14 ½ hours a day, 7 days a week.
8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
(Work, 4 hours)
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
(Lunch, 1 ½ hours)
2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
(Work, 4 hours)
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
(Supper, 1 hour)
7:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
(Overtime, 4 hours)
Nor are workers given prior
notice that overtime will be
required. It is common that
just minutes before the shift
ends, management will instruct
the workers that they must
remain until 12:00 midnight,
2:00 a.m., or even for an allnight 24-hour shift in order to
complete the production goal.
Also, to appease the gullible
U.S. corporate auditors—so
that the corporate monitoring
scam can proceed—the
workers are prohibited from
punching in their time cards
after 7:00 p.m. or on Sundays.
13
Blatant Violation
of China’s Laws
By law the regular workday in China is eight hours,
five days a week, for a regular forty-hour workweek.
All overtime must be voluntary, and cannot exceed
three hours a day, or 36 hours per month. Moreover,
workers must receive at least one day off a week.
Also, all overtime must be paid at a premium: Fifty
percent for weekday overtime, 100 percent for
weekend work, and 200 percent for work on statutory
holidays.
The Guangzhou Vanguard Water Sport Products
Company Ltd. and its main clients—Speedo,
Carrefour and Toys ‘R’ Us—are blatantly violating
every overtime and wage law in China, and evidently
doing this in broad daylight and with complete
impunity.
14
Worker posing with products she makes.
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Wages
• Base wage of 60 cents an hour.
• Cheated of overtime premium.
• Short changed of over 40 percent of the wages
legally due them.
The legal minimum wage in Guangzhou City in
Guangdong Province is 780 RMB ($103.45) per
month (There are 7.54 RMB to $1.00 U.S.)
Base wage
60
cents an hour
60 cents an hour (.5968)
$4.77 a day (8 hours)
$23.87 a week (40 hours)
$103.45 a month
$1,241.38 a year
By law, weekday overtime must be paid at 90 cents
an hour ($0.8952) and weekend work at $1.19 an
hour ($1.194). The Guangzhou Vanguard Water
Sport Products Company operates on a piece
rate wage system, and, illegally, pays no overtime
premium at all.
($185.68) per month, which comes to just $39.79
to $42.85 per week. On average then, including
44 hours of obligatory overtime, the workers are
earning $41.32 each week. This is far below the
$70.83 which they are legally owed. For the regular
40 hours of work the workers must be paid at least
the legal minimum wage of $23.87. For the four
hours of weekday overtime required daily, Monday
through Friday, the workers are owed $17.90. For
the 24 hours of overtime demanded each weekend,
the workers are owed another $28.66. Altogether, for
putting in a grueling 84-hour workweek, the workers
are owed $70.43, averaging out to a little less than 84
cents an hour, which is hardly an excessive amount
of money. But as we have seen, the workers are paid
on average just $41.33 a week, or 49 cents an hour,
which is well below the legal minimum wage of 60
cents an hour.
Again, all this is going on in broad daylight, with
Speedo, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Carrefour – second only to
Wal-Mart as the largest retailer in the world – unable
to discover that their goods are being produced under
criminal conditions which violate every law in China.
As a result, Speedo and other workers are routinely
cheated of over $29.00 each week—41 percent—of
the wages legally due them. This is an enormous
amount of money for the poor workers whose
weekly base wage is just $23.87. It is made
even worse by the grueling hours and excessive
production goals they must endure every day.
During the peak season, the workers report earning
1300 RMB ($172.41), or at most, 1400 RMB
15
Workers Paid Less Than Two Cents
For Each Speedo Mask They Assemble
Eight workers on an assembly line are assigned
a mandatory production goal of 4,000 Speedo
“Condor” swim masks in the routine 12-hour shift.
Two workers insert plastic sealant into the frame of
the mask, which then passes to two other workers
who attach the rubber fittings into the frame. At that
point, two workers insert a lense onto the frame, and
in the final step the remaining two workers install the
straps and buckles that allow the mask to be adjusted
to tightly fit the diver’s face.
Each hour the eight-person assembly line must
complete 333 Speedo “Condor” masks, which, in
effect, means that each worker is responsible to
complete 42 Speedo masks an hour, or one every
one-and-a-half minutes. The pace is relentless,
exhausting, numbing and poorly paid. The workers
are earning less than 1 ½ cents for each Speedo
mask they assemble.
16
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Workers are Exhausted by
Long Hours and
Grueling Production Goals
Production goals are arbitrarily set by
management, and are routinely excessive. For
example, someone operating what the workers
refer to as a compression molding machine,
making goggles and masks, must complete 310
to 410 operations per hour, or one operation
every 9 to 12 seconds. The work pace is furious
and dangerous. In the typical 12-hour shift, the
worker must complete 3,720 to 4,920 operations,
for which he or she is paid less than 2/10ths of a
cent per piece. As one worker put it: “Working
at the fastest speed is dangerous. The machine
moves too fast and your hands might get crushed
by the machine if you cannot keep up, causing a
life-long disability.”
Under such conditions, when a worker is abused and
openly humiliated, they have no choice but to bow
their head, keep quiet, and swallow their anger. It is
either that or leave the factory and be cheated of the
back wages due them. Of course, there is no union
in the factory, and the workers simply have no way to
protect their own interests.
Supervisors often scream and curse at the workers,
calling them “idiots” and “garbage,” if they feel
the workers are not moving fast enough, or if
they make mistakes. Talking back to a supervisor
or factory chief is also prohibited. On January
16, 2007, one of the supervisors yelled at a male
worker, scolding him – and humiliating him in
front of his friends – for working “too slowly.”
When the worker, trying to defend himself, talked
back to the supervisor, the supervisor lunged at
the worker, grabbed him by his clothes and started
choking him. The worker was beaten up and then
fired.
17
Cheating the Workers at Every Turn
Just as worker complaints regarding exhaustion are
widespread at the Guangzhou Vanguard Water Sport
Products Company Factory, so too are complaints
about the low wages, or as the workers put it, the
huge disconnect between the enormous amount
of work they produce and the tiny compensation
they receive. One worker expressed the common
sentiment explaining: “Our boss is a stingy penny
pincher. He thinks that anything he can do to
avoid spending money on workers is good.”
In fact, the factory is set up to cheat the workers at
every turn. When workers enter the factory they
are forced to sign a model contract, which they are
prohibited from reading, but instructed to simply
sign on the dotted line. Unable to read the contract,
and certainly not being provided with a copy as
demanded by law—the workers have no way to
know how their wages and benefits are calculated.
All the workers are told is that they will be paid by
a piece rate, but they are not told what the piece
rate is. Further, the workers’ paystubs do not even
list the number of pieces they have completed. As
the workers are kept in the dark, both regarding
the piece rates and the total amount of production
they completed, there is no way for them to check
or question their wages. We have already seen that
the workers are being routinely cheated of the legal
overtime premiums due to them.
Another serious problem at the factory is that
management also simply embezzles the workers’
wages. Factory bosses can cut the workers’ wages
at will, taking out as much money as they want and
returning what is left. The workers are never told
why their money is being taken, and of course, are
never given a receipt. The workers suspect that the
factory chief keeps the money for himself.
18
Questioning management is prohibited. In
December, 2006, word spread around the “big
lens department”—where the workers mold and
assemble swimming masks—that their piece rate
was going to be cut. The workers believed that
it was the boss’s wife who came up with the idea
of lowering their piece rates. They did not even
know what their piece rates were. All they knew
was that their already low wages were going to be
cut further. For the poor workers, this was the
last straw, and they went out on a wild-cat strike.
Management responded by firing about 20 workers
and kicking them out of the factory without any
severance or back wages. (China’s labor law does
not grant workers the right to strike, but also does
not outlaw such strikes.)
In January 2007, management arbitrarily
started withholding several hundred RMB—
e.g.300 RMB ($39.79), which would amount to
almost 40 percent of the worker’s base wage—
each month from the workers’ wages. The money
would only be returned after the Chinese New
Year in March. Management did this, illegally,
to prevent workers—who might be planning on
quitting due to the exhausting hours, abuse, and
very low wages—from going home for the New
Year’s holiday and not returning. Either way,
management wins. The workers return, or they do
not, in which case management pockets their back
wages and severance.
SPEEDO IN CHINA
The Big Cheat Goes On
—All of it in Broad Daylight
• Workers do not receive work injury or health
insurance as mandated by China’s laws. If
workers are injured on the job, management
will pay their medical bills, but will not
compensate them for lost wages. By law,
workers must be paid during their recovery
period based on their average pay for the
preceding 12 months, including overtime,
benefits, food stipends, nursing fees and
transportation. At the Guangzhou Vanguard
Water Sport Products Company Factory, it
is not uncommon for the injured workers to
simply be fired without receiving any of the
severance pay legally due to them.
• There are no paid sick days. In fact,
workers missing just a few hours a day due,
for example, to a quickly rising fever, can as
punishment be docked the whole day’s wages.
Under China’s law, the factory must pay sick
days at a rate no less than 80 percent of the
local minimum wage.
and All of it Illegal
• Even when workers request to leave the factory,
they are cheated. Workers must provide 15
days’ prior notice in writing that they intend to
quit. It is routine for management to ignore the
workers’ requests, delay a response for months or
even tear up the request in front of the worker
and throw it on the ground. Again, in frustration,
most workers simply have to walk away from the
factory, but this means they will receive neither
their back wages nor the legal severance pay due
to them. In this way, more money goes into the
pockets of management. Even in the rare case
that a worker is given permission to quit, they still
have to wait around for weeks, until the 20th of
the following month, to receive their back wages.
• Workers can receive statutory holidays, festival
days, and vacation time, but illegally, without
pay.
• It is the same with the legal right to maternity
leave. Women must be allowed at least 15 days
before giving birth and 75 days afterwards,
or longer days if it is a difficult pregnancy.
Maternity leave must be paid. But here
too, factory management blatantly violates
Chinese laws.
19
Health and Safety Violations:
Working with Dangerous Corrosive Chemicals
In the silk screening department, where the workers
print trademarks and logos onto diving masks,
goggles and other diving equipment, the workers
often handle dangerous chemicals, which are
highly corrosive. The workers say that if even a
drop of these chemicals touches their skin, the
skin immediately begins to burn and fester. The
thinners and solvents the workers use also emit a
sharp pungent odor, which makes them choke. These
are the most dreaded jobs in the factory, but like
everything else in the factory, the workers are kept
entirely in the dark. They do not even know the
names of the chemicals they are using, let alone
their potential serious health hazards.
In the spray paint department, where the workers
use spray guns driven by compressed air to paint the
products, they also use thinners and other solvents
such as benzene. The workers have no idea if they are
using lead paint or not.
None of these workers are provided any protective
gear, except of course, when the U.S. corporate
auditors show up for their “inspections.” Then all the
workers are provided with respiratory masks.
One worker who operated a compression molding
machine knew of at least five accidents in his
department in the last year. Some were “minor”
injuries, taking just one to three months for the
workers to recover. Others, smashed fingers and
burns, were more “serious.” Injuries are more
frequent when the workers are forced to work a
grueling 17 ½ hour shift, from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00
a.m., which is not uncommon, especially with
production for Speedo.
20
None of the workers injured on the job were
properly compensated for their accidents. Nor does
the Guangzhou Vanguard Water Sport Products
Company report worker accidents to the local
Labor and Social Protection Bureau within 24
hours, as is required by law.
Nor are the workers employed under these
hazardous conditions paid any extra compensation.
This is another example of how companies violate
Chinese labor laws, which exist on paper, with
complete impunity.
In China, the law states that no worker may handle
hazardous materials without first receiving proper
training on how to safely handle and store such
materials, what dangers these substances pose,
and how to respond and administer aid in case
of an accident. Further, a factory must have a
certified safety director who is responsible for the
monitoring of safe production. And no one under
18 years of age can under any circumstances be put
to work in a hazardous job.
On paper the laws are there, but at the Guangzhou
Vanguard Water Sport Products Company Factory
they mean nothing, as every law is blatantly
violated. In reality, the workers do not even know
the names of the chemicals; have no idea what
serious health hazards they pose; have no idea
regarding how to safely handle these chemicals,
or how to respond in case of an accident. Clearly
these workers are seen as a cheap commodity,
expendable, and not worth investing in.
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Chinese Workers Kept in the Dark
Regarding Toxic Paint and Chemicals
Workers in China are certainly not stupid, and they
have suspicions and fears that the chemicals and
paints they handle may be poisonous. On a daily
basis, many Speedo workers handle burning rubber,
plastics, paints, benzene and other potentially dangerous chemicals, but they have no way of knowing if
these chemicals are harmful. In fact, the workers are
not even informed of the names, let alone the health
hazards, of the components and chemicals they use.
The workers also have no idea what laws there are in
China to supposedly regulate workplace safety and
injury prevention. Further, the workers do not have
the slightest idea of what government bureau they
could appeal to in order to seek tests to determine
if in fact the paints and chemicals they are working
with are hazardous or safe.
Finally, turnover is high in these factories, given the
harsh conditions, long hours, low wages and the fluctuations in hiring between the peak and slow season.
There is no way of tracking these workers long term
once they leave, to follow up on any illness or adverse
effects they may be suffering. The workers just disappear into other factories or go home. Even if they
were sick, the workers would not know what to do or
who to see, and the chances are high that they could
not afford a proper medical exam.
China’s labor law requires that all workers exposed to
burning rubber, plastics, paints, thinners and other
potentially dangerous chemicals be provided a medical examination each year to check their health. The
Guangzhou factory simply ignores this, with complete impunity.
21
Speedo’s Olympic
Sponsorship
•“In the Olympic movement, there is no
relationship that is as collaborative as Speedo
and U.S.A. Swimming. By working together,
both organizations gain broad visibility
while driving sales and membership.” (Roger
Williams, President, Warnaco’s Swimwear Group,
2004)
•“The world’s largest sporting stage is the
Olympics. We have been a dominant player in
the summer games, and this allows us to have
a presence at the winter games also and have
a presence every two years.” (Craig Brommers,
Speedo Vice President, 2005)
•Speedo describes itself as “the largest provider
of swimwear in the United States...” Its
parent company, Warnaco stated in its 2006
annual report, “We will take advantage of the
momentum in Speedo as we begin to gear up for
the 2008 Beijing Olympics.”
•Speedo supports national swimming teams in the
United States, Australia, France, Netherlands,
Germany, Britain, Japan and Zimbabwe.
22
•Some Team Speedo members in the U.S.:
Greg Louganis
Michael Phelps
Natalie Coughlin
Amanda Beard
Ian Crocker
Megan Jeandrick
Kara Lynn Joyce
Jessica Hardy
Katie Hoff
Kate Ziegler
Ryan Lochte
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Living in Squalor
in Primitive
Company Dorms
Company dorm conditions are primitive. Seven or
eight workers are crowded into rooms measuring
approximately 14 by 18 feet. Other than the
double-level metal bunk beds that line the walls,
there is no additional furniture—no chairs, tables
or bureaus. The workers have no place to store
their belongings, which are piled up haphazardly
wherever there is room. Security is also a serious
problem, as the walls surrounding the workers’
dorms are very low. Some workers report having
been robbed of a full month’s wages.
During the long summer, which can last up to
eight months, April through November, the
workers’ dorm rooms can be scorching hot, made
even worse by the sheet metal roof which draws and
holds the heat. There are two electric fans in each
room, but the workers say they provide no relief.
Those who can afford it purchase their own fans
which they place right next to their bunks.
At work as well as in their dorm, the workers
are often dripping with sweat. Sarcastically, the
workers even refer to their dorm as a “sauna,”
remarking that, “the boss has to pay money to
visit a sauna, while we get to live in one for free.”
In reality, it is not quite for free, since 35 RMB
($4.64) is deducted from the workers’ wages each
month as lodging fees.
When we asked the workers how they could sleep
in such sweltering temperatures, they responded:
“Listen, we are worked nearly to death every day,
and if it were even hotter, we would still be able to
sleep from sheer exhaustion.” Some workers are so
exhausted from the long shifts, that when they get
back to their room they immediately climb into bed
without taking their shoes or clothing off.
The workers also report that the shared bathrooms
are filthy and often omit a sickening stench.
Bathing is also a problem. There is just one hot water
heater for the nearly 200 men who share the male
dorm. To bathe, the workers must fetch hot water
with a small plastic bucket, which they carry back
to their rooms where they take a sponge bath. But
with so many workers, the hot water runs out quickly.
To make up for the shortfall, the workers had to
scavenge an old oil drum, which they turned into a
makeshift wood burning stove, in order to heat their
own water.
“Our boss is a stingy penny pincher,” the workers
told us. “He thinks that anything he can do to avoid
spending money on workers is good. I sweat for him
all day, and he cannot bear to spend the money on
two more hot water heaters to help us wash off the
sweat and the stink.”
The workers say their rooms often reek of
perspiration.
23
Workers’ dormitories.
24
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Dorm rooms are primitive and overcrowded with no privacy.
25
Workers have no place to store belongings and no place to sit other than in beds.
26
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Toilets are often dirty holes in the floor.
27
Wash room. Three workers can wash at a time. Not showers - note elevated
faucets. Workers bathe out of buckets. Hot water frequently runs out.
28
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Workers have to heat water using a make-shift stove made from an old oil drum.
29
Workers wash clothes on outside stone bench.
30
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Workers wash their clothes by hand and hang them to dry.
31
32
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Company Food is Awful,
Workers Try to Survive on
38 Cents per Meal
The workers describe the factory’s cafeteria food
(for which the company charges 2.5 to 3.5 RMB
- 33 to 46 cents - per meal) as being really awful.
Almost everyone chooses instead to eat outside, in
what the workers refer to as hole-in-the-wall fast
food stands which line the nearby highway. Often
these food stands lack even the most rudimentary
hygiene. Nor is the food nutritious, but it is
cheap and tastes better than the factory fare. On
average, all the workers can afford to spend on
food is about $1.52 per day.
For breakfast they will have a steamed bun with
soy milk, which costs about 23 cents. For lunch
and supper they will typically purchase a box meal,
with rice and a little meat and some vegetables,
or rice noodles. On average, these meals cost 53
cents each. When they get off their long shift,
the workers will have a late night snack, typically
bread, which will cost them another 23 cents.
Even for this cheapest food, the cost is still $1.52,
which may sound tiny, yet it actually absorbs twoand-a-half hours’ wages each day, as the workers
earn just 60 cents an hour. Each month then, the
workers spend at least $46.36 on food.
Other basic necessities, such as soap, laundry
detergent, personal hygiene products, occasional
medicines, clothing and cigarettes, cost about 200
RMB per month, or another $26.53.
The workers will never spend money on
entertainment. In the dorm there is a TV room,
but it lacks chairs and tables, and the television is
often out of order. In January 2007, the TV was
working but if the workers wanted to watch it they
either had to stand or sit on the floor.
Every worker told us that their life was just to work
and sleep. There was nothing more.
Another example speaks volumes about the desperate
poverty of these factory workers, and the great
sacrifices they endure to support their families.
These are migrant workers from rural areas who have
traveled hundreds, if not thousands, of miles south
to seek work in the export assembly factories. The
only way they can communicate with their parents,
children, or spouse is by phone. With a discount
phone card, calls are cheap in China, with a long
distance call costing a little over three cents a minute.
Yet the workers will never let themselves speak with
their families for more than five minutes, limiting
themselves to less than 17 cents per call. If they call
just twice a week they can keep the cost to less than
34 cents a week, or $1.47 a month.
Even the most minimal expenses described above—
$4.64 a month for the dorm, $46.36 for food, $26.53
for household necessities, and $1.47 to call home—
still amount to $79, which is a little over 76 percent
of their monthly base wage of $103.45
The migrant factory workers have left home for one
reason: to make enough money to send back home
to help their families survive. But even working 12
hours a day, seven days a week, and even after going
for months at a time without a single day off, the
workers said they could only afford to send home
between 1,000 and 1,500 RMB ($132.63 to $198.94)
every two or three months. On average then, despite
33
the grueling hours and wildly excessive production
goals, these workers can send home only $66.31 per
month, and only during the nine months of the peak
season. During the slow season they barely make
enough to survive. So the workers at the Guangzhou
Vanguard Water Sport Products Company are
sacrificing their lives to save and send home $597 a
year.
34
SPEEDO IN CHINA
Workers Without Hope
When questioned, the workers explain they live
from day to day, without security or hope. The
workers have no idea what the next day will bring.
They could be unemployed, suffer an injury at
work or fall ill, or face a family crisis back at home.
The most the workers could hope for is “simply
not to have a calamity.” As one worker put it:
“What lies in front of us is a blanket of darkness.
We have no hope.”
35
Is there a Labor Shortage in China?
A different perspective from
the viewpoint of the workers.
A lot has been written in the mainstream press about
the growing labor shortage in the South of China,
especially in Guangdong province. It seems that
China is running out of workers, and that factories
are engaged in a sort of bidding war, pushing up
wages in order to keep their employees.
minimum wage increases, but local authorities have
been less than effective in monitoring and enforcing
the new minimum wages. Too many factories, like
the one producing for Speedo, Carrefour and Toys
‘R’ Us, feel confident that they can violate the law
with complete impunity.
From the perspective of the workers, the situation
seems somewhat more complex. Millions of young
migrant workers from rural areas have traveled south
in search of work in the booming export assembly
factories. Once there, they find themselves trapped
in inhumane conditions, forced to work long hours,
suffering abuses, and paid very low wages. Their
wages are rising, but not as fast as the rate of
inflation. Many of the rural migrant workers come
from farming areas and have a low level of education.
They also lack technical skills.
Many factory workers do not know the law, and
even if they did, without the right to organize
independent unions, they have little power to
improve conditions.
On the other hand, the factory owners refuse to
invest in training their workers, or raising wages
and providing greater security. The turnover rate is
high in China. Owners fear that if they train their
workers, once trained, the workers will pick up and
leave in search of better jobs and pay.
It seems like a vicious cycle, with many factories stuck
in this low-wage model, choosing to lose workers
rather than invest in training, better wages, and
benefits. There is also no doubt that the U.S. based
multinationals are applying enormous pressure on
their suppliers in China to constantly cut production
costs.
On the other hand, local governments in China have
not done a good job either. In Guangdong province
for example, there has been a series of annual
36
Rumors are now spreading that the factory will
close and relocate production to Qingyuan City in
the north of Guangdong Province, where wages are
even lower than in Guangzhou.
SPEEDO IN CHINA
What Speedo and
the Other Companies
Must Do
Olympic sponsors should not be promoting
sweatshops.
•Speedo and the other companies should
not “cut and run,” pulling their production
from the Guangzhou Vanguard Water Sport
Products Company factory, which would only
further punish the workers, who have already
suffered enough. Speedo and the others should
keep their work in the factory while they work
with their contractor to clean up the plant and
guarantee that the legal rights of the abused
workers are finally respected. The workers
should receive the back wages and benefits they
were cheated of.
•Speedo, Toys ‘R’ Us, Carrefour and the others
have demanded and won all sorts of enforceable
laws, backed up by stiff sanctions, to defend their
trademarks and corporate products. Speedo
and the other companies should stop blocking
the extension of laws to protect the rights of the
human being similar to those currently afforded
to corporate products. If Speedo’s trademark
is protected by enforceable laws, we should
certainly be able to similarly protect the legal
rights of the human being who makes the Speedo
product.
•Speedo and the other companies should release
the names and addresses of the factories they
use in China and elsewhere to produce the
goods they ask the American people to buy. If
Speedo and the others are not trying to hide
even more abusive sweatshop conditions in
other contractors’ plants, why would they
be afraid to disclose factory names and
locations?
37
SPEEDO IN CHINA
COMPANY CONTACT INFORMATION
Warnaco Group Inc.
Warnaco Swimwear Inc.
501 7th Ave.
New York, NY 10018
6040 Bandini Blvd. Commerce, CA 90040
Phone: (212) 287-8000
Fax: (212) 287-8297
Phone: (323) 726-1262
Fax: (323) 721-3613
www.warnaco.com
Sherry Waterson, President, Speedo North America, Warnaco Swimwear
Charles R. Perrin, Chairman, Warnaco Group Inc.
Joseph R. Gromek, President and CEO, Warnaco Group Inc.
Pentland Group Plc
Speedo International Ltd.
8 Manchester Sq. London W1U 3PH United Kingdom
8 Manchester Sq.
London W1U 3PH
United Kingdom
Phone: +44-0-20-7535-3800 Fax: +44-0-20-7535-3837
Email [email protected]
Phone: +44-0-11-5916-7000
Fax: +44-0-11-5910-5005
www.pentland.com
Robert Stephen Rubin, Chairman
Andrew K. Rubin, Chief Executive
Toys “R” Us, Inc.
1 Geoffrey Way
Wayne, NJ 07470
United States
Phone: (973) 617-3500, Fax: (973) 617-4006
www.toysrus.com
Gerald L. Storch, Chairman and CEO, Ronald D. Boire, President, U.S. Toys
39
Carrefour SA
26, quai Michelet, TSA 30008
Levallois Perret 92695
France
Phone: +33-1-5863-3000 Fax: +33-1-5863-6750
Email [email protected]
www.carrefour.com
José-Luis Duran, President, Management Board
Carrefour—the world’s second largest retailer after Wal-Mart—recently announced a 3.3 percent leap in its
net profits during the first half of 2007, to $969.2 million. Carrefour refers to China as a “star performer”
with regard to the continued record sales growth of its stores in China.
40
SPEEDO IN CHINA
China:
Swimwear Giant
China is now the world’s largest swimwear exporter,
accounting for a full 70 percent of total global
market share. In 2005, China exported 259
million pieces of swimwear. China’s swimwear
exports to the U.S. reached $79 million in 2005,
a 500-fold increase over 2004.
41
National Labor Committee
75 Varick Street, Suite 1500
New York, NY 10013
Tel: 212.242.3002
Fax: 212.242.3821
[email protected]
www.nlcnet.org
“The world’s largest sporting stage is the Olympics. We
have been a dominant player in the summer games, and
this allows us to have a presence at the winter games also
and have a presence every two years.”
Craig Brommers, Speedo Vice President, 2005
SPEEDO
PLEASE
SPEAK !
U
ATHLETES
AGAINST SWEATSHOP ABUSES.
Michael Phelps.
GregLouganis
MichaelPhelps
NatalieCoughlin
AmandaBeard
IanCrocker
MeganJeandrick
KaraLynnJoyce
JessicaHardy
KatieHoff
KateZiegler
RyanLochte