Santa's sweatshops

In the weeks running up to Christmas, shoppers in Ireland will spend their hard-earned money on toys and clothes as presents for loved ones, friends and family. However, some of the producers of these items have been criticised by ethical consumer groups and labour organisations for using ‘sweatshop’ workers.
‘No Sweat’, the National Labour Committee (NLC), and other anti-sweatshop campaigners are claiming that the workers making toys and clothes for big-brand companies like Nike, Gap, Fisher Price and Toys-R-Us are paid as little as 42 euro a month and work in dirty, dangerous, even lethal conditions.
The NLC is an international trade union based in the USA, which organises workers to defend their rights. The NLC has exposed scandalous working conditions in sweatshop factories in China, South Korea, Bangladesh, India and Mexico, where there are very few labour laws to protect workers.
Around 75% of the world toy production takes place in China. Elisabeth Tang is the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions.
“A major problem in China is that workers cannot form unions,” she explains. “There is no freedom of association. We have the world’s biggest workforce, which is completely unorganised. It is only controlled. The workers have to keep quiet about their problems.”
In one Bangladeshi factory, that produced garments for Disney, the NLC discovered that the workers were routinely slapped and punched for not working fast enough. They were forced to work 14 hours a day, seven days a week, with at most one day off a month. And some of the workers were paid as little as 4.48 euros a week.
The NLC spoke to the workers at the factory. “We have no hope.” they were told. “We have no life. We live just to work. No one in the U.S. and Europe thinks about us when they buy the clothes we sew.”
It is a modern phenomenon. Big-brand companies have taken to sub-contracting production to manufacturers in developing countries, so their own name never appears on the doors of the factories where the exploitation takes place. It’s all about reducing production costs and boosting profits.
Safety is another major issue. The Kader toy factory in Thailand, which manufactured toys for Hasbro, Toys-r-Us, Fisher Price and Tyco, was the site of over 180 worker deaths in a 1993 fire. In 2004, a garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed killing over 100 workers.
The National Labour Committee believes that in the global sweatshop economy, corporations are pitting workers and communities around the world against each other in a race to the bottom over who will accept the lowest wages and the most miserable working and living conditions.
But there is hope. Trade justice campaigns like Make Poverty History are based on the understanding that if consumers and workers take action together, then the race to the bottom can be avoided. So if you buy toys and clothes this Christmas, think of Santa’s helpers toiling in the sweatshops – and look at the options that might help them defend themselves.
You can shop ethically:
- Shop in a fair trade shop like Oxfam
- Check the label for country of origin
- Ask the shop manager about the suppliers’ buying practices, working conditions and respect of labour rights
- Boycott brands who have been associated with unethical behaviour.
For info see:
www.nosweat.org.uk
sweatshop.clc-ctc.ca
www.maquilasolidarity.org