Blood, sweat and we need more tears…
There’s been a lot of debate lately around products that come from poor nations such as China. The big issue has been product safety concerns. I wrote about my concerns as a mom for MSNBC last week.
But we need to be thinking more about how workers in these poor nations are being taken advantage of. There is a disheartening article in the New York Times this morning about manhole covers that are made in India for New York’s Con Edison. The story talks about how workers in India are making those manhole covers in horrific conditions with little safety precautions:
“…barefoot, shirtless, whip-thin men rippled with muscle were forging prosaic pieces of the urban jigsaw puzzle: manhole covers.”
The photograph of the scene of these men toiling made me feel sick to my stomach. It looked like some sort of medieval steaming dungeon.
Many people think we’re bringing prosperity to these nations by sending all our manufacturing there. But often we create slave like conditions for the people there. U.S. companies claim they are unaware of what’s going on in these factories. That isn’t good enough.
You can judge a nation by how employers treat their workers. And that applies also to those employees who aren’t within our borders.
I have no problem with corporations looking for inexpensive ways to make products. I understand we live in a global economy. But we need to keep on top of how workers are being treated, and the materials being used in these products. Companies just can’t commission a product made by the lowest bidder. There has to be some accountability.
What do you all think?
November 26th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Eve,
I think all of us bear some responsibility for worker conditions. We demand cheaper goods, and put our dollars into products that give us the “most bang for the buck.” We rail against workers who strike and make life inconvenient for us. But ultimately, it is the money that drives our world, and until we’re all ready to put that aside and look at our own humanity and behavior, it’s not going to change. This is a great blog post that should get us all thinking harder about our own responsibility in our world, especially as we hit the stores with a vengeance this holiday season.
Anita Bruzzese
www.45things.com
November 26th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I think you are so right Anita, that we all bear some responsibility.
But we have also be stripped of choices today when it comes to shopping. There’s a lot of junk out there and even if you want to spend a little extra to get something that’s made a little better you have few if any choices.
Manufacturers keep cutting their costs and pocketing the profits. Few seem to care about their reputations. I was in Burlington Coat factory this weekend looking for a coat for my seven year old daughter that was not made in China. I found one coat and alas the size was too big.
I was also struck with the fact that many of the China-made coats were already falling apart. Zippers would zip, and embellishments were hanging off the coats.
But look at us, hungry consumers. Once upon a time you bought one nicely made coat and kept it for years. Your parents bought you a size too big so you could wear it for a few years, until it was so tight your elbows hung out. Today, we get a new coat every year, maybe two. It’s cheap we say. You’re not kidding, cheaply made. Today’s clothes are disposable. Why don’t manufacturers just call them that?
November 26th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
If I were allowed to take off my shirt and pants and wear a loose garb at United States Steel, Homestead Works in the 80’s, I would have. I hate being barefoot at all times, however I have never had an employer who allowed sandals. At that plant, I worked my rear off. My father used to say things like ‘are’nt you eating’. I was 5′8″ and weighed 145 lbs. After 1986, the plant closed and I became a reasonably successful industrial contractors salesman. Till this day, I struggle to shed pounds. I weighed in around 225 at my highest. All I did was drive my car, sit at my desk and talk on the phone. As sad as these men may seem to you and alot of other people, it is shear speculation that they are unhealthy. The reporter did say how strong these men were. There appeared to be a tremendous focus on the work being performed. We would often have foreign corporations, especially from Japan come to our plant. When photos were taken, sometimes work would stop and everyone became a part of the picture, We eould also often be pulled and asked to pose while performing work although the work was not being done. I do not quite understand how you can be as close to molten steel as depicted in the photograph and not risk severe burns to your skin if the steel became unstable due to condensational cooling ( think of that bubbling sound you hear when hot grease comes in contact with water). These photos seem very random. Our plant was gigantic. In the plant we made structural steel, think I and C beams, the ceiling was almost 70′ high. It was needed to allow for ventilation and prevent condesation from building up and falling into the molten run(a 10′ up to 40′ long brick corridor built and rebuilt into the ground that dropped into a beam ingot, then turned and propelled the 600ft to be pounded by pneumatic presses and then literally spit onto a cooling rail. About 50% of the work had to do with shoveling the excess cooled steel and slag(think man made rocks) from the ingot core and the excess from the brick run, which is taken apart repeatedly and religned. I did this and on several occasions in a T shirt. We were not allowed to take off our pants. We wore a hardhat mostly so we’d have protection from our partners shovel handles. We wore boots with steel toes so we would not step on a sharp piece of slag or puncture our toes with shovels. Even with pants and a shirt and boots, we were filthy. Have you ever had to take shower before going home? In the winter, you’d be working in your T-shirt and by union rules, you were given 15 extra minutes every day because you’d have to dry off the sweat before walking the 300 feet to the ‘Common’ (we used an explicit term)house where you showered and punched out and went home. If you did not in the winter, you’d have the sweat literally freeze to your skin. There were actual cases where this caused frostbite. When I think about it, we worked 6 3/4 per hour every winter from Nov. 1 to March 1. and we got PAID for 8. We were required to wear goggles, a hard hat, and steel toes. The company provided pants and workshirts. They also gave us towels and soap. I liked to wear the pocket T shirts and for a couple of years successfully deducted them along with Steel toes. I went through 200 and some odd shirts in ‘85 or ‘86. I would say every day i worked the labor line I’d would have rather taken my shirt off however was not allowed. During breaks, almost everyone took it off. Can you imagine doing that in your office?.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
I have been boycotting Wal-Mart, & going to my little towns’ “Mom & Pop” store. If I remember right, Wal-Mart used to run ads that all of their products were made in America! Now, everything is made in China. Years ago, remember when certain presidents tried to bring about world free trade. Well, it’s here. And as far as I’m concerned, America should boycott all of this foreign crap, & buy American. I will look more closely at the labels. Just remember, that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, with planes that had engines built by I think either Honda or Suzuki ect.. Now Ford, Chevy, Chrysler are being hurt & almost put out of buisness by all these Japanese car/truck plants. The American people need to wake up & get your heads out of your can! I love America! God bless you…………Buy American…..Save Amercia!
November 26th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
It’s not just about buying American. No matter how much we hold our collective breath, products will always be made outside of the U.S. I think it’s more about making U.S. companies accountable. Don’t you?
November 27th, 2007 at 3:31 am
The position of “Boycott China; only buy American” is fairly protectionist, anti-globalization, and a bit racist. Sure, Chinese products are cheaper than US-made, and probably lower-quality on average. On the other hand, if you had a side-by-side choice of boys’ socks that were going to last essentially the same time, and one cost about 40x more than the other, which would you buy? Ok, so if the 40x more expensive sock lasted 2x as long, even 3x as long, would you still buy it?
Does 40x more expensive for Made In The USA sound ridiculous? Maybe so, but let’s compare wages here: http://www.apmforum.com/news/apmn230.htm. $1k/yr. for the Chinese textile worker vs. $40k for the average US worker. The labor costs don’t translate directly, but I think we’re still in the ballpark. Now, let’s get personal: would you tell a family of 4 living on, say, $50k a year to only buy those $5×40=$200 socks, just to “defeat” globalization? Who are we trying to help, exactly?
Yes, the developing world produces products that are unsafe by our standards. Yes, it employs sweatshop labor and mistreats workers. Yes, we are contributing to the problem by buying those products. But is a blind boycott the right thing to do? I don’t think so. First of all, consider that Chinese workers are grateful for the sweatshop jobs, because they pay better than the subsistence living of the rural farming communities. You are improving the standard of living of some Chinese worker halfway across the world by buying the product of his blood, toil, tears and sweat. And he thanks you.
Do you want to know how I know that he thanks you? It’s simple: a very curious thing has been happening recently. Jobs in China have been getting moved to Vietnam, for the very simple reason that Chinese workers are getting paid too much to compete with lower-cost labor elsewhere! It’s unfortunate that US multinationals are so ruthless that Chinese factories have to close up shop and those workers have to lose their relatively well-paying jobs (and I don’t mean they are living luxuriously, by any means…just that they are doing much better than folks without factory jobs). But, wow…imagine that! Chinese workers becoming the victims of their own success! Yet it’s true.
In a way, though, greed is good. Because at the end of the day, the cheapest labor in the world is going to get the jobs from the richest buyers, and that labor will then profit and increase its standard of living, until it bypasses the next cheapest source. And in this way, the hand of greed will feed the poorest first, sick though that may sound. The same thing is happening in Mexico. Factories are closing up and moving south. This is tragic for the Mexicans, but one man’s tragedy is another man’s windfall. Mexicans literally got too rich to keep winning the “Made in Mexico” lottery. Now Argentina, Chile, etc. are winning the attention of the greediest puppetmasters of the boardroom.
And in a way, doesn’t this serve the greatest good? The most impoverished laborers are receiving work. Now, in a perfect world, everyone would get treated like a human being and get paid a living wage and have clean water and food and shelter. Unfortunately, neither you nor I can bring about this hypothetical state of affairs, no matter how much boycotting we do. But, may I suggest that we focus our efforts in a more productive manner, in a way that is far more likely to enact change? I recently read a book by John Perkins called: “The Secret History of the American Empire”. It’s a great book, and I strongly recommend it to anyone.
Every American has the ability and the moral obligation to enact change. What we cannot do is force China to produce American-quality goods. We cannot help Americans produce goods that compete economically which Chinese goods. We cannot close the sweatshops or guarantee that every Chinese worker get paid a living wage. But boycott itself is not the losing strategy. The problem is a lack of focus. Do not boycott all of China. Don’t even boycott China itself, for China is not the problem. We are.
Ultimately, it is US companies that decide what comes from China to our big-box stores, and *those* are the folks we need to go after. It is US companies that pay for the goods produced in sweatshops, and they are the ones whose feet we must hold to the fire. They are the ones that decide that lead-painted toys should be imported, along with the coats with zippers that fall off. Don’t try to tell me for a second that American importers are so stupid and sloppy that they don’t notice these things as they cross the border and get unpackaged in our stores. Don’t be naive and just look for the “Made in China” label. That’s just typical American laziness.
Find out about factory conditions. Dig. See which brands are doing the best by our Chinese brothers and sisters, and which are doing the
worst. Reward the ones who make an attempt at human decency, and by all means boycott and publicly shame the ones who unabashedly profit from human slavery. This is much harder than simply reading a label, and perhaps an unreasonable workload for the average working Joe. But nobody has to carry the world on her shoulders. Pick a small target, some shopping item which you buy regularly, and find out which brand is the most “compassionate”, and which big-box retailer is the best one to buy from. Then tell all your friends, and stick to your guns, even if you have to pay 10% more for that brand, because that extra dime on the dollar is you buying your soul back from Big Business.
For those who think that Americans are the Greatest People on Earth, consider that while those children working the sweatshops 10,000 miles away are not your children, in a way, they are. You see, someday, your children and their children will meet and interact, and the nature of that interaction will be influenced by what you do today, here and now. The choices we make today will determine whether our children meet theirs with a handshake or a gun; and it’s presumptuous to assume that if it’s the latter, we will win out. The Romans felt that way, but where are they now? The choices we make today will make the future for our own children better or worse. That is an awesome responsibility, and one that we should all take quite seriously. So for the sake of your own children, and theirs, do your part to help those kids making socks for our kids.
If we, as individual purchasers, make conscientious shopping decisions that spread through grassroots efforts, our endorsements have the ability to literally reward the least-evil company with thousands or millions of dollars in sales, while taking it away from the most-evil. That’s a net win for everybody involved. Yes, it’s good for the evildoers too, because it forces their hand. At the end of the day, even though the CEOs of those bad corporations know they need to please their shareholders to keep their jobs, they really want to do the right thing too. And for those of us who are shareholders, we need to hold those CEOs accountable and demand that our investor dollars are spent ethically and that the company’s employees, both here and abroad, are treated as we would treat our own employees in a hometown business. Anything less, and we don’t deserve to be a superpower. History has a way of catching up with those people…
And Roger, if you think Toyota and Mitsubishi are evil, you should know that IBM and Ford made millions doing business with Nazi Germany (not to mention that Henry Ford himself was an open eugencist and anti-Semite). And today, Halliburton and Blackwater make billions from the blood of thousands of innocent Iraqis and just a few truly bad ones. Are you so confident that America has no blood on her hands? I agree that America is a great country. But it is not always our leaders that make it great. Often, it is the courageous individuals who make simple but profound choices, like boycotting Nike because they are one of the most flagrant human rights abusers when it comes to sweatshop labor. As consumers in this holiday season, we have powerful leverage to make the world a better place. Let’s try to do our part every time we reach for our wallets…our children will thank us, all over the world.
November 27th, 2007 at 5:03 am
“Companies just can’t commission a product made by the lowest bidder.” — This is how it MUST be. But how can that be when almost all of those big bosses up there are more focused on saving expenses and making profits in threading their journey to the top regardless of the enslaving condition they create?
On the other side, why do these manufacturing bosses in 3rd world countries allow this to happen to satisfy their US clients — taking advantage instead of alleviating financial conditions of their country’s workforce?
November 28th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Eve, you state “You can judge a nation by how employers treat their workers.” I know what you’re getting at, but I don’t think it’s a fair statement. IMO, you can judge an employer by how it treats its employees; you can judge a nation by the extent to which its laws protect employees from abuses by employers. I believe it’s a distinction worth noting.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Unfortunately China is the ‘bomb’. American business is salivating literally at the gigantic opportunity to be part of the China…check that..Asian market and as far as I can see have succeeded in lowering the value of US currency. For everyone of you reading this in America, there are over 1200 Chinese consumers. If they spend one cent an hour, that is $120 per hour. This is common and basic sense and I feel for you people warm in your snugly homes thinking how wonderful your world is. This started with ‘third-world countries’ such as India and a foundry where ’starving’ skinny workers work in their bare feet like slaves or sub-American workers. I did read the entire article. I am comparing these foundry workers to my own American work experience. I know there are similiarities that unless you have been to such places, you could not possibly understand. Don’t even try because you will continue to ‘weep’ for these people. This ‘global market’ as it is called is actually as old as the south selling cotton to France during the civil war to finance their confederacy. Where were you people when over 100,000 jobs were lost in the Steel industry? Why does the baker make half as much as the driver who delivers his bread? There exist tremendous inequities in our country. We balk at NAFTA. We see Mexico as some sort of ‘demon’ nation sending their worst to our great country now, just as the Americans in late tens of our last century rebuked and taunted my Scottish grandparents. Read the article carefully…. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/nyregion/26manhole.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
and show me the mistreatment. Show me where these men are unhealthy. Show me the children here. The many Indians I know ( at least 20) all say the exact same thing, we have no idea how sefish we are.
December 8th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
I think Dave has one of the best thought out posts I have seen anywhere in a long time! There is little doubt that the children in China are our children and one day in the not too distant future, will certainly be interacting with each other and how gracious America has been to them will make all the difference in the world. We need to remember that they are coming into their own in the world and there is 1.4 billion of them and only 300 million of us. Perhaps we should think more about treating people again by the golden rule so that perhaps when it is their turn, they will be compelled to reciprocate