Is it possible that the U.S. is actually more to blame than China for labor abuse???

U.S. Senate testimony regarding commerce, science, and transportation

We read the testimony by Charles Kernaghan, the Director of National Labor Committee. This plea to the Senate essentially reinforces the hardships and lack of justice we observed in the documentary on Lifeng.

Violating Workers' Rights

Laborers are forced into temporary contracts so that they do not have any rights with the company. They are paid hundreds of percentages below China's legal minimum wage and work hundreds of percentages of hours more than legally allowed in the nation. Workers are docked pay for unfair reasons and shortchanged their earned pay for absolutely no reason. The labor board director emphasizes over and over again that factories all over China are guilty of the exact same violations, just on greater or lesser scales.

The Apparent Solution

The hugest injustice is that at least the problem of pay could be resolved with little effect felt throughout major corporations. Kernaghan states that,

Mattel's 'Barbie Hug N' Heal Pet Doctor' set costs just $9.00 to make in China, yet- even on sale- it retails for $29.99 in the U.S. This means that the price of the Mattel toy is being marked up an astonishing $20.99- or 233 percent... Mattel spends $3.45 to advertise the Barbie Pet Doctor toy- more than 18 times the 19 cents they pay the workers in China to make it... It is clear that Mattel could afford to assure respect for workers rights in China and pay the workers a fair wage so they could climb out of misery and at least into poverty.

This is an astonishing perspective to finally see and I hope that it is true. However, one must also think that if Mattel did not advertise with such fervor and pay its leaders so well, would it be competitive and profitable enough to even stay in business nationally? Is the economic price worth the moral price?

All of this, it can be argued, is magnified, if not caused by U.S. corporations. Like the doc. showed, Kernaghan is serious about placing a lot of blame on American and European brands for pressuring China to lower prices and increase outputs at the cost of Chinese workers' rights.

As late as 2005, Mattel sought ands won special 'waivers' so they could pay their workers less than the already-below-subsistence legal minimum wage.

Clearly, the Chinese government is seeking to offer its own people some form of protection but Mattel, fearing a loss in revenue, has pressed them to make an exception in their case.

Another example of how we can sense that foreign investors are to blame for the labor crisis is the fact that most corporations refuse to publish the names and addresses of the factories they obtain supplies from in China. Clearly, something is being hidden here or the companies are simply ashamed.

The injustices are mounting here, they are real, and there seems to be no way out unless this testimony is well-received and governments start to take action. This is interesting, however, because the documentary seems to try and blame both the consumer and business for such harmful actions and this memo blames U.S. and European companies way more.

Relating to Health of U.S. Citizens May Spark Support

Keranghan also pulls the issue of toy and sporting goods safety into the issue. He states that the same actions of increasing what foreign companies pay Chinese factories per good and giving workers rights will also help to lessen the occurrence of poisoning in toys because conditions in factories will be much better. In the instance, it seems he is trying to make giving help to China's workers a win-win situation for the U.S. My only wish is that he proved how the two correlated better.

Labor Rights in China

It comes of no surprise that Tim Costello, Brenden Smith, and Jeremy Brecher have all come to understand the same point that Kernanghan was trying to make. There are Chinese laws for workers' rights and corporations are outright refusing to follow them citing economic interests as the reason.

Oh, Wal-Mart

Ok, so it's not just Wal-Mart but it figures they would be a part of this, too. Many companies, like Mattel, are not allowing China to pass more strict labor laws that would significantly help the treatment, health, safety, and renumeration of workers because such laws would "reduce employment opportunities for PRC workers," (I'm sorry, is that a threat? I thought these laws would significantly increase human welfare for PRC workers!) and also reduce China's competitive edge against other sweatshop nations, such as Mexico, with slightly higher wages for workers.

How can corporations make such threats? Easy, they are the number one reason China is even where it is in the world economy today.

65% of the tripling of Chinese exports... is traceable to outsourcing by Chinese subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) and joint ventures.

Essentially, do what we say or we will ruin your entire economy and you'll be even worse off than you are now.

Again, Relating the Problem Back to the U.S. Will Draw Support

If only U.S workers knew that the wages and state of labor in China indirectly created the wages and conditions in the U.S. and other labor markets throughout the whole world. The crazy thing is, they do. Because companies can get cheaper wages from Chinese workers, they are either moving their business to Asia or using this as leverage to get U.S. workers to accept lower pay as well.

The logic behind the phenomenon is this: China has increased the world labor market by 50% without contributing as must in capital. There are more workers in need of employment and wages than there is living-wage equivalent capital to go around. Thus, when one loses so does the other.

The point is, again, it's up to U.S. and European governments to make good on their commitments. They have all said their MNCs would stand to protect labor and so far they have done the exact opposite. This hurts China's workers and the U.S.'s workers and places economic values about ethical and moral values. In what world does this make sense?