U.S. companies face no scrutiny in China and can usually get away with whatever they say regarding working conditions at their contractors' factories—for who is ever going to check?
In 1999, a small socially responsible U.S. shoe company based in Oregon, Deep E - which is a member of Co-op American - was telling the American people that the shoes it produced in China were made by workers whose rights were all respected, who were paid $3.13 to $4.70 U.S. an hour, and who worked 40 to 45 hours a week earning $148.70.
This sounded too good to be true. So the National Labor Committee tried to find the factory Deep E was using in Northern China, which was located somewhere outside the port city of Qingdao, about 400 miles south of Beijing.
The factory, called Tae-Kyung, was located in Jiaozhou City, which turned out to be about 1˝ hour drive from Qingdao, only our professional driver could not find it since there was no street address. After stopping a dozen people for directions we finally found the factory located on a dirt road about one half mile off the dilapidated highway which ran through Xiao Ma Wan village.
The Tae-Kyung factory was not a pleasant looking place. In fact it resembled a prison, with a high stone wall, with four guard towers and a turret at each corner, surrounding a huge compound enclosing the factory, warehouse and dorms. Two thousand young women, 18 - 20 years old were locked inside the compound. There were four guards posted at the entrance, which was blocked by a sliding metal gate.
It was in a wide-open flat area with other factories nearby. The Tae-Kyung compound was encircled by a 25 foot wide dirt road. There was no way to approach or get near the factory without standing out conspicuously, especially as North Americans. The Chinese people are very friendly and local merchants and passersby soon gathered around us, very curious and wanting to try a few English words out on us.
But every time a small crowd gathered, security police would pull up on their small mopeds and the conversations had to end. Certainly nothing serious could be discussed - we had wanted to question people about conditions in the nearby factories - since we did not want to get anyone in trouble. It was only afterwards that we found out from another factory owner that it is common for the factories to pay $100 or so a month to the local police chief who will then have his people keep an especially close eye on your factory. And in fact, every hour or so two security police on their mopeds would speed around the road circling the Tae-Kyung factory. The place was isolated, well guarded and watched over.
When we arrived at the factory it was nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It was lunchtime and the factory was blasting loud popular music as the women straggled over to the dorms to eat.
The next day we returned to the factory. Our driver, who, like all drivers, worked for the local government, was growing suspicious: why were we visiting factories rather than going to the tourist sites? So we had him drop us off at a small restaurant about a mile from the factory and after he left we walked the rest of the way. We wanted to get inside the factory to see the conditions. When we reached the gate, the guards let us in but held us at the guardhouse. After some time and several phone calls we were told we could go to the factory office. As we went up the step we were met by six or seven of the Korean managers, all carrying walkie-talkies and looking nervous, very agitated, angry and on guard. They showed us into an office showroom and left us alone for about five minutes, enough time for us to start getting a little concerned: were they making phone calls to the authorities to find out who we were? But it gave us time to inspect the Fubu sneakers they were currently making. As it turned out, Deep E had just pulled out of the factory, taking its production to Brazil.
All the managers then returned with the factory's General Directory Mr. Song Jung Ho, who smiled at us and said it would be inconvenient, or rather, impossible, for us to see the factory. We would have to have written permission beforehand from their headquarters in South Korea. We asked to enter again, inquiring what were they afraid of and that sort of thing, but they would not budge.
It was very clear that nothing like this had ever happened before, and that we were certainly the first people to show up unannounced and ask to inspect their factory.
The point is, when you realize that it is more than a 20 hour flight from New York to China, which is 13 time zones away; that the factories are walled in and guarded with the local security police also watching; that so many of the factories have no street address and are difficult to find, even with a professional driver who perhaps doubles as an informer as they work for the local governments, you begin to get a picture of how difficult it is to do independent research in China, and why it is the U.S. companies can say just about anything they want and get away with it.
Add to that the fact that every worker in China knows that she can be fired for even being seen discussing factory conditions, that any worker publicly raising a grievance is fired and anyone attempting to organize an independent union will be immediately imprisoned, you can understand how tight the trap is for the workers, who have no rights, not even the right to speak about their working conditions.
Regarding Deep E's original calculations that the Tae-Kyung workers making their shoes were paid $3.13 an hour straight time and $4.30 an hour over time and were making $148.70 for a 45 hour workweek, they were slightly off. Actually they were off by about 1500 percent, since the workers were in reality earning just $9.73 a week.
Tae-Kyung is a South Korean-owned footwear factory with 2062 production workers and 98 supervisors and management staff who are largely South Korean. The workers are almost exclusively young women, 18 to 20 years of age, one half of whom are migrants from distant provinces who are housed in factory dorms. Currently the factory is producing sneakers for Fubu and up to recently they were also producing Deep E hemp shoes.
12 hour shifts from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; 6 days a week; 17 cents an hour base wage, or $9.73 a week; average wage 22 cents an hour; 12 workers to one drab dorm room; workers must sign-out to leave the factory compound.
The standard shift at the Tae-Kyung factory is from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with an hour break for lunch. However, the women we interviewed said they almost always worked a 12 hour shift and that they worked most Saturdays.
So their schedule would be:
(12:00 noon - 1 p.m., lunch break)
(5:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m., supper break)
They would work this shift 6 days a week, which means they would be at the factory up to 75 hours a week, while being paid for 11 hours a day, or 66 hours a week. When we visited the factory in July it was not their busy season and they were not working on Sundays.
Even if the women were obligated to work just every other Saturday, then their average work week would be a little over 58 hours, or 10˝ hours a day times 5˝ days.
The base, or starting wage at the factory is 17 cents an hour, or $9.73 for a 58 hour week.
Base wage:
However, most workers at the factory earned more than the base rate, and their take home pay - including all incentives, bonuses and overtime premiums - averaged 450 rmb per month, or $54.22. This would put the average hourly wage at approximately 22 cents an hour.
Average take home wage: (including all bonuses, overtime premiums, and incentives)
The highest wage we heard about at the factory was one woman who earned 700 rmb for the month, or $84.34 US, for working 57.5 hours a week. This would come to 34 cents an hour.
These wages were similar to those in other factories nearby where the Tae-Kyung workers had friends who were employed. In an electronics factory a few blocks away (the workers did not know what brand they were producing) they were being paid 700 rmb a month, $84.34, while working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. At a nearby wood furniture factory the workers were earning $54.22 a month.
Twelve women share one drab dorm room, sleeping on metal bunk beds. The women complained that there was no entertainment, not even a single common TV in any of the dorm buildings. It was very drab and boring.
To leave the factory the women had to sign out first in order to get permission.
There was no independent union at the factory and any attempt to organize one would be immediately crushed.