Chi Fung Factory
Apopa, El Salvador
Nike, NBA, Jordan, Adidas, Wal-Mart, VF Corporation
______________________________________________________________________
- Forced pregnancy tests.
- Forced overtime—without pay—to meet production goals.
- Filthy and unsafe drinking water.
- Workers paid just 25 cents for each $140 NBA Nike Lakers basketball shirt they sew--wages amounting to less than 2/10ths of one percent of the retail price. Workers paid just 38 cents for each $45 Jordan/North Carolina basketball shirt they sew.
- Surveillance cameras in the bathrooms and on the shop floor.
- Unions prohibited—organizers immediately fired.
- Codes of Conduct posted, but meaningless to workers.
- Constant pressure and humiliation—workers screamed and cursed at to go faster.
______________________________________________________________________
Chi Fung, S.A. de C.V.
Carreterra Troncal de Norte
Kilometro 12 ½
Apopa, San Salvador
| Legal Representative: | Wen Ling Tsao |
| (503) 216-1540 | |
| Ownership: | Taiwanese |
| Employees: | 1,600 workers |
The Chi Fung facility resembles a prison fortress with massive locked metal gates surrounded by a high cinderblock wall, topped with rolls of razor wire. To the right of the entrance, there is even a turret-like guard tower patrolled by uniformed personnel with rifles. There are bunker-like peepholes in the cement walls and in the metal gate for other guards to peer out. The company is currently building a second factory which will double its size.
|
Starvation Wages, Abuse
Chi Fung workers are paid just:
|
Anatomy of Exploitation:
- NBA/Nike: Workers paid 25 cents for each $140 basketball shirt they sew: In December 2000 and January 2001, 50 workers in production line "A" at the Chi Fung factory sewed NBA Nike sports basketball shirts, which retail for $140 each at the NBA store. In an eleven-hour shift, from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with one 15-minute break and 45 minutes for lunch, management required Line A to complete 1,500 NBA jerseys. If they received their 7th Day attendance bonus, the workers would earn 75 cents an hour, or $7.54 for the 10 hours of work. The daily payroll for the 50-person assembly line totaled $377.19. These same workers produced $210,000 in NBA shirts a day. So the workers’ wages amounted to just 25 cents for every $140 NBA Nike team shirt they sewed, or less than 2/10ths of one percent of the jersey’s retail price.
- Workers paid 21 cents for each $100 pair of NBA Nike basketball shorts they sew: In December 2000 and January 2001, 49 workers on Line #12 were assigned a mandatory production quota of 1,800 NBA Nike team basketball shorts in the 11-hour shift, 10 hours of which were paid. The daily payroll for the entire production line amounted to $369.65 (754 /hour x 10 hours = $7.54; $7.54 x 49 workers = $369.65). These workers were producing $180,000-worth of NBA Nike shorts each day. In this case the workers’ wages came to just 2/10ths of one percent of the $100 retail price of the NBA shorts, or only 21 cents.
- Workers paid 28 cents for each $140 Puma New York Knicks shirt they sew: Line 1A, made up of 50 sewers, had to complete 1,500 Puma New York Knicks shirts in 10 hours of work. At 75 cents an hour, or $5.54 for the shift, the payroll for all 50 assembly workers came to $377.19 a day. The workers, sewing 1,500 pieces a day, produced $189,000-worth of shirts. Once again, the workers’ wages amounted to less than 2/10ths of one percent of the $140 retail price for the Puma New York Knicks shirt, or just 28 cents per jersey.
- Workers paid 23 cents for each $60 Nike New York Knicks jersey they sew: Lines #1 and #2, with 46 sewers on each line, were required to produce 1,500 Nike Knicks basketball shirts per line in the 10 hour work day. At 75 cents an hour, $7.54 for the day, the payroll for the entire 46 member line case to $347.02. These workers were producing $90,000 worth of Nike Knicks basketball jerseys each shift. The workers earned 23 cents for each $60 Nike New York Knicks shirt they sewed. Their wages amounted to less than 4/10ths of one percent of the retail price of the jerseys at Niketown.
- Workers paid just 38 cents for each Jordan/North Carolina T-shirt they sew, which then retails at Niketown for $45: Sixty workers on a production line are assigned a daily production goal of sewing 960 Nike/Jordan T-shirts during the standard 8-hour shift. At the 75-cent-an-hour wage (including "7th Day" attendance bonus), the workers would earn $6.03 in eight hours. The daily payroll for all 60 workers on the line would be $361.80. These 60 workers would be producing $43,200-worth of Nike/Jordan T-shirts each day (960 quota x $45 = $43,200). Based on these figures, the workers are paid just 38 cents for each $45 Nike/Jordan shirt they sew. The workers’ wages amount to just eight-tenths of one percent of the retail price of the Jordan shirt.
- Other labels produced at Chi Fung:
| Adidas—two production lines: | Adidas T-shirts; Adidas shorts |
| Production goal: Adidas shorts 1,400 per production line per 8 hour shift. | |
| Wal-Mart | PIERS shipping records show that in just one month, October 2000, Chi Fung shipped 145 tons of clothing to the U.S., with 52 percent of it going to Wal-Mart. |
| VF—six production lines: | VF Corporation’s Healthtex children’s clothing. |
| Production goals: 60 workers on an assembly line must produce 2000 children’s blue jeans a day. |
Working Conditions and Violations:
- Forced Pregnancy Tests: Two weeks after starting at Chi Fung, all female employees are forced to undergo a urine analysis/pregnancy test at the factory clinic for which 125 colones ($14.29)—two to three days’ wages—is deducted from the workers’ pay. If a woman tests positive, she is immediately fired. This is a clear violation of the Salvadoran Constitution, Article 3, which makes such discrimination against women illegal.
- Forced Overtime Without Pay to Meet Production Goals: Assembly line workers must meet the daily production goal set by the company or they are forced to remain working, without pay, for another hour until 6:00 p.m., or until the quota is met. In addition, some 20 percent of the workers, about 180, must stay each day, again without pay, to repair so-called "mistakes" made during that day’s shift.
- Surveillance Cameras in the Bathrooms and on the Shop Floor: The workers feel humiliated that there are video surveillance cameras in the bathrooms, which they believe are meant to monitor the number and time of their visits, and to keep an eye on them at every moment. There are also 12 surveillance cameras on the shop floor, which are monitored by the Taiwanese supervisors. The workers feel this is another form of pressure to constantly speed up their work.
- Filthy and Unsafe Drinking Water: The National Labor Committee, with the help of workers, tested the drinking water in the factory (lab results attached) and found that bacteria levels were 290 times greater than the internationally allowed standards. Evidence of fecal contamination was found in the water, probably from animal run-off making its way into the factory’s well. A U.S. physician/pathologist recommended that this water not even be bathed in, let alone drunk.
- No Unions Allowed, All Organizers Immediately Fired: The Taiwanese administrators and supervisors—along with their Salvadoran staff—are not shy about constantly reminding the workers that "organizing a union at the factory is prohibited," and would result in "automatic firing."
- Code of Conduct Meaningless: Nike and Adidas Codes of Conduct are indeed posted on the bathroom and cafeteria walls, but no worker could explain what they meant. Workers felt that they had no meaning or relevance to them at all, and had no impact at all on actual working conditions.
- Humiliation, Constant Pressure to Produce: Workers describe factory conditions as deteriorating, with pressure to work faster and faster increasing every day. Supervisors shout and scream at the workers to go faster, to produce more, while at the same time hounding them on quality.
- Limited Access to Health Care: Social Security health benefit payments are deducted from the workers’ wages. What they get in return is a minimal factory clinic with two nurses and very few medicines - really "only aspirins," the workers explain. If they must go to the Salvadoran Institute for Social Security (ISSS) hospital for more comprehensive care, they are docked for the hours they miss. The workers must then "replace" those hours by working overtime without pay.
- No Legal Contract Given: The workers never receive a copy of their work contact, which is illegal under Salvadoran law. Usually a security guard takes the contract to the worker at her sewing machine, where she must sign it, while at no point being allowed to read the contents of the contract.
|
Note: North American students sent by Nike to visit their contractors’ factories in El Salvador reported that the workers received a number of additional benefits. But fired workers now working on the ground as labor rights researchers were told a very different story by the Chi Fung employees.
|
| Hours - regular time: | ||
| Monday through Thursday: | 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon | Work (With one 15-minute break, 8:45-9:00) |
| Noon to 1:00 p.m. | Lunch | |
| 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. | Work | |
| Friday: | 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. | Work |
When there are no forced overtime hours, the workers are at the factory 49 hours a week, while being paid for 44 hours. However, approximately 20 percent of the line workers are required to remain until 6:00 p.m. to "repair" the day’s "mistakes." If there are rush orders, sewing operators are forced to work a nine-hour overtime shift on Saturday, from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Wages:
The base wage in El Salvador is:
- $4.80 a day (42 colones)
- $0.60 an hour
However, when one adds in what in Latin America is known as the "Seventh Day" attendance bonus (meaning a worker with perfect attendance and punctuality will be paid for seven days, while actually working five or six days a week) the minimum wage in El Salvador becomes 1260 colones a month, or:
- $ 0.75 an hour
- $ 6.03 a day (8-hour shift)
- $ 33.19 a week (44 hour work week)
- $ 143.84 a month
- $ 1,726.02 a year
Chi Fung also has a production bonus of 57 cents a day, as an incentive for workers who meet the daily production goal set by the company. Only the top 15 percent, the very fastest workers, are able to meet the excessively high quota and gain the 57-cent incentive on a regular basis. This could add $2.83 a week to their salary, bumping their hourly wage up by 7 cents, to 83 cents an hour. For an eight-hour day, this would come to $6.64.
(Note: The workers have little understanding of how their wages are actually calculated because they never receive a written pay stub detailing their basic wage, overtime pay and incentives. The workers are given plastic cards with which to withdraw their money from an automatic teller machine.)
|
Shipping Documents: PIERS shipping records show that in just one month, October 2000, Chi Fung shipped 145 tons of clothing to the U.S., with 52 percent of it going to Wal-Mart. Another 27 percent of the shipments went to VF Corporation’s Healthtex Division. Shipments also went to Kellwood. (Other shipments could not be traced, since companies like Nike and Adidas cover their connection to offshore factories through the use of third-party shipping, brokerage or middle companies whose names appear on the shipping documents as the importer of record.)
|
|
More Nike Dirty Water At the Chi Fung factory, the drinking water provided to the workers is filthy and unsafe.
|