What is Wal-Mart Trying To Hide?

Kansas Workbeat ^

[StatesEnemy]

How can you tell if the product you are about to purchase was made by a child, by teenaged girls forced to work until midnight seven days a week, or in a sweatshop by workers paid 9¢ an hour?

The sad fact is...You cannot. The companies do not want you to know, so they hide their production behind locked factory gates, barbed wire and armed guards.

Wal-Mart and the other multinationals refuse to release to the American people even the list and addresses of the factories they use around the world to make the goods we purchase. The corporations say we have no right to this information. Even the President of the United States could not find out from Wal-Mart where it manufactures its goods.

Yet, to shop with our conscience, it is our right to know in which countries and factories, under what human rights conditions and at what wages the products we purchase are made.

In the global economy, we must have the right to know: 60% of the $180 billion a year we spend on clothing, 80% of the toys and sporting goods, and 90% of the shoes we purchase are imports. We live in a global economy.

Imagine, in just the first 10 months of 1997, American companies imported one billion garments made in China--nearly four garments for every man, women and child in the U.S. Yet what do we know about who made this clothing, and under what conditions?

The companies do not want us to know that our clothing was sewn in China by young women, 17 to 25 years old (when they are fired as "too old"), forced to work seven days a week, often past midnight, for 12 to 28¢ an hour, with no benefits. Or that the women are housed in crowded, dirty dormitories, 15 to a room, and fed a thin rice gruel. That the workers are kept under 24-hour-a-day surveillance and can be fired for even discussing factory conditions. That the factories in China operate behind a veil of secrecy, behind locked metal gates, with no factory names posted and no visitors allowed. The companies do not want you to know that these women are trapped, with nowhere to turn, since China's authorities do not allow independent human rights, religious or women groups to exist, and all attempts to form independent unions have been crushed. This is the global economy.

Like other giant multinationals, Wal-Mart manufactures its private label clothing in at least 48 countries around the world, contracting production with tens of thousands of factories--including 700 to 1,000 factories in China alone. Wal-Mart's annual sales of $118 billion are larger than the gross domestic product--the entire economic output--of 155 countries in the world, and there are only a total of 192!

Wal-Mart uses its enormous power to play these countries and factories against one another, forcing them to compete over who will provide Wal-Mart the better deal, the lowest prices.

Wal-Mart then pits the American people against the desperately poor in the developing world in the race to the bottom, over who will accept the lowest wages and benefits, the most miserable living and working conditions--just to get a job.

Wal-Mart claims to have a "Buy American" policy, an "unprecedented commitment to purchase American goods," that is, until you reach the small print which reads, "...whenever pricing is comparable to goods made offshore." That is the race to the bottom in a nutshell. How can American workers compete with 9 cent-an-hour wages in Indonesia?

The truth is, Wal-Mart has moved far more production offshore than the industry average. For example, only 11% of Wal-Mart's famous Kathie Lee line of clothing is made in the U.S., while 89% is made offshore. Only 17% of Wal-Mart's men's Faded Glory clothing is made in the U.S., while 96% of its children's McKids label is made offshore. Wal-Mart has shifted the majority of its Kathie Lee production to Mexico and Indonesia--two countries where the local currencies collapsed, driving real wages through the floor, to 50¢ an hour in Mexico and 9¢ in Indonesia. It is as if Wal-Mart were chasing misery.

How the System Operates There are racks of Kathie Lee blouses for sale in Wal-Mart for $16.99. All of them are exactly alike, except for a single difference. Some are made in Mexico, where the workers are paid 50¢ an hour, while others are made in the U.S., where the workers earn $8.42 an hour. The workers in Mexico are paid just 17¢ for every $16.99 Kathie Lee blouse they sew, while the American workers earn $1.70 for the exact same work. How is it that the blouses sell for the same price? Who gains here?

In the Global Sweatshop, there are no rules In today's global economy, the multinationals are not accountable to the American people; there are no enforceable human rights or wage standards. There are no checks and balances. Corporations are free to roam the world in search of misery, high unemployment, starvation wages, no taxes, no regulations and no enforcement of labor and environmental standards.

Behind the locked factory gates, this is the reality:

Nine-to-12-year-old children in Bangladesh working past midnight sewing Wal-Mart shirts for 5¢ an hour. The children were beaten for their mistakes. (Dateline, 1992)

Thirteen-year-olds in Guatemala forced to work 13-hour shifts seven days a week sewing Wal-Mart clothing for 31¢ an hour. If they worked too slowly, these children were also beaten. (Wall Street Journal, 1995)

Wendy Diaz and 130 other 13, 14 and 15-year olds were forced to work 13-hour shifts sewing Kathie Lee pants in Honduras, earning just 25¢ for every $19.96 pair of pants they made. The girls were allowed to use the bathrooms only twice a day. (National Labor Committee, 1996)

Women in Haiti are paid 6¢ for every $19.99 "101 Dalmatians" children's outfit they sew for sale in Wal-Mart. Unable to afford milk, these women are forced to raise their children on sugar water and coffee. (NLC, 1997)

Workers in Nicaragua are locked in the factory compound from 6:45 a.m. until 7:15 p.m. with only one half-hour break for lunch, when they must race to the factory gates to purchase water and food through the barbed wire. They are paid 23¢ an hour to sew Wal-Mart clothing. (NLC/Hard Copy, 1997)

Kathie Lee handbags are made in China by women forced to work 10-hour shifts, seven days a week and earning just $3.44 for the entire 70-hour work week! The workers are stripped of their rights and kept under constant surveillance. Wal-Mart and other U.S.-based multinationals are actually lowering standards in China, slashing wages and benefits, imposing excessive overtime hours and tolerating widespread firings of anyone who dares to defend their rights. (NLC, 1998)

[gitmo]

Moving Wal-Mart to do the Right Thing
This campaign is about transparency in the global economy, about throwing open the locked factory gates, tearing down the barbed wire and removing the armed guards. It is about letting in the light of day, so it is harder to abuse children and operate sweatshops.

Why Wal-Mart?
Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world; if we move Wal-Mart to do the right thing, we can change how the entire industry operates.

Wal-Mart will not willingly put themselves at a competitive disadvantage to their competitors. This campaign should work to establish "transparency in the global economy" with all companies, not just Wal-Mart.

I'm all for open information about the products we buy, but the focus cannot be on one company to the exclusion of others.

[mountaineer]

As soon as Americans are willing to work for 9 cents an hour under slave labor conditions, where will be plenty of new jobs created here in the USA!

It doesn't have to be that extreme. But when unions demand over $20 per hour for menial labor, how can American manufacturers compete with the "slave labor" countries? Where is Wal-Mart supposed to find $20 shoes for its customers (which may be all that customer can afford), if it's impossible to find such a product made in the USA? Keep in mind, a lot of people shop at Wal-Mart because they can't afford Niemann Marcus. Where would you have working class people go for their housewares, socks and the like? Or should they just do without, in an expression of solidarity forever?

[SamAdams76]

(Those doing the loudest complaining, of course, make far more than $5.35 per hour, but they whine that their bag of fries might increase 10 cents.)

But if as you concede, raising the minimum wage will raise consumer prices, then why raise the minimum wage at all? A minimum wage worker making $5.35 an hour will hardly be better off making more if consumer prices rise along with the minimum wage!

[MissAmericanPie]

Stop buying their goods. We need to organize and galvanize citizens to drive these companies to a choice, go out of business or tow the line.

[hgro]

The organized labor gang has been after WalMart attempting unsuccessfully to organize their labor force.

This labor day presentation should have been headed by the real author:

Wichita-Hutchinson Labor Federation of Central Kansas, AFL-CIO

[Conservababe]

People who write articles like these are looking for the union label...not necessarily the Made in the USA label.

[Jason_b]

"the multinationals are not accountable to the American people"

Neither are our elected representatives! And largely responsible for this situation is the fact that our money is not gold and silver. Jefferson warned bad things would happen when the politicians could pay themselves with paper money that they get the banks to create for them. It frees them from having to serve the people. He wanted the politicians to be paid with real money to ensure that the only wealth the politicians got was wealth that came from the labors of the people. But most feepers look down on gold advocates as "bugs" even though the founders were advocates of real money and encoded into the statutes and the Constitution (that have since become relics and antiques of law) that gold and silver would be the only money. Those of you who laugh at gold advocates but hate the idea of multinationals utilizing slave labor as mentioned in this article are laughing at the one thing that would bring the situation back under your control. Without an honest monetary system you can expect the slavery to continue---because of the mischeif and unaccountability that dishonest money makes possible.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

You dolts are amusing - jack up the minimum wage, and the people paying the biggest price for it are the workers who had been a buck or two above the minimum wage. I might be able to afford the extra dime for the bag of fries, but the guy who was making a buck more than minimum sure can't.

[Walkin Man]

But when unions demand over $20 per hour for menial labor...

Yes and college educated non-union white collar workers in America demand 50 to 80,000 a year while in India, poeple with the same education are willing to work 12 hours a day for 6,000 a year! And lots and lots and lots of those jobs are now going overseas as well.

I remember an America where a person only capable of "menial labor" could still live a decent life and raise a family. Now the same person is doomed to try and compete with slave labor in communist China! The USA is going to pay a heavy social price for cheap shoes sold at the Great Wall-Mart.

[Texas Mom]

I agree that the practice is horrible, but this article sounds more like sour grapes for WalMart than against Slave Labor.

Agreed.

[Promark]

The real problem as others have pointed out are the unions, the government regulations, and the government agencies here in the United States of America.

Making 9 cents per hour is better than making 0 cents an hour, especially if you're starving.

[eleni121]

Wichita-Hutchinson Labor Federation of Central Kansas, AFL-CIO

Thanks for finding the source of this garbage! The nonsense they propagate comes from the same hole that Marx came from.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I remember an America where a person only capable of "menial labor" could still live a decent life and raise a family.

So what? "Little man" populism is over, and good riddance. I can't say as I really care whether some disaffected class warrior can afford that tricked up pickup truck, a couple of trips to the Winston Cup series or some new gear for his bass boat annually.

[null and void]

Great Wal-mart ping...

[cp124]

"The Great Wall" Mart

[TomGuy]

You dolts are amusing - jack up the minimum wage, and the people paying the biggest price for it are the workers who had been a buck or two above the minimum wage. I might be able to afford the extra dime for the bag of fries, but the guy who was making a buck more than minimum sure can't.

Yeh, that dang Lincoln! He started it all! Now, EVERYBODY expects a living wage!


I'm just curious--how long has it been since you had to LIVE on minimum wage? How long since you even had to live on $5.35 an hour? I would bet the difference that you are making much more than $5.35 an hour.

[meyer]

Perhaps they can define "slave-wage" for those of us that aren't privy to such information. Along with "felonious profit margins" and such. They really ought to ask several Chinese people what the prefer - the Nike factory or the rice paddy. I suspect that making shoes is both better paying and more pleasant.

I shop at Wal-mart for the same reason millions of others do - to get stuff cheaper. I don't buy everything there, but I have found enough savings there to justify the extra 2 mile drive beyond the regular grocery store, particularly when I can save $10-20 every 2 weeks on regular name-brand grocery staples.

[Dog Gone]

How does putting foreign workers out of a job improve their lives?

[PatrioticAmerican]

"There is no way the American worker can compete with the utter desperation of slave labor. "

And, yet, somehow, we are supposed to feel good about getting cheap products. Well, that's what Wall Street has been saying, so has Rush. We are told that this is the "new global economy" and is good for us and everyone else. Somehow, I don't think so.

[AnalogReigns]

I suppose you think the poor and middle class in America would be better off paying $150+ for shirts and $200+ for shoes, if all we could buy were (union) made in USA stuff?

The standard of living would plummet to a 1930s level without imported goods.