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)

[dogbyte12]

Chancy/OPH is a lawyer. They have a track record of being jerks. They even hated lawyers in William Shakespeare's day. All they do is drain the economy with their regulations, their lawsuits, their contracts, and their fingers in every pot and pan. Then they become needed to deal with the arcane mess they have gotten us into in the first place.

All the rules, regulations that americans have to deal with before we compete. Thank lawyers for them. Blood sucking leeches should have no right to talk about the plight of the people from whose veins they draw life.

[netmilsmom]

Me too!
Now I found the joy of E-Bay for kids clothes.
I truly feel for the kids who are being enslaved, however, read the article again. These people are making sixteen and seventeen year olds into children. In the countries they live in, these are women. Could be married with children. Geez, we're taking about the third world here!

[em2vn]

What a load of ill-informed anti-union crap. Have you ever lookeed into a Knapp Shoe catalog? If so you will notice a wide a varity of American made shoes.
Do you have any idea what American shoe and garment workers make an hour? It is less than ten dollars an hour on average. Would you make ends meet on less than twenty grand a year? Not much of a chance of sending your kids to college on ten dollars an hour.
You can justify your support of Communist China any way you want but every time you purchase something from Wal-Mart that is made in China you are providing the Reds with more ammunition to be fired at our kids.
Wal-Mart has a new trick working. The nation of origin on many items isn't placed on the item. It is placed on the box that the item is displayed in. If you pull the box from the shelf then you the see the home office of Wal-Mart proudly stamped on the box, China.

[Walkin Man]

OK, knowing that these products are made in communist countries by slave labor, are they any cheaper now?

HA HA HA!

That shirt in the GREAT WALL-Mart still cost twenty bucks, doesn’t it? This is the lie and the scam of so-called "free trade". Nothing is cheaper at all!

We should all be driving 10,000 luxury cars and SUV's, buying 200 dollar HDTV's, etc, etc, if "free trade" had any real benefit to consumers.

Its all a scam to line the pockets of thieves that control Wall Street and the politicians they bought and paid for in BOTH political parties!

[dogbyte12]

9-12 year olds in Bangladesh may develop early when they make shirts for Wal-Mart for 5 cents an hour. 13 year olds in Guatamala making the Kathy Lee line might have some kids themselves as well.

Some cases, it is true. The kids are older. I have no problem with kids once they get 15ish to start working. Many kids are physically mature by then. However, a 13 year old, whose bone structure hasn't filled out, is going to be severely physically disabled when they get older, by repetitive motion injuries, that were accentuated by their body growing in the shape of their injuries.

I am sure Kathy Lee went to Guatamala though to ensure that her 13 year old darlings were following ergonomic safety procedures though.

[Kay Ludlow]

I wonder how the "Free Traders" would feel if our defense industry left for lower wages in Communist China?

Isn't that happening? I thought there was a story a couple of weeks ago about a company the makes missile guidance systems moving to China.

The issues in this article, which are applicable to every company buying from China, are the reason I opposed China getting "Most Favored Nation" trade status. I'm in favor of free trade, as long as it's free both ways with no government involvement in the business economy. That's clearly not true in China - the most egregious 'employers' are companies that are 'owned' by the party members and are protected by the state.

I read recently where China has (or is about to have) laws that any company that partners with a Chinese company for production essentially gives the intellectual rights to the manufacturing process to the Chinese partner. Why would our companies even agree to partner under those conditions? I can see the companies that were already there before this rule was imposed having trouble bailing out, but new companies agreeing? I don't understand!

[dogbyte12]

Wal-Mart has a new trick working. The nation of origin on many items isn't placed on the item. It is placed on the box that the item is displayed in. If you pull the box from the shelf then you the see the home office of Wal-Mart proudly stamped on the box, China.

Here is another trick that Wal-Mart has, hand in hand with their Chinese friends. We have crappy import quotas. Basically, we won't allow the Chinese to dump billions of things on us, to overwhelm us, so they have an import quota. Here is how Wal-Mart and China get around it. They reach their import quota. They manufacture more clothes for 10 cents an hour labor. Send it to a country without a quota, without a "Made in China" tag. They then, add the value of the tag in this new country, and it might say, made in Indonesia, made in Zimbabwe, or wherever, and be allowed into the US after that.

Alot of the clothing you are buying now that isn't labeled made in China, is actually made in China other than the tag. In fact the tag itself most likely is made in China. The tag gets sewed on though in Indonesia. Therefore you are buying an Indonesian shirt, not a Chinese one. It's all about letting the consumer decide what they want after all.

[ampat]

I wonder why stockholders, who "own" part of the company can't get the info.

[TomGuy]

That shirt in the GREAT WALL-Mart still cost twenty bucks, doesn’t it?

One thing about the Big W is that they do drive prices down. W does insist, even pressure, its suppliers to keep prices low.

No matter how you look at it, what is good for one isn't necessarily good for another---as this thread proves.

Increase prices, and wages have to go up or consumers can't afford the product.

Increase wages, and prices go up so businesses can get their share of the increase.

Increase imports for cheaper prices, and local/American companies and manufacturing workers are hurt financially.

Decrease imports and buy locally, and local/American consumers face higher prices for goods and services.

etc.

[saminfl]

I am sure Kathy Lee went to Guatamala though to ensure that her 13 year old darlings were following ergonomic safety procedures though.

Those "ergonomic safety procedures" are one of the reasons the stuff is manufactured in Guatamala. So many of these "feel good" regulations are issued by gov't workers trying to justify their jobs that American companies can't afford to do things here in the USA.

[netmilsmom]

>>These people are making sixteen and seventeen year olds into children. In the countries they live in, these are women. <<

This is my quote from the original post.
Why did you write about a 9 year old?

[dogbyte12]

If you genuinely believe that 12 hour shifts standing at a machine at age 13 are good for your back, well I don't know how to argue with you on that.

Yes, some safety rules have gone overboard. The answer isn't to junk safety all together.

We are not returning to the 1950's here. We are returning to the 1870's. There is a big difference between, no junk science, put in a hard day's work for a decent wage, that you could get in the 50's and 60's, and a return to children working in sweatshops, for pennies an hour, with no safety, exit doors guarded by armed thugs. Is there no happy middle ground here?

[PuNcH]

and Wal-Mart can't sell $300 shoes or $100 jeans. Their customers don't typically shop at Saks or Barneys.

Did you ever check the prices of american made shoes to figure out that you have your head up your ***?

[Quix]

Fitting points IMHO.

[meyer]

But isn't that part of the point? We are told that Nike can't afford to have workers in any place other than China and Vietnam. They then pay Lebron James $90 million. Well, it is just a business priority then. If he sells 9 million pairs, they have to give him $10 per pair of shoes sold. If they cut the cost of these endorsements in half, say made it $45 million, and hired american, they could still make the same profit. Seriously. If that $5 per pair of shoes went to an american worker's salary. Does anybody believe an american worker couldn't produce enough pair of shoes per hour to pay for $5 per pair? My guess is that the american worker could at least produce 4 pairs of shoes an hour for a salary of $8.50. If ya add health care, overhead, etc... it would still be under $20.

I understand all that, but production and marketing are two separate functions. They would still spend the money on big-name endorsements if it brought customers willing to spend the larger amount. Would you sell your house for $50,000 if you had buyers willing to pay $100,000? Would you pay some sports star $25,000 if there was a good chance that you could command $150,000 for the same house?

But instead, these shoe companies are competing for the next big celebrity instead and turning celebrity endorsements into the old dutch tulip market.

PT Barnum had a saying about consumers that applies here. I think its rather silly to pay $150 for athletic shoes just because some celebrity endorses them. Yet people do it every day. Caveat Emptor.

18 year old kids who haven't taken a single NBA shot, are worth more than the president of the United States.

Beauty is apparently in the eyes of the beholder - nobody said that people are required to think. I agree that the aggrandization of American sports "heros" is a big facade, but people, for some reason, are buying it. I wonder how many people would purchase running shoes endorsed by George W. Bush, President of the United States?

[PuNcH]

Singling out Wal-Mart is wrong.

LOL, why is it "wrong"?

They are the biggest and when you are the biggest, people take shots at you.

They are of the biggest offenders they need a big shot.

[niteowl77]

Populist/communist rhetoric is not necessarily populist/communist action; "do as I say, not as I do" has always been alive and well in any socialist (and "social justice") camp. On this thread, I am being polite and somewhat tentative, because I have no idea whether someone is being funny, raving like a loon, swallowing lies, deliberately trolling or just plain cranky.

And I don't particularly care right now. Aside from supporting our troops - and their morale - 100% (and thus consigning the appeasers and defeatists to some psychic purgatory), very little matters to me right now.

I breezily give a sweeping flip of the bird to big business AND big labor on this festive day, upon which I shall shop at my local retailers (in preference to stepping across that giant parking lot strewn with used Pampers and assorted garbage, just to shoulder my way through a crowd that appears to be a solid 'rat voting bloc).

[RJL]

This whole “story” is a contradiction. The first three paragraphs tell us that it’s virtually impossible to find out even where Wal-mart buys their merchandise “Even the President of the United States could not find out from Wal-Mart where it manufactures its goods”.

Then they go on to tell us exactly where the merchandise is made, who makes it, how much they are paid, what they eat, where they sleep, and on and on…

[PuNcH]

people like you who bitch and moan about stuff like this instead of getting off your lazy hippi ass and go change their system of government so people don't have to live like what you've described.

*that had to be one of the most stupid damn arguments i've heard in a long time*

[Missouri]

Isn't that happening? I thought there was a story a couple of weeks ago about a company the makes missile guidance systems moving to China.

I don't know anything about a missle guidance system moving to China but it wouldn't surprise me.

I do believe that some military boots and cheaper military items are being made in China.

This what worries me. I work in a large machine shop which makes parts for the F-15, F-18, C-17, F-22, and Apache helicoptor. I'm about the average age for a machinist there (45) and many of us are looking at retirement withine 10 years and I don't see many younger machinist or other support personal coming up behind us to take over. With all other machining work going overseas, the pool of machinist will drop because nobody will want to go into that field. My worry is that in about 15 years, we won't be able to produce our own weapons because hardly anyone will be around who knows how to mill or turn metal. And if we get into a war with a 1st rate enemy like China, well all bets would be off who would be the victor.