Date of publication: January 14, 2008
Source: The New York Times
Author: David Barboza
In the Pearl River Delta region near Hong Kong, factory workers lose or break 40,000 fingers on the job annually
Nearly a decade after some of the most powerful companies in the world began an effort to eliminate sweatshop labour conditions in Asia, worker abuse is still commonplace in many of the Chinese factories that supply Western companies, according to labour rights groups.
The groups say some Chinese companies routinely shortchange their employees on wages, withhold health benefits and expose their workers to dangerous machinery and harmful chemicals, like lead, cadmium and mercury. "If these things are so dangerous for the consumer, then how about the workers?" said Anita Chan, a labour rights advocate who teaches at the Australian National University. "We may be dealing with these things for a short time, but they deal with them every day." ...