[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 100 (Monday, July 22, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1315]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        PROTECT CHINA'S WORKERS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 22, 2002

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call attention to the 
suffering of the working class in China. I recently read an article, 
``Worked Till They Drop'' by Philip P. Pan, in the Washington Post on 
May 13th, 2002, and it shocked me. According to the Washington Post, 
19-year-old Li Chunmei died due to work exhaustion. She had been on her 
feet for nearly 16 hours that day, running back and forth carrying toy 
parts from machine to machine. Later that evening, she had complained 
that she was very tired and hungry. During the night, her roommates had 
awakened to the sounds of violent coughing and tracked the source of 
the sound to find Ms. Chunmei curled-up on the bathroom floor, coughing 
up blood. They immediately called an ambulance, but she died before it 
had arrived.
  Cases of guolaosi, meaning ``over-work death'', are never documented 
but many local journalists estimate that dozens occur in the Pearl 
River Delta area alone, the manufacturing region north of Hong Kong 
where Ms. Chunmei's factory, Kaiming Industrial, is located. What is 
sad is that nothing is being done about these horrible deaths. The 
majority of these workers are young men and women who travel many miles 
from their poor villages to earn a living in China's factory towns. 
Many of them never finish school, being taken out by their parents to 
help work on the farm or in the family business. By the age of 15, most 
of these youths are urged by their parents to seek employment in a 
factory to support the family.
  These young migrant workers are considered second class citizens in 
China's industrial cities, receiving less access to the weak courts and 
trade unions. Many do not even know the Chinese word for labor union! 
The factories, many of them backed by foreign investment, that they 
work in are drab, concrete dormitories. Life inside can be compared to 
the feudal system. An average day begins around 8:00 a.m. and can last 
until 2 a.m. Breaks are rare. The conditions that these poor souls have 
to work in are tragic as well. In most of these factories there is no 
air conditioning, with the temperature climbing above 90 degrees at 
times, and the air is full of fibers. The average salary for a runner, 
which was Ms. Chunmei's position, is about 12 cents an hour and, even 
during the busy season, one might earn as little as $65 a month, with 
no money received for overtime work. Moreover, benefits are non-
existent and managers tend to make deductions from the workers' 
salaries for items never received. Managers also tend to impose 
arbitrary fines on the workers, which include penalties for spending 
more than five minutes in the bathroom and wasting food during meals.
  When these young workers try to complain about these conditions to 
their supervisors or government officials, they are told to return to 
their jobs or they will be fired or even arrested. Local officials 
often overlook labor rights and safety violations, eager to take bribes 
and generate tax revenue. The concept of subcontracting further 
complicates the situation, as many foreign investors rely on these 
contractors to carry out their operations. It is due to this 
complicated web that overseas corporations avoid responsibility for the 
rights of China's working class.
  In the case of Li Chunmei, it took her father 28 days to get someone 
to take responsibility for what had happened to his daughter. He was 
lead on a wild goose chase when finally the police concluded that Li 
Chunmei died because of an illness and that her death was non-work 
related. Her poor father could do nothing about the ruling and now the 
family again is struggling to make ends meet, this time with empty 
hearts that money will never be able fill.
  Mr. Speaker, I have attached excerpts from this piece but I strongly 
urge my colleagues to read this article in its entirety. This is an 
issue that we can no longer ignore. As China and the U.S. improve trade 
relations, we must continue to press China to improve its labor, 
environment, and human rights record in general. Let us do all we can 
to help these young individuals, before we read of another Li Chunmei.

 Excerpts From: ``Worked Till They Drop'' by Philip P. Pan, Washington 
                          Post, May 13th 2002

       ``On the night she died, Li Chunmel must have been 
     exhausted. Co-workers said she had been on her feet for 
     nearly 16 hours, running back and forth inside the Bainan Toy 
     Factory, carrying toy parts from machine to machine. When the 
     quitting bell finally rang shortly after midnight, her young 
     face was covered with sweat.''
       ``. . . Her roommates had already fallen asleep when Li 
     started coughing up blood. They found her in the bathroom a 
     few hours later, curled up on the floor, moaning softly in 
     the dark, bleeding from her nose and mouth. Someone called an 
     ambulance, but she died before it arrived.''
       ``The exact cause of Li's death remains unknown. But what 
     happened to her last November in this industrial town in 
     southeastern Guangdon province is described by her family, 
     friends and co-workers as an example of what China's more 
     daring newspapers call guolaosi. The phrase means ``over-work 
     death,'' and usually applies to young workers who suddenly 
     collapse and die after working exceedingly long hours, day 
     after day.''
       ``These new workers are younger, poorer, and less familiar 
     with the promises of labor rights and job security that once 
     served as the ideological bedrock of the ruling Communist 
     Party. They are more likely to work for private companies, 
     often backed by foreign investment, with no socialist 
     tradition of cradle-to-grave benefits. The young migrants are 
     also second-class citizens, with less access to weak courts 
     and trade unions that sometime temper market forced as 
     China's economy changes from socialist to capitalist. Most of 
     all, they are outsiders, struggling to make a living far away 
     from home.''
       ``Li was a runner . . . always on her feet . . . `She had 
     the worst job, and the bosses were always telling her to go 
     faster,' said one worker on Li's assembly line . . . `There 
     were no breaks, and there was no air conditioning.' He added 
     that the air was full of fibers, and with the heat from the 
     machines, sometimes temperatures climbed above 90 degrees.''
       ``Runners required no special skills, and were paid the 
     least, about 12 cents per hour, workers said. During the busy 
     season, including extra pay for overtime, Li could cam about 
     $65 a month. But there were deductions. Workers said the 
     company withheld about $12 a month for room and board and 
     charged them for benefits they never received. For example, 
     workers said they paid for the temporary residence permits 
     they needed to live and work in Songgang legally, but never 
     received them. Managers also had the power to impose 
     arbitrary fines, including penalties for spending more than 
     five minutes in the bathroom, wasting food during meals and 
     failing to meet production quotas, workers said.''
       Another colleague, Zhang Fayong, recalled that Li once 
     purchased a new dress, then refused to wear it. She said Li 
     was amazed she had spent money on it, and afraid she somehow 
     might ruin it. After her death, her father found the dress 
     among her belongings, folded and wrapped in plastic, he said. 
     He also found a stack of laminated snapshots, taken at local 
     photo parlors for 50 cents apiece . . . They show Li with her 
     friends . . . She looks surprisingly young, just a teenager 
     with long black hair, holding flowers, or saluting, or 
     sitting with an ID tag pinned to her blouse . . . She was 
     smiling in only one picture.''
       ``Immediately after learning of his daughter's death, Li 
     Zhimin traveled to Songgang. For 28 days, he said, he tried 
     to get someone to take responsibility of what happened . . . 
     Finally, police gave him a letter that said a district 
     medical examiner had concluded Li Chunmel `suddenly died 
     because of an illness while she was alive.' There were no 
     other details, and the local labor bureau declared her death 
     `non-work-related' . . . Li said he was unhappy with the 
     finding, but was helpless to do anything about it.''

     

                          ____________________