It just got harder to prosecute corporate abuse

Credit: James Burke via Flickr (Creative Commons)

A Supreme Court ruling in January has made it easier for large multinational corporations to avoid responsibility for its abuses anywhere in the world.

"Could you help me find a sweatshop for my friend?"

(Reuters)

On Monday, I attended the fifth annual Forecast of China's Economy at the New York Stock Exchange, an event organized by the National Committee on United States-China Relations which invites Chinese experts to discuss China's economic policy and its potential to influence the economy in the coming year.

Snowden case is at the soul of America

On Facebook today, a friend (you know who you are) posted on my wall that some of the labor rights denied to Chinese workers are also regularly denied to American workers. Unfortunately true.

Soon after reading this post, I read the New York Times' editorial that ambitiously kicked off the new year by demanding amnesty for Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower now self-exiled in Russia.

How, you ask, is Snowden related to labor rights defense?

Protest and interview on the streets of Paris

I had the fortune to be a part of the dramatic protest/media campaign on the streets of Paris against the abuse of Mattel workers in China. This protest was carried out with the leadership of Peuples Solidaires, a dynamic French rights advocacy group. I cannot remember the exact location in Paris, but there were about two to three dozen reporters present, including the AP. Below is the footage and interview shot by GNC News Network.

Don’t Feel Guilty About Chinese Worker Abuse. Get mad instead.

This article originally appeared in In These Times. The photo was published by China Labor Watch.

In October, China Labor Watch (CLW) published a report that exposed a laundry list of labor rights violations in six Chinese factories producing Mattel toys. These undercover investigations revealed that workers perform up to 110 hours of monthly overtime, live in hot, crowded dormitories and do not receive effective safety training or adequate protective equipment. Moreover, the report estimated the factories steal $11 million from workers each year through a combination of “unpaid overtime, work hour trickery and voluntary social insurance.” For more than a decade, the CLW pointed out, Mattel itself has also performed audits of supplier factories—and uncovered similar awful labor conditions.

Quoted in Huffington Post on exploitation in factories producing Dell products

Prolific labor rights advocate/reporter Michelle Chen interviewed me for an article about the latest revelations of labor abuse in Dell-producing factories in China, based on a detailed report by DanWatch. Much of the report is based on undercover investigation by China Labor Watch.

In Chen's article, I was quoted speaking on the issue of temp workers:

The tremendous use of student workers and dispatch or temporary workers is in part a symptom of brand companies, like Dell, driving down prices for production. The factories run on relatively slim profit margins, and the factories attempt to use every trick in the book to cut labor costs, including the use of illegally large proportions of temporary workers.

Back in March, together with Chinese right activist Xue Chao, I published an in-depth essay on the topic of Chinese temp workers. 

Radio interview on labor violations in Apple-producing factories

I was interviewed by California-based Free Speech Radio News yesterday on a recent China Labor Watch report regarding labor abuse in Apple's supplier factories in China. The interview can be found here.