December 3, 2007 – The announcement last week that China would be eliminating some of its export subsidies is a step in the right direction, but much more work needs to be done to put a halt to China’s currency manipulation and violation of workers rights.
Last week also saw the release of a Salt Lake Tribune Special Report: American Imports, China Death, which looked at the large number of Chinese workers who are losing their lives producing American products. The report was prepared by reporter Loretta Tofani, who spent fourteen months in China researching working conditions in Chinese factories.
The report points to a 2005 Chinese Ministry of Health report that notes at least 200 million of China’s labor force of 700 million workers were routinely exposed to toxic chemicals and life-threatening diseases in factories. The International Labor Organization (ILO) reports in 2005, the most recent year data is available, nearly 400,000 Chinese workers died of occupational illnesses.
“I found that there were carcinogens being used by people, by the workers, in a really extravagant manner. People were spraying benzenes. There were people who had silicosis from making our metal goods,” Tofani told PBS Newshour. “And it would seem like it was in every industry. It was furniture. It was shoes, clothes, marble tiles, granite countertops. Virtually every industry went through this system, where workers were living and breathing in carcinogens or using machines that were unguarded and resulted in amputations.”
The report also reaffirms that Chinese workers lack basic health protections, including protective masks and proper ventilation systems. Basis labor protections are due in large part to the inability of workers to organize or establish their own free trade unions. Instead, China has only one central government-run trade union whose sole function is to enhance production and maintain labor discipline.
The report includes various subsections examining factories failure to protect against lung diseases, the use of primitive, unsafe machines, the chronic inhalation of toxins and cadmium dust’s link to kidney failure.
Read the report here.
Learn more about last week’s subsidies announcement here.
