Toy company Mattel's decision to recall nearly two million toys produced in China has exposed a serious and potentially lethal side effect of the drive for cheaper products.
The dangerously high levels of lead in the paint of children's toys has forced Mattel into no less than three product recalls in six weeks. Naturally, this scandal provoked much debate as to the effect on children's health, and now threatens a shortage of toys this Christmas.
However, a sinister spin-off of the scandal, is the shocking levels of exploitation of Chinese workers in the manufacturing industry. An Amnesty International report last March gave examples of a typical worker’s life - 12 hour days, seven days a week with only one rest day in a month. Workers were denied full housing and education rights and entitlements and the slightest injury or sickness can quickly result in financial ruin. According to The Guardian newspaper, "some migrants conduct operations on themselves because they cannot afford hospital fees."
Scandalously, these conditions are the norm for millions of workers in China. In May, a scandal emerged that provoked outrage and anger throughout China. This involved the abduction and forced exploitation of children as young as 12, imprisoned in conditions “worse than dog kennels” working in factories and brick kilns.
Again working days of 12 hours and pay rates of half the minimum wage were common. In one case, two labour inspectors, who took charge of a “liberated” boy labourer, simply sold him on to another company! When parents, who launched a campaign to expose the scandal and rescue their children, approached police for assistance, the authorities simply replied: “this is a conflict between labour and capital!” and “you should have taken better care of your children.”
These scandals are a direct result of the continuing drive to increase the profits of both state owned and private western multinational company’s such as Mattel. The problem is not lack of legislation – in the case of lead paint, China has stricter controls than the US – but is a question of whose interests the Chinese government serve. However, whatever laws are in place, are simply ignored. “The only law that is never disobeyed in todays China is the law of profit”, states Vincent Kolo of the www.chinaworker.info.
This is the other side of the Race to the Bottom. Companies like Mattel have closed down operations in the west and re-located to China, India and Eastern Europe in an attempt to drive down wages and conditions. As is clear, it is workers, east and west, who lose out to big business’s thirst for profit. There is no room for human rights, work conditions and ultimately children’s safety when it comes to their profit margins.
