By Eugenia Kemble
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) http://www.aft.org
4 March 2005
In what may be the first meeting with an official American labor delegation, workers in mainland China met last month with AFT representatives to discuss the egregious practices of a number of gem factories that sell their products to Western jewelry companies.
The workers are all afflicted with the terminal lung disease pneumoconiosis, caused by conditions at the factories that supply gems to Lucky Gems and Jewelry Company, Ko Ngar Gems Company, Perfect Gem Company and Art's King Gems Company. These are big distribution companies that sell products — manufactured in a multitude of supplier factories — to major brands in the U.S. and other countries.
The AFT delegation made the trip into mainland China during a week-long visit to Hong Kong. The group was led by AFT secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour, and included AFT vice presidents Louis Malfaro, president of Education Austin (Texas), and Judy Schaubach, president of Education Minnesota. Also in the delegation was AFT staffer Helen Toth, associate director in the international affairs department, and Albert Shanker Institute executive director Eugenia Kemble.
The Chinese workers grind unfinished gems in unventilated areas and have become ill due to the dust and other contaminants that are byproducts of this work. Failure to provide protections from these hazards is a violation of Chinese law, a violation that is routinely ignored by government officials and by the government-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU).
During their discussions with the AFT delegation, the workers strongly criticized the Chinese government for failing to enforce health and safety laws and for participating in the corrupt practice of buy-offs that enable workers' complaints to be easily dismissed. The ACFTU, they charged, has complied with government wishes by rebuffing their requests for help.
The workers also described how the companies have cleverly constructed a system of locally controlled supplier factories that make it more difficult to make the buying companies accountable for factory-level practices.
The delegation promised to help publicize the efforts of these workers to get compensation for their work-related disabilities and to change working conditions in their former factories (all have been fired).
The delegation also met with leading democracy advocates in Hong Kong's legislative council, with the leaders of the Hong Kong Professional Union of Teachers, the Democracy Alliance, representatives of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and various nonprofit organizations concerned about the future of democracy in Hong Kong. All of them are concerned about anti-democracy trends that include increasing information control from media owners who want access to markets in the People's Republic of China, and the infiltration of anti-democracy forces from the mainland into, private, previously independent interest groups.
9 March 2005