Workers Beaten For JC Penney

Folks,

Worker abuse is no laughing matter, but concern should be reserved for real
cases. A current article follows below with my comments interspersed. My
thesis is what exploited and child labor goods are produced worldwide, they
do not make it to the USA, simply because such labor is unreliable for a
market that needs reliability, such as ours. The conditions below sound like
something Upton Sinclair would describe; not true, but necessary to advance
the cause of people who want raises.

To wit (widen the email window so the spacing corrects):



Report: Factory Workers Beaten

By Christopher Newton
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2001; 8:12 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON –– Factory workers in American Samoa who
made clothes for J.C. Penney
Co. and other retailers were beaten, poorly fed and
cheated out of wages, according to a Labor
Department report.

(Felonies all!)

The report, dated Dec. 14, said the 300 workers at
the plant were fed meager rations of rice,
chicken broth and cabbage and resembled "walking
skeletons." The plant closed in January.

(Criminal!)

The Labor Department report was made public by the
National Labor Committee – an
anti-sweatshop activist group working to expose poor
conditions at overseas factories and
pressure retailers to improve conditions at plants.

(Or perhaps to unjustly deny US consumers choice by limiting competition from
imports.)

Labor Department officials declined to comment on the
report Tuesday.

(Why? If it is true, then let us know and let the prosecutions begin. If
not true, then say so.)

J.C. Penney stopped selling the factory's clothes
when it learned of the problems in December.

(And were they ever happy to be able to cancel orders in season where they
way overbought on inventory. What luck!).

It also canceled contracts with supplier M. Hidary &
Co., which ordered goods from the
factory, according to a letter from J.C. Penney vice
president Peter McGrath to Charles
Kernaghan, spokesman for the National Labor
Committee. The letter, dated Feb. 1, also said
Hidary had paid the workers back wages.

(Hidary would be what we call an overseas agent. Now the workers have a
choice, go home to Vietnam or find a another job in Samoa. It would be
interesting to know of their choice. If the "walking skeleton" charge were
true, was this from life in Samoa or life in Vietnam?)

J.C. Penney officials did not return several calls
seeking comment on Tuesday.

Kernaghan said the Labor Department report shows that
large retailers are failing to police
factories they contract to produce goods.

(A non sequitor.)

"What happened to the screening process? What
happened to the monitoring program? It
didn't happen here," Kernaghan said.

(What happened to the author, the date, the details of the report? This is a
rush to judgment. It is very likely "here" didn't happen here.)

"These violations throw into doubt how serious J.C.
Penney is about stopping these kinds of
abuses. Without a Department of Labor investigation,
this would have continued."

(If any abuses in fact took place, which the Labor Department will not
confirm. So Kernaghan goes too far.)

The factory, owned by Korean manufacturer Daewoosa,
employed mainly Vietnamese women
flown to the U.S. Pacific territory and paid below
the Samoan minimum wage of $2.60 an
hour, the report said. Most federal labor standards
are supposed to apply in U.S. territories.

(The word "spinster" comes from the women who moved from Ireland to USA to
work in textile factories to escape Ireland... in factories owned by
foreignors and paid low wages and so on... why are we so eager to outlaw for
others precisely the means we used to move ahead?)

The women lived 36 to a room, and were slapped or
kicked if they were late for work. They
were also watched while they bathed, the report said.
One federal investigator likened the
factory compound to a prison.

(Assault, invasion of privacy...what one might see as a prison keeping people
in another may see as a fort keeping predators out...the last thing a
Vietnamese girl hoping to improve her life working overseas needs is sexual
assault in a strange land...but again no confirmation from the source of the
report. Why have our civil servants fallen silent?)

The employees have sued Daewoosa, alleging their
wages were withheld and they were charged
up to $200 – almost half their salary – for
accommodation that had been promised for free.
The status of that lawsuit was uncertain.

(A report has material information on specific crimes and felonies yet a
civil suit is lodged? After all these crimes and felonies all they want is
some back wages? Something is fishy here...)

Daewoosa lawyers would not comment while the case was
before the courts.

(Which courts? $200 in back wages? That is small claims court. Why is this
article so short on information?)

The Labor Department reported (sic) was first
reported Tuesday by The New York Times.

(Well, what else do we need? Aside from lazy editors, apparently the
newspaper of record can no longer spot a bogus story.)

© Copyright 2001 The Associated
Press

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