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“TRADE WITH CHINA” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H3053-H3054 on May 16, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRADE WITH CHINA
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam Speaker, here in Congress, we say we stand together and in our commitment toward the spread of democratic ideals and improvement of the human rights. These last couple weeks I am not so sure.
During the weeks approaching the vote for Permanent Normal Trade Relations for the People's Republic of China, corporate CEOs flocked to the Hill to lobby for increase unrestricted trade with China.
They talk about access to 1.2 billion potential consumers in China. What they do not say is that their real interest is in 1.2 billion Chinese workers, workers whom they pay wage on the level of slave labor.
These CEOs will tell us, increase trade with China will allow human rights to improve. Democracy will flourish with increased free trade as we engage with China. But as these CEOs speak, their companies systematically violate the most fundamental of human and worker rights.
In the new report ``Made in China, The Role of U.S. Companies in Denying Human and Worker Rights,'' released by Charles Kernaghan and the National Labor Committee, we see evidence of American corporations exploiting the horrible conditions of human rights in the People's Republic of China.
Companies such as Huffy and Nike and Wal-Mart are contracting with Chinese sweatshops to export to the United States, often with the assistance of repressive and corrupt local government authorities. 1,800 Huffy bicycle workers have lost their jobs in Ohio as Huffy shut down its last three remaining U.S. plants over the last 17 months. In July of 1998, Huffy fired 850 workers from its Celina, Ohio plant where workers earned $17 an hour. Huffy now outsources all of its production to developing nations, such as China, where laborers are forced to work 15 hours a day, 7 days a week and earn an average of 33 cents an hour, less than 2 percent of what Ohio Huffy bicycle workers earned.
Wal-Mart makes its line of Kathie Lee Gifford handbags in China. There are a thousand workers at the factory, where they put in 14-hour shifts, 7 days a week, 29 or 30 days a month, one off day per month. The average wage of the factory is 3 cents an hour.
Workers live in factory dormitories housed 16 in a room. Their ID documents have been confiscated; they are allowed to leave the factory only for one and a half hours a day. For half of all factory workers, rent for the dormitory exceeds their wages. Workers earn nothing at all and, in many cases, owe the company money. These people are indentured servants to Kathie Lee and to Wal-Mart. Some would simply call it slavery.
The findings in Charles Kernaghan's report illustrates why democratic countries in the developing world are losing ground to more authoritarian countries in the developing world. Democratic nations, such as India, are losing out to more totalitarian governments such as China. Democratic nations such as Taiwan are losing out to more authoritarian governments such as Indonesia where people are not free and workers do as their told.
The share of developing country exports to the U.S. from democratic nations fell from 53 percent 10 years ago to 35 percent today. Corporate America wants to do business with countries with docile workforces that earn below-poverty wages and are not allowed to organize to bargain collectively.
In manufactured goods, developing democracies' share of developing country exports fell 21 percent from 56 to 35 percent. Corporations are relocating their manufacturing bases to more authoritarian regimes from democratic countries where workers do not talk back for fear of being punished.
Madam Speaker, western corporations want to invest in countries that have poor environmental standards, no worker benefits, below-poverty wages, no opportunities to bargain collectively, and worse, as developing countries make progress toward democracy, as they increase worker rights and create regulations to protect the environment, the American business community punishes them by pulling its trade and investment from developing democratic countries to totalitarian governments and developing countries.
Decisions about the Chinese economy are made by three groups, the Chinese Communist party, the People's Liberation Army, which owns many of the export factories, and western investors. Which of these three want to empower workers?
Does the Chinese Communist worker want the Chinese people to enjoy human rights? I do not think so. Does the People's Liberation Army want to close the labor camps? I do not think so. Do western investors want Chinese workers to make better wages, have more democracy and bargain collectively? I do not think so.
None of these groups has any interest in changing the status quo in China. I repeat, none of these groups, western investors, the Chinese Communist Party, the People's Liberation Army, none of these has any interest in changing the current situation in China. All three profit too much from the status quo to want to see human rights and labor rights improve in China.
U.S. trade law forbids the trade of any products of slave labor, forced labor. The 1992 bilateral agreement between the U.S. and China prohibited the trade of goods manufactured by imprisoned workers.
Congress needs to know more about working conditions in Chinese factories before we vote on permanent MFN for China. American people need to know more about how our major corporations are behaving outside the borders of the United States before we vote on permanent MFN for China.
Based on evidence released into the Kernaghan Report, many of us in the Congress call on the Department of Labor and the Department of Treasury to conduct an extensive investigation into the working conditions and factories in China which are owned by American corporations, or where American corporations contract to manufacture their products before we vote on MFN for China. These investigations should report back its findings and a decision should be made as to whether any conditions in China violate U.S. law.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to demand action to investigate these claims.
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