P4Z-0hy22ZRyqh5IUeLwjcY3L_M

P4Z-0hy22ZRyqh5IUeLwjcY3L_M
MEAN STREETS MEDIA

Saturday, September 22, 2012

SAMSUNG FACTORY( Abuses Chinese KIDS) SEE STORY


My name is Li Qiang and I lead a group called China Labor Watch that investigates and exposes worker exploitation. As a rights lawyer committed to knowing every detail of China's labor laws -- and how they're ignored and broken -- I was shocked when I learned what's happening in the Chinese factories supplying electronic giant Samsung.

Children as young as 14 years old work 11 hour night shifts, 28 days a month and are denied medical care and even pay.
 
When 14-year-old Xiaofang (an alias, for her protection) got hurt after she fell down a flight of stairs at the factory, the owners and managers wouldn't even let her see a doctor. They wouldn't give her sick leave to recover and docked 6 days of her pay. Then, she was fired without any compensation.

Our investigators heard dozens of similar accounts from employees at the factory -- even workers being hit by managers or forced to stand all day as punishment for a mistake. In addition to laboring in dangerous conditions every day, we discovered that children like Xiaofang working in this Chinese factory are paid only 70% of what adults are paid. The factory owners know it, but create fake IDs for the children and exploit them with lower pay and part-time hours so the authorities won't find out.

A few months ago, I saw the tremendous impact that a petition on Change.org had when it called for Apple to improve conditions in a supplier's factory. More than 250,000 people signed that petition, started by an Apple customer in Washington, DC. It was also covered by worldwide news media extensively. And in the end, Apple listened. When we found out about the horrific working conditions at Samsung's supplier factory, I knew we had to start a petition on Change.org right away.

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