broken lives behind u.s. production in china

BEHIND U.S. PRODUCTION IN CHINA: THE CASE OF THE KAISI METALS COMPANYBROKEN LIVES

COMPANIES CARE MORE ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTS THAN THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THEM.BROKEN LIVES

Introduction �

BrokenLives:Behind U.S. Production in China

February 1, 2007

ByCharlesKernaghan

Corporations have demanded and won all sorts of enforceable laws in the global economy, backed up by sanctions, to defend their corporate trademarks and products. Yet they object that it would be an “impedi-ment to free trade” to extend similar legal protections to the human being who made the product. What sense does that make?

When U.S. companies first started relocating their production to China, corporate spoke-people assured the American people that once on the ground in China, their compa-nies would act as the best ambassadors, pro-moting U.S. values. They would do the heavy lifting and by their good example would raise health and safety standards and compliance with human, women’s and worker rights, in factories across China.

In most cases these promises have been false, as is graphically demonstrated in the case of the Kaisi Metals factory in Guangdong Prov-ince. For years, U.S. companies have out-sourced production of furniture parts to the Kaisi factory, while going out of their way to work with their contractor to bring the fac-tory up to international packing specs so that their products will not be damaged in transit to the U.S.

At the same time, the U.S. companies stood by and did not say a word as scores of young workers were injured and maimed due to dangerously unsafe working conditions. Nor did the U.S. companies sourcing production at the Kaisi factory utter a single word to protest the seven-day, 80-hour workweeks, or the fact that workers were being paid be-low the legal minimum wage and cheated of their overtime premiums while making their goods. Could it be that these companies care more about their products than the human beings in China who made them?

No doubt these companies will now thump their chests in indignation, telling the Ameri-can people that they have voluntary codes of conduct and private monitoring schemes that guarantee the legal rights of any worker anywhere in the world who is making their products. The Kaisi factory will be labelled the “one bad apple,” the exception to the rule, and we will be told that we should get over it and move on. Or, could it be that corporate monitoring is really an attempt to dress up a pig?

Unfortunately, too many U.S. companies that went to China as self-proclaimed ambassa-dors to promote respect for worker rights have turned into cheerleaders in the race to the bottom in the global economy. Why

� BrokenLives:Behind U.S. Production in China

raise wages in the U.S. when you can cheat the workers in China and pay them just 32 cents an hour? Why pay health insurance or worker compensation in the U.S. when work-ers in China do not have it? After all, are seven-day, 80-hour workweeks really wrong? Why care about health and safety standards in the U.S. when injured and maimed workers in China can be cheaply disposed of and re-placed? In the global economy, who needs a union, as workers in China do not have one?

In the global economy, an injury to a worker in China is really also an injury to every work-er in the United States. Too many workers in China ard in the U.S. are being exploited, and this will not end until we find a com-mon ground, to end the race to the bottom in which corporations pit American workers against workers in China based on who will accept the lowest wages, least benefits and most miserable working and living condi-tions. Why should the human being in the global economy, who makes the goods we purchase, not be afforded at least the same legal protections as corporations have won for their trademarks and products?

Business as usual in the global sweatshop economy may be about to receive its first real challenge. In January 2007, Senator Byron Dorgan, together with Senators Lindsy Gra-ham, Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold and Robert Byrd as co-sponsors, introduced the “Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act,” which for the first time, when passed, will hold corporations le-gally accountable to respect the United Na-tions/International Labor Organization’s core internationally recognized worker rights standards, including no forced labor, no child

labor, freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, and decent working conditions. The legislation prohib-its goods made under sweatshop conditions from being imported, sold or exported from the U.S. A similar bill, which was introduced in the House last year, has 66 co-sponsors.

The American people were outraged when they learned that dogs and cats were being slaughtered in China to provide fur for col-lars on winter jackets being exported to the U.S.—to the Burlington Coat Factory. The U.S. Congress was also upset and had the backbone to pass the “Dog and Cat Fur Act of 2000,” which prohibits the import, sale or export from the U.S. of dog and cat fur. Now that the American people and Congress have helped protect dogs and cats in China, will we have the courage to protect the lives of human beings in the global economy?

A good place to start would be to clean up the Kaisi Factory.

Summary �

Executive Summary

U.S.CompaniesOutsourceProductionof FurniturePartstotheKaisiMetalsFactoryinGuangdong,China

•In a recent three-month period, U.S. companies imported $13.2 million worth of furniture parts from the Kaisi Hard-ware company in China. Among the top U.S. importers are Knape & Vogt Man-ufacturing Company, Grass America, Inc., Fulterer USA, Inc., Fastec Indus-trial Corporation, and Liberty Hardware. The National Labor Committee recently purchased several styles of Liberty Hard-ware’s “Ball-Bearing Side Mount Drawer Slides” made in China and sold in Home Depot.

•Six to seven hundred workers are held under sweatshop conditions at the Kaisi factory, where every single labor law in China is routinely violated, along with the United Nations’ International Labor Organization’s core internationally rec-ognized worker rights standards, while U.S. companies sourcing production there say and do nothing.

•The Kaisi factory was even recently cited by local government authorities for seri-ous health and safety violations, includ-ing dangerously unsafe working condi-tions and the lack of safety trainings, resulting in scores of job injuries, which have left some young workers maimed for life. U.S. companies would never tolerate such abusive treatment of their products and have gone out of their way to work with the Kaisi factory to bring

the company into compliance with in-ternational packing specs so that their products will not be damaged en route to the U.S. But these same U.S. companies have not uttered a single word about the young workers who have been seriously injured while working on their products, and whose lives are now destroyed.

•Dai Kehong was just 24 years old when both his hands were crushed while work-ing on a punch press molding machine producing side drawer rails for export to U.S. companies. Dai Kehong’s right hand is mangled and deformed, with only the thumb and forefinger remaining, frozen in place. His left hand was also crushed, and frozen into a claw, as he is left unable to bend or open any of the fingers. He has no ability to use either hand, and will need an artificial limb.

Another worker, Zhu Zhenghong, lost two fingers and the top of a third fin-ger on his right hand when his hand was crushed in a stamp molding machine. In September 2006 alone, five workers suf-fered serious injuries, including severed fingers.

• In direct violation of China’s laws, the Kaisi factory failed to inscribe its work-ers in the mandatory national work injury insurance program, and then also failed even to report these serious worker inju-

� BrokenLives: Behind U.S. Production in China

ries to the local authorities. Kaisi man-agement then refused to pay anywhere near the full compensation these injured workers were legally due. Management is even refusing to pay for Dai Kehong’s artificial limb.

•Kaisi workers routinely work daily 14 ½ to 15 ½ hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 or 11:30 p.m. and sometimes even later. At most, they receive just two or three Sundays off a month. It is not un-common for the workers to be at the fac-tory for over 100 hours a week while—excluding lunch and supper breaks—toil-ing 80 hours. All overtime is mandatory and exceeds China’s legal limit by 344 percent each week.

•Gruelling, exhausting, numbing, dan-gerous and poorly paid would be the only way to describe the work day at the Kaisi Metals factory. Workers are paid on a piece rate system arbitrarily set by management. It is not uncommon for management to set production goals that demand a worker complete 7,785 to 11,837 operations in a day, or 649 to 986 pieces per hour and one piece every four to six seconds, for which they are paid an astounding six-hundredths of a cent per piece!

•Workers are paid below the legal mini-mum wage and cheated of their overtime premium, earning less than half of what they are legally owed. Workers are paid just $24.33 for a 77-hour workweek, and 32 cent an hour. The workers should be paid at least $52.56. The current mini-mum wage is 58 cents an hour.

•Management always withholds one month’s wages from the workers to make it more difficult for them to quit.

• It is a dreary life for the 600 to 700 work-ers at the Kaisi factory, who are housed in primitive over-crowded company dorms. Each room measures approximately 11 by 24 feet and its walls are lined with six to eight double-level bunk beds. There is no other furniture, not even a bureau, or a table and chairs. Six to eight workers share each room. For privacy, the work-ers drape old sheets or plastic over the openings to their bunk beds. The work-ers’ possessions are pushed under the beds and piled on the top bunks. Clothes are draped haphazardly everywhere, giv-ing the rooms a very crowded and messy feel. There is a tiny bathroom, which the workers say is filthy and disgusting. There is no hot water, and if someone wishes to bathe during the winter months, they must walk down four flights of stairs to fetch hot water in a small plastic buck-et and return to their dorm room for a sponge bath. The dorms are very over-crowded and the air reeks of perspiration and sweaty feet. As the factory provides no entertainment, most workers try to relax by standing on the sidewalk and watching television through store win-dows.

•The workers say the company food is really terrible and that the meat, almost always pork, is almost all fat. The food is so bad that despite a company stipend to eat in the cafeteria, 90 percent of the workers choose to eat on the street.

•Workers rely upon fast food, which they

Summary �

buy on the side of the road from infor-mal food vendors without business or sanitary permits. This is the cheapest way to eat and costs the workers $63.97 a month, which comes to 70 cents a meal, or $2.10 a day. Such food does not pro-vide anything close to a healthy or nu-tritious diet, yet it consumes almost 60 percent of the median wage at the Kaisi factory, including overtime.

•Married couples must live “off campus” under equally deplorable conditions, since they are able to afford only the smallest one-room apartments. The apartment Dai Kehong shares with his wife is typi-cal. It is a small room measuring eight by 11 feet. Their furniture consists of a bed, a tiny table with two chairs for eat-ing, a 14-inch television and a DVD play-er propped up on a box. There is noth-ing else, not even a bureau, so they must hang their clothing on a string nailed to the wall. There is a small alcove off the room, measuring three feet by four feet which houses the bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen is really just a shelf next to the bathroom with a small gas stove and a few pots. For this they pay $19.19 a month.

Cooking their own food and eating as cheaply as possible, a couple can survive on $51.18 a month, which comes to just 28 cents per meal. Factory workers can-not dream of eating meat or fruit every day. At best the workers can afford a tiny piece of meat just three or four times a week, and it has to be the least expensive fatty pork, which sells for 58 to 70 cents a pound.

This is all that two people, both working in export factories, can afford!

•The workers are also separated from their children. China has a national household registration system. Every person has a residency permit depending on where their parents live and where they are born. A person is not free to live, go to school or work outside the area stipulat-ed by their residency permit.

When migrant workers travel hundreds of miles to the south seeking work in the booming export factories, they have to purchase a temporary work permit. But since their children cannot legally attend school in the new province, par-ents have to leave their children behind in their home town in the care of rela-tives who will see that the child goes to school. This is just another hardship faced by the workers—separation from their children.

•Few of Guangdong’s estimated 30 mil-lion migrant workers have health insur-ance, as the factories will not pay for it. If a worker gets sick, seeing a doctor in a hospital is prohibitively expensive, costing $25.59, which is more than a full week’s wages, including overtime. Depending upon how sick a worker feels, they may randomly buy some cheap medicines from informal roadside vendors in hopes that the pills might help. If a worker falls seriously ill, they often just return to their home town and wait to die.

•The Kaisi workers have no right to orga-nize an independent union. Most work-

� BrokenLives: Behind U.S. Production in China

ers do not know China’s labor law and have no idea how the system operates. Many workers do not even know where the government’s local Labor and Social Protection Bureau is located.

Kaisi Metal Factory �

Kaisi Metals FactoryWest Industrial ZoneHuan Shi RoadNansha Economic and Technological Development ZoneGuangzhou City, Guangdong ProvinceCHINA

Kaisi International Hardware Company has three factories, the Kaisi Metals factory in Nansha and two other plants in the Panyu District where—according to the company’s website—2,000 workers specialize in the “production of multi-functional hardware for high grade furniture and all kinds of furniture decorated materials,” including drawer slides, shelving materials, brackets, hinges and more.

This report focuses on the Kaisi Metals factory, which produces metal fittings for furniture. There are 600 to 700 people working at the Kaisi factory. Above the factory entrance is written:

“Honesty, Quality, Efficiency and Creation.”

In reality, the Kaisi factory is violating every labor law in China, including very serious safety violations which have resulted in many workers being maimed. It is common for workers to be forced to work seven days and 80 hours a week, while being shortchanged on the wages legally due them.

10 Broken Lives: Behind U.S. Production in China

U.S. Furniture and Hardware Companies Sourcing Production at the AbusiveKaisi Metals Factory/Kaisi International Hardware Company in China

In just one recent three-month period—September through November 2006—U.S. companies imported $13,21�,462 worth of furniture parts from the Kaisi Hardware company in China. The goods imported appear to be almost exclusively furniture drawer slides and ball bearing slides.

By far the largest importer of furniture parts made at the Kaisi factory in China is the Knape & Vogt Manufacturing Company, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, which imported $10,420,260 of “ball-bearing slides” during the period of September through November 2006. Knape & Vogt accounted for 79 percent of total Kaisi factory exports to the U.S.

Another major importer was Grass America, Inc, located in Kernersville, North Carolina, which imported $1,722,701 worth of furniture drawer slides made in China by the Kaisi Hardware company. This represented 13 percent of the total U.S. imports from the Kaisi factory.

Other major importers were Fulterer USA Inc. in High Point, North Carolina, which imported $546,101 worth of furniture drawer slides from the Kaisi Hardware company in China and the Fastec Industrial Corporation in Elkhardt, Indiana, which imported $354,483 worth of drawer slides. The National Labor Committee recently purchased several styles of Liberty Hardware’s “Ball-Bearing Side Mount Drawer Slides” mad in China and sold in Home Depot.

Based on U.S. Customs Department shipping records as well as shipping documents smuggled out of the Kaisifactory itself, the following companies are known to have sourced production at the Kaisi Hardware Company in China. Knape and Vogt ManufacturingCompanyGrand Rapids, Michigan

Grass America, Inc.Kernersville, North Carolina

Fulterer USA, Inc.High Point, North Carolina

Liberty Hardware Manufacturing CorporationWinston-Salem, North Carolina Home Depot, Georgia

Fastec Industrial CorporationElkhardt, Indiana

Gliderite Hardware CompanySan Dimas, California

Baer Supply CompanyVernon Hills, Illinois

And in Canada:

Palliser Furniture, Ltd.Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

DeFehr Furniture Ltd.Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Liberty Hardware 11

Liberty Hardware

The National Labor Committee recently pur-chased several styles of Liberty Hardware’s “Ball-Bearing Side Mount Drawer Slides” made in China and sold in Home Depot.

Draw slides for sale at Home Depot.

What the U.S. Companies Must Do 13

What the U.S. Companies Must Do

•Do not cut and run: Pulling your work from the factory is the worst thing you could do, since it will only further punish the workers who have already suffered enough.

•Keep your production in the factory, while working with management to clean up the plant and also immediately imple-menting changes that will guarantee that the legal rights of the workers are finally respected.

Specifically:

Workers injured and maimed at the Kai-si Metals factory must be made whole again, provided with the medical care and rehabilitation they will need to re-gain hope of returning some normalcy to their lives. All back wages and disabil-ity compensation legally owed the work-ers must be immediately paid.

– Drastically improve health and safety conditions at the Kaisi factory.

– All workers must be inscribed in the state’s mandatory work injury insur-ance program.

– Workers must be paid at least the le-gal minimum wage and the proper overtime premium for all extra hours worked. As the Kaisi factory work-ers have been systematically cheated of approximately half of the wages legally due them, they should receive

a lump sum payment of all back wag-es owed.

– All overtime work must be voluntary and paid correctly.

– Dorm conditions and factory cafete-ria food must be brought up to ac-ceptable standards of decency.

– Workers should receive training from respected independent local non-governmental organizations regard-ing their legal rights and how China’s labor laws function.

–To restore the confidence of the American consumers that your com-pany is not hiding similar sweatshop production in other factories in Chi-na, you should release the names and addresses of all the factories you use in China. This would be a simple, very doable step, and a sign of good faith indicating that your company is not interested in exploiting sweat-shop labor.

Dai Kehong: Maimed for Life 15

The Case of Dai Kehong: At 24 years of age, maimed for life

Dai Kehong was just 24 years old when both his hands were crushed—leaving him maimed for life—while working a punch press molding machine at the Kaisi factory at 9:00 p.m., 13 hours into his shift the night of March 10, 2005. Dai Kehong was producing furniture side drawer rails for export to U.S. companies when he was injured.

The Guangzhou Work Injury Health Recov-ery Hospital described Dai Kehong’s injuries like this:

“Right hand is severely ruined, only the thumb and forefinger remain. No joints can move or flex. There is no ability for voluntary movement.”

On the left hand: “The thumb cannot bend but can straighten. No joints on the other four fingers can bend or straighten. The ability to use the hand has been greatly lost.

“After external surgery on both hands, the hands’ ability to function has been severely disabled...Both hands have muscle tendons torn apart.”

Hospital physicians officially determined that the extent of Dai Kehong’s work injury was so severe (a Level 5 injury) that he would need an artificial limb, continuing occupa-tional therapy and a subsistence subsidy due to his incapacity.

From the beginning, in regard to Dai Ke-hong’s case and that of the other injured

workers, Kaisi factory management blatantly violated China’s labor laws, and continues to do so, without the slightest protest from its U.S. clients.

Dai Kehong had not been inscribed in the government’s mandatory work injury insur-ance program. Nor did factory management report Dai Kehong’s serious injury within 24 hours to the Labor and Social Protection Bureau as is required by law. Management also failed to present Dai Kehong before the State Bureau within 30 days for his official disability appraisal, which is another viola-tion of the law.

Also from the outset, Kaisi factory manage-ment refused to pay Dai Kehong anywhere near the compensation legally owed him. In-stead of paying Dai Kehong his full salary during his recovery period—which by law can be no less than what he was earning before


his injury, including all benefits, overtime pay and living stipends—management gave him just 500 RMB per month ($63.97), or less than half of what he was legally owed. As no one can live on 500 RMB a month, Dai Kehong and the other injured workers fell deeper into poverty.

Management is even refusing to pay for the artificial limb that the state says Dai Ke-hong needs (which will cost at least 5,000 RMB, or $640, more than half a year’s wag-es including overtime), or for any rehabili-tation treatment. Management will not pay any further hospital bills and has yet to pay the lump sum handicap injury compensa-tion legally due Dai Kehong.

As a final blow, management is now try-ing to illegally fire Dai Kehong so they can permanently rid themselves of any further responsibility for the worker maimed in their factory. Management sent a note to “Comrade Dai Kehong” that “the contract signed by both parties will terminate on Novem-ber 15, 2006.” This is illegal since a worker with a Level 5 injury cannot be sacked until his contract expires, which for Dai Kehong will not be until August 1, 2007.

Kaisi factory management’s strategy to deal with Dai Kehong and the other in-jured workers is to challenge every appeal the workers make that their legal rights and compensation be respected, hoping to slow

Dai Kehong’s crushed hands. Neither hand can func-tion at all, and Dai Kehong will be maimed for life.

Dai Kehong: Maimed for Life 17

down and drag out the process for as long as possible. Management knows that the work-ers do not have the resources to continue such a prolonged struggle and that, in des-peration, they will eventually break and take whatever little settlement management of-fers. For management, the workers’ smashed limbs are just another cost of doing business and they are going to bargain hard to keep these costs as low as possible.

The reality is that at 24 years of age, Dai Kehong’s life is broken and he is now just fighting to survive, living in a small nine-by-ten-foot room with his wife. Their total pos-sessions consist of a bed, a tiny table to eat on and a 14-inch television, nothing more.

Zhu Zhenghong: Right Hand Crushed in Stamping Mold 19

The Case of Zhu Zhenghong: Right hand crushed in stamping mold

Zhu Zhenghong and his wife, like millions of other rural migrant workers from across China, left Sichuan Province traveling hun-dreds of miles south to look for factory work in Guangzhou. Zhu’s wife found work in an electronics factory in the Panyu District. Zhu started working at the Kaisi factory on June 20, 2006. When he signed on he was told he would be working in the welding de-partment. However, with no safety training at all, Zhu was put to work stamping name plates. After two months he was moved and put to work operating a stamp mold-ing machine. Then on September 9, 2006, at 11:00 a.m.—just a little over two and a half months after he started working at the Kaisi factory—Zhu Zhenghong’s right hand was crushed in the mold. Zhu lost two fingers nearly down to the knuckle and the top of a third finger.

Zhu Zhenghong was hospitalized for 17 days. As was the case with Dai Kehong and the other injured workers, illegally management had not inscribed Zhu in the state’s manda-tory work injury insurance program. Nor did management report the accident to local authorities within 24 hours, as is required by law.

Having failed to purchase the work injury in-surance, the Kaisi factory was legally bound to pay all medical and hospitalization costs for Zhu Zhenghong; pay his full wages dur-ing the time of his recovery, plus paying an injury handicap compensation which is set according to the level of injury.

In China, when a worker is hospitalized, the patient is required to pay separately for his or her food and for a nurse. Kaisi manage-

Zhu Zhenghong’s missing fingers.


ment did provide Zhu with a living stipend of 20 RMB per day ($2.56) and a daily 20 RMB stipend ($2.56) to pay for a nurse. Over the course of his 17 day stay in the hospital, this cost the company a total of $87.00.

Management also paid Zhu Zhenghong a liv-ing stipend of 528 RMB ($67.55) for the first month he was out of work following his in-jury. By law, Zhu should also have been paid his full wages, in addition to any living and transportation stipends. Since the $67.55 liv-ing stipend was too small to survive on, Zhu had to borrow 400 RMB ($51.17) from the factory.

However, when Zhu Zhenghong received his August pay in October, (the factory always withholds one month’s pay—as the work-

ers are paid on the last day of the following month) he was shocked and angered to see that management had not only deducted the 400 RMB loan from his wages, but had also deducted another 450 RMB, or $57.57, from the 528 RMB living stipend they had origi-nally paid him.

Leaving aside the medical and hospital costs, the total living stipend Kaisi management provided Zhu Zhenghong during the month following his injury was just $9.98!

Zhu Zhenghong pleaded repeatedly with factory management to take him to the local Labor and Social Protection Bureau—which the company is legally bound to do within 30 days of a worker’s injury—where he would undergo a physical examination and be pro-

Zhu and his wife can only afford a primitive small one-room apartment.

Zhu Zhenghong: Right Hand Crushed in Stamping Mold 21

vided a work injury certificate. The severity of the injury as described on the certificate would determine the amount of handicap compensation Zhu Zhenghong will receive. But as Kaisi factory management did not want to pay Zhu Zhenghong his legal disabil-ity compensation, they refused to take him to the local bureau. Management felt they could manipulate Zhu Zhenghong, who like many other workers, does not know how China’s labor laws operate and does not even know where the Labor and Social Protection Bu-reau is located.

Zhu has no money at all now, and he feels helpless. His hand has not fully healed, and even when it does, Zhu does not know if any factory will hire him, given his missing fin-gers.

Zhu Zhenghong is furious at all the injus-tice.

I worked so hard, I exhausted myself for this factory. I made good-quality stuff. I made sure that every order went out on time. It had never occurred to me that I’d get injured. If they don’t send someone out to take care of me, I’ll be lost. Look at the dirty tricks they’re using. Because I got injured at work, I have to give the factory money. They really lock you in a dead end.

Zhu and his wife live in a single room in a very old house. Their furnishings consist of a bed, which is broken, and three tiny primi-tive chairs which he made before he was in-jured with scrap wood he found in the street.


There is nothing else. They do not own a television. Since his injury, they can no lon-ger afford propane for their small stove, and now cook with any scraps of wood they can scavenge on the street. As for their diet, all they can afford are turnips.

Lei Shengke: Right hand severely crushed 23

The Case of Lei Shengke:Right hand severely crushed

Lei Shengke’s right hand was severely crushed in a machine accident on September 27, 2005, at 11:00 a.m., in workshop #2 at the Kaisi Metals factory. Other than his thumbs, all four fingers on his right hand were smashed. The first and middle fingers on the right hand were destroyed and severed. Both joints of the small finger were crushed, and the ring finger was also damaged.

Due to repeated management delays, Lei Shengke did not receive his official work injury certificate from the Social and Labor

Protection Bureau until more than one year after his accident. By law, the factory must guarantee that an injured worker will receive their work injury certificate within 30 days of their accident. To avoid paying Lei Shengke the compensation legally owed him, manage-ment simply ignored the law. Lei Shengke was certified as having a 7th level disability.

In the picture of Lei Shengke’s right hand, note the distorted shortness of his two re-maining middle fingers.

Zhao Chengguang: Maimed Left Hand 25

The Case of Zhao Chengguang:

Left hand crushed while working on order for the U.S. Knape & Vogt Company

Zhao Chengguang was seriously injured on September 29, 2006, at 3:00 p.m. He was working on an order for Knape and Vogt (3-point wheel model number 7424) when the stool he was sitting on suddenly slid out from under him leaving his left hand caught in the machine. His hand was crushed, sev-ering two fingers with the knuckles and a large part of his left hand.

Zhao was yet another young worker seriously injured and maimed at the Kaisi Metals Fac-

tory who had illegally not been inscribed in the state’s mandatory work injury insurance program. Nor did management report his serious accident to local authorities within 24 hours as required by law. Kaisi manage-ment, also illegally, forced Zhao to wait many months before receiving his official work in-jury certificate. This was done to cheat Zhao of the work injury compensation legally due him. Serious work injuries continue unabat-ed at the Kaisi Metals factory

In September 2006 alone, five more workers were injured on the job.


6 Fingers severed in a single Month!serious Work injuries Continue unabated

at the kaisi Metals FaCtory

In September 2006 alone, five more workers were injured on the job.

September 5:Worker #1, rolling bearing track—Index finger on left hand

crushed—taken to Jinzhou Hospital

September 7: Worker #2, automatic molding—Middle finger of right hand sev-ered—taken to ZijingHospital

September 7: Worker #3, automatic molding—Left hand lacerated—taken to Jinzhou Hospital

September 9: Zhu Zhenghong, rolling bearing track—Middle and ring fingers and pinkie finger of right hand crushed

September 29: Zhao Chengguang, rolling bearing track—two fingers on left hand injured

NOTE: We hold the U.S. companies responsible to make these seriously injured workers whole again, so that they can at least hope to return to some degree of normalcy in their lives. These workers must receive all the necessary medical care and rehabilitation re-quired, along with full payment of the injury compensation due them. Safety conditions at the Kaisi factory must be drastically improved.

Injury Registry.

Each worker in-jury is explained away as “wasn’t careful.”

Government Cites Kaisi Factory for Serious Health and Safety Violations 27

Government Cites Kaisi Factory for Serious Health and Safety Violations

After documentation on the many serious work injuries and other gross violations at the Kaisi factory were leaked to the media, the local government’s Guangzhou City Nansha District Safe Manufacturing Super-vision Management Department launched an investigation of the factory in the third week of December 2006.

The government’s initial investigation cit-ed the Kaisi factory for numerous serious health and safety violations including:

• Inadequate workshop health and safety conditions;

• Lack of adequate worker safety training;

• Failure to report work accidents to the local government as required by law;

• Excessive noise and poor lighting conditions;

• Unsafe and illegal electrical wiring;

• Serious overcrowding with boxes, materialsandfinishedgoodspiled up everywhere;

• A management style that appeared completely chaotic.

The local government agency issued Kaisi management a “verdict, with a time limit, to reform and clean up” the factory.

(NOTE: Where were the U.S. companies all this time, who for years sourced their pro-duction at the Kaisi factory? Were the U.S. companies monitoring their contractor to prevent such gross human and worker rights and safety abuses, as they claim they are? They must answer the question why their corporate social compliance monitoring efforts failed so miserably, and what they concretely intend to do now to clean up their contractor’s fac-toryandfinallyguaranteethatthelegalrightsof the workers are respected.)

Corporations Care More About Their Products 29

Corporations Care More About Their Products than the Workers in China who Make Them.

Knape and Vogt spent a full year working with their contractor in China to bring the factory into compliance with accept-able international packaging specs to guarantee that Knape and Vogt products would not be damaged during shipment to the U.S. However, no similar concern was shown by Knape and Vogt—or the other companies—for the workers at the Kaisi factory in China who were making their products under unsafe conditions, and being maimed in the process. Ap-parently, neither was one word said by the U.S. companies to address the ille-gal seven day, 80-hour workweeks; the fact that workers are routinely cheated of the minimum and overtime wages le-gally due them; and the primitive factory dorm conditions in which the workers are housed.

In the late 1990’s the Michigan-based Knape and Vogt Manufacturing Company began outsourcing some of its work to China. This is how the move was described in Packaging World Magazine, April 1999, page 42:

Just ask packaging engineer Joe Sleeper at Knape and Vogt in Grand Rapids, MI. This manufacturer of hardware parts such as drawer slides, shelving and shelving supports distributes worldwide to OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers] and to retailers alike. Lately the company has identified offshore sources capable of producing some of its products more economically than can be done in the U.S. A manufac-turer in The People’s Republic of China,

for example, has been selected as a good source for shelf supports. Packaging them in corrugated shippers, however, is another story.

“According to some stats I got off the Inter-net, there are 60 box makers in the People’s Republic of China,” says Sleeper. “But they have no standards like the ones we’re accus-tomed to in the U.S.”

Some companies that worry about the reli-ability of shippers sourced in China simply throw more corrugated at the problem by specifying a double-wall structure. “But that’s expensive,” says Sleeper. “And if our cus-tomers have to then dispose of all that cor-rugated, they’re not too happy. Instead, we’ve moved toward performance-based specs rather than relying on numbers that quantify bursting strength or edge-crush test.”

Knape and Vogt’s supplier in China must subject all packaging materials to a laboratory performance test consisting of drop, vibra-tion and compression tests. The parameters of the tests are clearly spelled out for various part numbers. Also spelled out are the accep-tance criteria that packages must live up to. Packaging passes the test if the criteria are met.

“It’s a matter of defining what’s accept-able and what’s not,” says Sleeper. “If you’ve never used performance specs before, it’s unlikely that you have accep-tance criteria defined.” Sleeper’s job was to define them.


Packaging for shelf supports represents the first of many projects Sleeper has worked on, projects that tend to “stretch out,” as Sleeper puts it. “It took a full year to execute that one,” he observes. Part of the process is educating internally what packaging per-formance specs are all about. “’It’s just pack-aging’ is what I hear a lot,” says Sleeper. “But if the package fails somewhere in the distri-bution chain, then its importance is suddenly obvious.”

Assisting Sleeper in developing performance specs was transport packaging consultancy Dennis Young & Associates (Grand Rapids, MI).

It is a crime that Knape and Vogt, and the other companies, do not devote the same time and effort to “educating internally” its contractor in China and “defining what’s ac-ceptable and what’s not” when it comes to respecting basic worker rights and workplace safety standards. What a difference it would make if the companies also set “perfor-mance based specs” to guarantee respect for the legal rights of the workers making their products.

China’s Paper-thin Labor Laws Easily Flaunted 31

China’s Paper-thin Labor Laws Easily Flaunted

China has its own mandatory workmen’s compensation, unemployment insurance and social security laws, but many—if not the majority of—factories ignore these laws, both to increase their profits and to meet the ever lower production costs demanded by their U.S. clients. In the end, the workers pay a terrible price.

All factories in China are required by law to inscribe their workers, and pay into, a gov-ernment “social insurance” program which is managed by the local Labor and Social Protection Bureau. At a minimum the state’s social insurance program covers all job-re-lated injuries, unemployment insurance and a pension.

The “Work Injury Insurance” program covers any worker who is injured on the job. First, by law, all job accidents must be re-ported to the Labor and Social Protection Bureau within 24 hours. In the case of seri-ous work injuries requiring medical care, the Labor and Social Protection Bureau will pay all medical and hospitalization costs; certain rehabilitation and convalescence fees; and provide a “handicap compensation” pay-ment, which depends upon the extent of the damage and incapacity incurred by the worker due to the injury. It is the legal re-sponsibility of factory management to pres-ent the worker before the Labor and Social Protection Bureau within 30 days of the ac-cident, to be examined and given an official “work injury certificate,” which describes the injuries and assesses the level of impair-ment, from one to ten, with one being the most severe injury. It is on the basis of this

assessment that the amount of the “handicap compensation” payment will be determined.

Beyond what the state’s work injury insur-ance program covers, the law demands that factory management pay the injured worker’s full wages during the period of his or her re-covery. Specifically, this wage cannot be less than the average wage the worker was earn-ing before their injury, including all benefits, overtime, and any living and transportation subsidies.

Besides work injuries, the government’s so-cial insurance program also covers unem-ployment insurance, providing a monthly stipend to workers during the period of their layoff. The government’s pension insur-ance provides a modest monthly retirement stipend.

Though not legally mandated, the govern-ment’s social insurance program also allows factory management to opt into, inscribe its workers in, and pay a modest fee for a health insurance plan which would cover most of the workers’ medical fees. Parenting insur-ance is also available, which would provide money to couples who are having a child.

To protect workers who are injured on the job, there is also a back-up law. If factory management cheats the workers—as is all too common—by not inscribing and paying for their workers to be part of the government’s social insurance program, then the factory itself is legally responsible to pay all medi-cal, hospitalization, and convalescence costs, along with paying the handicap compensa-


tion, and owes workers full wages through-out the time of recovery.

But as we see in the case of the Kaisi factory, it is all too easy for factories in China produc-ing goods for export to U.S. companies to violate the laws on occupational health and safety and work injuries with complete im-punity. The U.S. companies involved are also displaying a total indifference when it comes to respecting worker rights. As a result, far too many workers in China are suffering hor-rible tragedies.

A Dreary Life 33

A Dreary LifeAnyway you look at it, it is a dreary life for the 600 to 700 workers at the Kaisi factory, as it is for millions of factory workers across China. The abusive, illegal and primitive con-ditions at the Kaisi factory are not unusual.

Dorm Life—Overcrowded and Primitive Conditions:

The men’s dorm is located on the seventh floor of the factory building. Each room mea-sures approximately 11 feet by 24 feet and its walls are lined with six to eight double level

-metal bunk beds. Aside from the beds, there is no other furniture, not even a bureau, or a table and chairs. Six to eight workers share each room, sleeping on the bottom bunk. For privacy, the workers drape old sheets or plastic over their bunk openings. As there is no proper place to store their belongings, the workers’ possessions are pushed under the bed and also piled up on the top bunk. Clothes are haphazardly draped everywhere, giving the rooms a very crowded and messy feel.


There is a tiny shared bathroom and shower attached to each dorm room—so small that just one person can use it at a time—which the workers say is filthy and disgusting. There is also no hot water.

With so many workers returning to the dorm at the same time at the shift’s end, the work-ers say the dorm is overcrowded, noisy, and the air reeks of sweaty feet and perspiration.

In Guangdong, which is in the south, the summer lasts a long time and it is very hot. Each dorm room has three small electric ceiling fans, but the workers say this is not enough, and room temperatures can be op-pressive.

A Dreary Life 35

During the winter months, workers wishing to wash with hot water need to walk down four flights of stairs to the third floor, where they can fetch hot water in a small plastic bucket and return to their dorm room for a sponge bath. Workers are prohibited from using electricity in the dorm to heat water and if caught doing so, will be fired.

The factory provides no entertainment or cultural activities for its 600 to 700 workers. In fact, often working 80 hours a week, the workers have no time to do anything that

might interest them, like studying to learn new skills. The dorm has set aside activity rooms, but it amounts to nothing. There is a reading room, but there is not a single news-paper in the room, let alone a book. There is also a television room with a few backless benches; however, the television cabinet is al-most always locked, making it extremely rare that the workers actually get to watch televi-sion. There is also a room with ping pong tables, but here too only management can access the equipment, so the workers are not allowed to play.


Ping pong Room with two ping pong tables.

Workers say the equipment is with manage-ment and the workers do not get to use it.

Reading Room—

but not a single piece of paper in it, let alone a book.

Television Room.

The television is generally locked and it is rare that the workers get to watch it.

A Dreary Life 37

Basically the workers have just three ways to relax—or clear their heads, as they put it—after working a 12 to 13-hour shift. They can just randomly walk around, or find some friends to hang out with and play poker. The most popular relaxation for the work-ers seems to be standing on the sidewalk and watching television through store windows.

Factory management does not allow workers to have televisions or DVD players in their dorm rooms, though one worker does have a small television in his room which he has to watch secretly. Of course, there is no inter-net access. Workers simply do not have the disposable income to go out for entertain-

ment or cultural events.

There are very few dorm rooms set aside for married couples, both of whom must work at the factory. So the majority of married couples must live “off campus” in similarly deplorable conditions, renting primitive one-room apartments. (More on this will follow.)

Though workers are not charged for the dorm, money is deducted from the workers’ wages each month for water and electricity. Typical deductions would be 17 RMB, $2.18, for water and 20 RMB, $2.56, for electricity. Together this amounts to more than a full day’s wage.


Company Food—The Workers Say it is Really Terrible:

The company cafeteria is also located in the factory building, and serves lunch and din-ner. For breakfast the workers are on their own. Each meal costs 3 RMB, or 38 cents, and consists of two vegetable dishes and one meat dish. The workers complain that the meat, almost always pork, is far too fatty and tastes lousy. The food is so terrible, that despite a company stipend to eat in the caf-eteria, most workers—an estimated 90 per-cent—choose to eat fast food from a street vendor. Management provides a 3 RMB sti-pend per day, or 38 cents, to those who eat in the factory cafeteria. Essentially manage-ment is paying for one meal, but again, as the food is so bad the majority of workers fend for themselves.

Single people, even if they live “off campus,” generally never cook. They rely upon fast food which they buy on the side of the road from informal food vendors, who lack busi-ness or sanitary permits. To cut costs some of these vendors use leftover rice water, rath-er than oil, to cook with. This is the cheapest way for a worker to eat, and it will cost about 500 RMB a month, or $63.97. This means the worker will be spending about $2.10 a day on food, and 70 cents per meal. This, of course, does not provide anywhere near a healthy or nutritious diet, yet the cost of even such cheap food can nonetheless consume almost 60 percent of the median wage paid at the Kaisi factory, including all overtime work.

“Off-campus” Worker Housing 39

“Off-campus” Worker Housing—Couples Can Afford Only Small One-Room Apartments

Before he was injured at the Kaisi factory, Dai Kehong and his wife rented a very small one-room apartment, measuring about eight feet by 11 feet. Their furniture consists of a bed, a tiny table with two chairs for eating, a 14-inch television and a DVD propped up on boxes. There is nothing else, not even a bureau, so they must hang their clothing on a string nailed to the wall.

There is a small alcove off the room, mea-suring three feet by four feet, which houses the bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen is re-ally just a shelf next to the bathroom with a small gas stove, an electric rice cooker, a pot for soup and a wok.

For this they pay 150 RMB per month, or $19.19. This is all that two people, both working in export factories, can afford.

Dai Kehong’s apartment.

“Off-campus” Worker Housing 41

Zhu Zhenghong’s Home 43

Zhu Zhenghong’s Home

Before his injury at the Kaisi factory, Zhu Zhenghong and his wife also rented one room in a very old house. Their only furni-ture consists of a bed, which is broken, a few simple wooden tables and three tiny chairs Zhu made himself before he was injured, us-ing scraps of wood he picked up from the street. They cannot afford a television. The kitchen is in a hallway separated by some planks of wood, with an old gas stove. The toilet is an outhouse.

Since Zhu was injured—and the company is refusing to pay the salary and handicap dis-ability compensation legally due him—he and his wife cannot afford to purchase pro-pane for cooking, and have returned to cook-ing with any wood scraps they can scavenge off the street. Their diet now consists mainly of turnips, which is all they can afford.

Zhu Zhenghong rents a room in this house.


Zhu’s one prize possession is a new bike which cost about 200 RMB, or $25.59. Zhu’s wife works in a nearby electronics factory in Panyu. This is another example of what sort of living standard two people, both working in export factories, can afford.

An outhouse.

Zhu Zhenghong’s Home 45

Kitchen.

Lei Shengke’s Tiny Home 47

Lei Shengke’s Tiny Home

Lei Shengke—another worker injured at the Kaisi factory—lives in a single tiny room measuring at most six by ten feet. His small room fits just a bed and a small table. He has no kitchen and must buy food on the street every day. In an alcove off his room, there is a very small bathroom.

This room costs 130 RMB—$16.63—a month.

Zhao Chengguang and Wife Live in One Room 49

Zhao Chengguang and Wife Live in One Room

Zhao Chengguang and his wife rent a room on the second floor of an old house, where several other people also rent space. Their apartment is about 11 by 14 feet in size and contains a bed, a small bureau, a small din-ing table and a 14-inch television. Located in a small three-by-three-foot alcove off their room are the toilet and shower, which are right next to each other.

Their kitchen consists of a small gas stove and a pressure cooker.

For this they pay 160 RMB a month, or $20.47.


Kitchen.

A Worker’s Household Costs—Living Primitively 51

A Worker’s Household Costs—Living Primitively

To save money, married couples almost al-ways cook their own food. Eating as cheap-ly as possible, the least a couple could spend on food is 400 RMB per month, or $51.18. This comes to just 28 cents per meal and 84 cents per person per day.

Low factory wages in China trap the workers in very basic, almost primitive, living condi-tions. Factory workers cannot dream of eat-ing meat and fruit every day. At best, they can afford a tiny piece of meat three or four times in a week, and the meat would have to be the least expensive, which means very fatty pork, which sells for 58 to 70 cents a pound. Leaner pork costs $1.04 a pound. Fruit is also too expensive and cannot be purchased every day. And even when the workers do splurge, they can only buy the cheapest fruits.

It is the same with clothing. Good clothes—“brand name” clothes, as the workers say—are beyond the workers’ imagination to af-ford.

Other basic household costs include rent, which as we have seen averages about 150 RMB ($19.19) per month for a single small room. Water and electricity cost another 30 RMB ($3.84) a month. Besides the 400 RMB ($51.18) spent on food, there are additional costs of 50 RMB a month ($6.40) for cook-ing gas, and 40 RMB ($5.12) for cooking oil and other food-related expenses. Vari-ous other costs—for hand soap, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc.—add an average of

130 RMB ($16.63) to the monthly household budget.

Altogether then, to subsist at an extremely basic level, it will cost a couple at least 800 RMB per month, or $102.35, and this, of course, does not account for any transpor-tation costs to and from work; medical ex-penses; clothing purchases and various other necessary expenses, let alone money spent on simple entertainment.

Another Hardship for Factory Workers – Separation from their Children 53

Another Hardship for Factory Workers –Separation from their Children

China has a national household registration system. Every person has a residency per-mit depending upon where their parents are from and where they are born. A person is not free to live, go to school or work outside the area stipulated by his or her valid resi-dency permit.

If a person leaves their birthplace—as tens of millions of migrant workers across China have done, traveling in search of work in the booming export factories—they must pur-chase a temporary work permit from the lo-cal police department. Without this permit, if a worker is stopped by the police, he or she can be fined, detained and in some cases even badly beaten. Migrant workers have to pay for their temporary work permits, which factory management often arranges, deducting the fees from the workers’ wages. However, it is all too frequent that manage-ment takes the workers’ money but does not provide them their temporary work permit, leaving the worker very vulnerable to harass-ment. This is certainly the case at the Kaisi factory which deducts 35 RMB, or $4.48—which is more than a full day’s pay—from the workers’ pay for their temporary residency permit, but most workers have not received their permits.

Children can only go to school in the place they are registered and have their residency permit. This essentially means that when the parents relocate South in search of work, they cannot take their children with them since, officially, these children have no right

to schooling. If a migrant couple were to take their children with them nonetheless and try to enroll their son or daughter in a good public school, perhaps in the city of Guangzhou near the Kaisi factory, the cost would be astronomical for these poor work-ers. To accept such an unregistered child in their public school, officials will demand up to 10,000 RMB per year ($1,279.43) in class fees, which is just about what a factory work-er would earn in a year, including all the gru-eling overtime hours they put in.

Even trying to get a migrant worker’s child into the lowest level public elementary school would still cost at least 1,500 RMB per year ($191.91) which is nearly two full months’ wages.

So the vast majority of migrant factory workers have to leave their children behind in their hometowns under the care of rela-tives, where the children can at least go to school. Of course, the parents must send money home each month for their children’s upkeep and school fees.

Also, given that seven-day, 80-hour work-weeks are not uncommon in the export fac-tories, it would be very difficult for the par-ents to care for their child. So this is another hardship the factory workers face—separa-tion from their children.

Tens of Millions of Factory Workers in China Lack Any Health Insurance 55

Tens of Millions of Factory Workers in Guangdong Province Alone Lack Any Health Insurance

Though Kaisi factory management could, for a modest fee, inscribe its workers in the state’s health insurance program, which would cover most medical expenses a work-er would face, they have chosen not to do so. It would eat into the factory’s profits and perhaps raise by a few pennies what the U.S. companies have to pay for their goods.

While lack of health insurance is an enor-mous problem for millions of working fami-lies in the U.S., in China the lack of health insurance is a catastrophe. It is the norm for export factories in China not to provide health insurance, leaving many tens of mil-lions of workers without coverage.

If a factory worker in China gets sick, nine out of ten times they will not see a doctor, as the cost is prohibitive. Seeing a doctor in a hospital for one visit can cost 200 RMB ($25.59), which is more than a full week’s wages including overtime. Depending upon how sick a worker feels, they may randomly buy some cheap medicines from informal roadside vendors, hoping that the pills will help. Given the extreme pollution in China, particularly in the factory areas, it is not un-common for colds to turn into respiratory infections.

If a worker falls seriously ill, given that they have no money for a doctor or to be hospitalized, they often just return to their hometown and wait to die. Some others will desperately borrow what for them is a huge amount of money in hopes of receiving

medical care. Even under the very best case scenario and the worker recovers, they will be trapped in a huge debt they cannot possibly pay off for many years.

Hours: Grueling Seven-day, 80-hour Workweeks are Not Uncommon 57

Hours: Grueling Seven-day, 80-hour Workweeks are Not Uncommon

• Routinedaily14½to15½-hourshiftsfrom8:00a.m.to10:30or11:30p.m.andsometimeslater;

• Workersareoftenatthefactoryover100hoursaweek,whileworking80ormorehours;

• At most, workers receive two or threeSundaysoff amonth;

• Allovertimeismandatoryandfailuretowork my result in firing;

• Thecommon40hoursof overtimeeachweek exceedsChina’s legal limitby344percent;

• Bylaw,workersmustreceiveatleastonedayoff eachweek,allovertimemustbe

voluntary,overtimehourscannotexceednine per week, and all overtime workmust be paid with a premium—all of which is being blatantly violated at theKaisifactory.

Unlikefactoriesthatproducetoysandotherseasonal goods, there are no clearly defined busy and slow seasons at theKaisi factory,which produces furniture parts. It all de-pendsonthelevelof orders,thoughthefac-tory does seem busiest during the five month periodbetweenMarchandJuly.

Whenitisbusy,theroutinedailyshiftisfrom8:00a.m.to10:30or11:30p.m.andsome-times even later. This puts the workers atthefactory14½to15½hoursaday.Witha1½hourlunchbreakandanhouroff forsupper,theworkersareactuallytoiling12to

Routine Daily Shift at the KaiSi factoRy(14 ½ to 15 ½ hours a day)

8:00a.m.to12:00noon Work,4hours

12:00noonto1:30p.m. Lunch,1½hours

1:30p.m.to5:30p.m. Work,4hours

5:30p.m.to6:30p.m. Supper,1hour

6:30p.m.to10:30or11:30p.m. Overtime,4to5hours—sometimesmore

58 Broken Lives:Behind U.S. Production in China

13 hours a day. A seven-day workweek isnot uncommon and rarely will the workersreceivemorethantwooratmostthreedaysoff amonth.

Working seven days a week, this schedulewouldputtheworkers—onaverage—atthefactory15hoursadayand105hoursaweek,whiletheywouldbeworkingover80hours.Even with one day off, the workers wouldstillbeatthefactory90hoursaweek,whileactuallyworking75hours.

Allovertimeismandatory.Nomatterwhatreasontheworkergivestobeexcused,any-onewhodoesnotremainforovertimewillbeyelled at and often fined five RMB (64 cents) foreachhourof overtimemissed.This64-cent fine equals the loss of two regular hours of pay, and for the total four or five hours of overtime routinely worked, the fine would amounttoafullday’swages.

Workerswhomissovertimemorethanafewtimes will be fired.

Theroutine40hoursof overtimeworkre-quired each week exceeds China’s legal limit of nomorethanninehoursaweekby344 percent. Also by law, all overtime workmustbevoluntaryandworkersmustreceiveatleastonedayoff aweek.

Wages 59

Wages:

Workerspaidbelow the legalminimumwageandcheatedof theirovertimepre-mium, earning less than half of whattheyarelegallyowed.Workerspaidjust$24.33fora77-hourworkweek.Gruelingproductiongoals require theworkers tocomplete each operation in six secondsorless.

• Paidbelowthelegalminimumwage;

• Nomatterhowmanyhoursof overtimetheyareforcedtowork,workersarenev-erpaidtherequiredovertimepremium;

• Workerspaidbyapieceratesystem,earn-ingjustsixhundredthsof acentforeachoperationtheycomplete;

• Excessiveproductiongoalsrequirework-erstoroutinelycomplete7,785to11,837operationsaday,oronepieceeveryfourtosixseconds;

• Workers earn just $24.33 a week forworking77hours—32centsanhour—which is well below the legal minimumwageof 50centsanhour.Includingun-paidovertimepremiums,theworkersareearning less thanhalf of what they arelegallyowed;

• Onemonth’swagesisalwayswithheld.

Piece Rate Forms.

60 BrokenLives:Behind U.S. Production in China

AGruelingWorkDay

Grueling,exhausting,numbing,danger-ous, andpoorlypaidwouldbe theonlywaytodescribetheworkdayattheKaisiMetalsfactory.

Kaisiworkersarepaidaccording toapieceratesystemthatisarbitrarilysetbymanage-ment, which assigns mandatory productiongoalsandtheratesthatwillbepaidperpiece.Itisnotunusualformanagementtodemand

thataworkercomplete7,785to11,837op-erationsaday,suchas“punchingscrewholesinendboards”orinserting“hooksintheendboards.”It ishardto imaginehowgruelingthismustbe. Evenworkinga12-hourday,theworkerwouldstillhavetocomplete649to986piecesanhour,whichisonepieceev-eryfourtosixseconds!Thepaceisrelent-less. Inaweek, theworkermustcomplete49,000 toover74,000pieces,while earningapiecerateof justsixhundredthsof acent($0.0006)peroperation!

July 2006

Production Goal Worker’s Pay

Onepieceeverysixseconds $0.0006perpiece

649piecesperhour $0.38perhour

7,785piecesper12-hourday $4.53perday(12hours)

49,200piecesper76-hourweek $28.63aweek(76hours)

213,200piecespermonth $124.05amonth

August 2006

Production Goal Worker’s Pay

Onepieceeveryfourseconds $0.0005perpiece

986piecesperhour 52centsanhour

11,837piecesper12-hourday $6.29aday(12hours)

74,838piecesper76-hourweek $39.78perweek(76hours)

324,300piecesamonth $172.37amonth

Wages 61

Areviewof themandatoryproductiongoalsandpieceratesforonemachineoperatorinJuly2006showshimworking28outof 31days.Hewouldhaveworkedanaverageof 12hours aday and76hours aweek. Theproduction goal assigned by managementrequiredtheworkertocomplete49,200op-erations per week, for which he was paid$28.63—38 cents an hour. He was beingpaid less thansixhundredthsof acentper

piece,andhehadtocompleteoneoperationeverysixsecondstoearnthis.

During the following month, August 2006,working similar hours, the same worker’sproductiongoalwasraisedto74,838opera-tionsperweek,whichis11,837operationsaday and one operation every four seconds,for which he was paid five hundredths of a cent($0.0005)perpiece.

leGal MiniMuM WaGe set by the GuanGzhou GovernMent

PriortoSeptember2006(684 RMB per month)

AfterSeptember2006(780 RMB per month)

50centsanhour($0.5048) 58centsanhour($0.5757)

$4.04aday(8hours) $4.26aday(8hours)

$20.19aweek(40hours) $23.03aweek(40hours)

$87.51amonth $99.79amonth

$1,050.09ayear $1,197.47ayear

AllWeekdayOvertimeMustBePaidat50PercentPremiumWorkonWeekendsMustBePaidata100PercentPremium

WeekdayOTat50%premium=$0.76perhour

WeekdayOTat50%premium=$0.86perhour

WeekendOTat100%premium=$1.01perhour

WeekendOTat100%premium=$1.15perhour


Working 77 hours a week

to earn $24.33!

Arandomreviewof morethanadozenwork-ers’payenvelopesalsoshowedthemworking28daysamonth.Evenif theyworkedjust12hoursaday,thiswouldmeantheyworked77 hours a week, while earning a medianwageof $24.33,and32centsanhour.Thiswage is illegal. It isnotonlybelow the le-galminimumwageof 50centsanhour,buttheworkerswerealsocheatedontheirlegalovertimepremiumforthe37hoursof over-timetheywereforcedtowork.

MedianWageforKaisiFactoryWorkers(824 RMB per month - $105.42)

32centsanhour$3.79aday(12hours)

$24.33aweek(77hours)$105.42amonth$1,265.10ayear

Workerspaidlessthanhalf of whattheyarelegallyowed.

Atthetimewereviewedthepayenvelopes,thelegalminimumwageinGuangzhouwas50centsanhour.InSeptember2006,thelo-calgovernmentincreasedtheminimumwageto58centsanhour. Even after the minimum wage increase, Kaisi factory management did not raise the wages of its workers, who are still paid below the old minimum wage. Theworkersat theKaisi

the kaisi Workers should have received $52.56 a Week

not the $24.33 they Were actually Paid

Legallytheworkersshouldhavebeenpaid:

Fortheregular40hoursaweek: $20.19

Forthe20hoursof weekdayovertimeata50%premium:

$15.20(20 x $0.76 = $15.20)

Forthe17hoursof weekendovertimeata100%premium:

$17.17(17 x $1.01 = $17.17)

Total:$52.56

Kaisimanagementischeatingitsworkersof $28.23aweekinwageslegallyduethem.

Wages 63

factoryaregoingbackward,notforward.If we return to thepay stubswe randomlyreviewed,themonthlypayrangedfromalowof 556RMBtoahighof 1,003RMB,withthemedianwagebeing824RMB,or$105.42amonthand$24.33aweek.Theseworkersshould have earned at least $52.56 a week.Theywerepaidlessthanhalf of whattheywerelegallyowed.Duringthebusiermonths,aswehaveseen,themedianwage, includingovertimehours,appearstobe824RMB,or$105,amonth—thoughwehaveseenpaystubswithahighof 1,347.22RMB($172.37)amonth,or$39.78aweek.Buteveninthiscase,theworkerwascheated of $11.77 (23 percent) of the paylegallyduefortheweek,whichshouldhavetotaled$51.55.

Duringslowperiods,workers’wagescandipaslowas300to700RMBamonth($38.38

to$89.56),andjust$8.86to$20.67aweek.Noonecansurviveonthesewages.Insomecases, wages dropped as low as 100 RMBfor the month, or $12.79, coming to $2.95aweek.

Another huge problem affecting the work-ers’payaswellassafetyisthatthemachin-eryattheKaisifactoryisreportedlyoldandfrequently breaks down. In the first half of October2006,manyworkershadalreadylost10 days’ work—and pay—due to the factthat their oldmachineswouldbreakdown,be fixed, and then immediately break down again.Somemachines,oncebroken,wouldbehurriedlypatchedtogetherandrestarted,butnotproperlyrepaired.Accordingtotheworkers, not only does this lead to loss of pay,butalsocausesnumerousaccidentsandworkersbeinginjuredonthejob.

Kaisi Pay Stub.


Management Always WithholdsOneMonth’sWages

It is typicalforfactoryworkers inChinatobepaidonamonthlybasis.However,attheKaisi factory, management has arranged itsothattheworkerswagesarealwayspaidonthelastdayof thefollowingmonth,meaningonemonth’swagesarealwayswithheld.Forexample,DecemberwagesarenotpaiduntilJanuary31.Bywithholdingwages,manage-ment knows it will make it much more diffi-cultforworkerstoquit—despitethedeplor-ablefactoryconditions—giventhatdoingsowillmeanforfeiting theirmoney. Also, themedian$105.42monthlywagewithheldfromeachworkeraddsup,as there isanaverageof 650 workers in the factory, which givesmanagementeasy,freeaccessto$68,500.But even withholding one month’s wagesmaynot,inmanagement’smind,beenoughto keep the workers from fleeing. So recently management has started to deduct another50 RMB ($6.40) from each worker’s wageseverymonth, telling themthat this isbeingdonefortheirowngood,tohelpthemsavemoney. Thisway,whentheyeventuallyde-cidetoleave,theywillreturnhomewithpilesof money.Infact,managementjustwantstotightenitsgripontheseworkers.Anyworkerwhoquitswillforfeitthismoneyaswell.Inthecourseof ayear,thedeductionsaddupto$76.77perworkerand$49,899forall650workers,givingmanagementaccesstomorefreemoney.Mostworkersareskepticalthattheywilleverreceivebackanymorethanasmallportionof thesedeductions.

Tocoverupwhatisreallytakingplace,ontheworkers’payenvelopes,the50RMBdeduc-tionisfalselyattributedto“medicine.”

Of course,bothof thesedeductionsare il-legal,likealmosteverythingelseattheKaisifactory.

Appendices 65

Appendices

Appendix1:

Shipping records Smuggled out of the Kaisi Metals Factory

Appendix2:

Kaisi shipments to U.S. companies—based on U.S. Customs Documentation A.Kaisi shipments to Knape & Vogt, August 2006 B.Knape & Vogt imports from Hongqing Hao and Manley International, August 2006 C.Kaisi shipments to Grass America, August-November 2006 D.Kaisi shipments to Fulterer, August-November 2006 E.Kaisi shipments to Fastec, August-November 2006

Appendix3:

List of U.S. and Canadian Companies importing from Kaisi in China

Appendix 1 - Smuggled Kaisi Shipping Records 67

Knape & Vogt Manufacturing

Appendix 1


Grass America, Inc.


Fulterer USA, Inc.


Fastec Industrial Corp.


GlideRite Hardware Co.


Liberty Hardware Co.

APPENDIX 2A

In August 2006 alone, Knape & Vogt of Grand Rapids, Michigan, imported $2,336,310 worth of furniture parts from China, including 15 shipments of ball bearing drawer slides, worth $1,422,731 from the Kaisi Hardware company. Below is an example of one of those shipments:

U.S. Customs Department Shipping Record Kaisi Hardware/China to Knape & Vogt, August 9, 2006

Shipper KAISI HARDWARE CO.,LTD Consignee KNAPE VOGT MFG HUANSHI ROAD DA CHONG NANSHA,PANYU, 2700 OAK INDUSTRIAL DR. GUANGDONG GRAND RAPIDS MI 49505 CHINA USA

Packaging InformationWeight: 123419 KG Measurements:Quantity: 4331 CTN TEU's: 16.00

Shipment DetailCarrier: SAFM - SAFMARINE

Country of Origin: PEOPLES REP OF CHINA Vessel: MAERSK KITHIRA Coastal Region: WEST Voyage: 610 US Port: 2704 LOS ANGELES B/L: CHQFCHKU06071041 For Port: 57078 YANTIAN Estimated Value: $390,775.00 Arrival Date: 08/09/2006

AMS CommoditiesContainer Qty Description

MSKU3764477 1296 FURNITURE PARTS (BALL BEARING SLIDE) MSKU3764517 60 FURNITURE PARTS (BALL BEARING SLIDE) MSKU3764604 60 FURNITURE PARTS (BALL BEARING SLIDE) MSKU3764630 41 FURNITURE PARTS (BALL BEARING SLIDE) MSKU3765576 60 FURNITURE PARTS (BALL BEARING SLIDE) MSKU3768488 1110 FURNITURE PARTS (BALL BEARING SLIDE) MSKU6657678 1056 FURNITURE PARTS (BALL BEARING SLIDE) PONU1280405 648 FURNITURE PARTS (BALL BEARING SLIDE)

Appendix 2A 75

Appendix 2

APPENDIX 2B

In addition, Knape & Vogt imported $837,244 worth of ball bearing slides made in China from the Hengqing Hao Hardware Manufacturing Co and another $76,335 worth of furniture hardware, such as glass shelf kits, from the Manley International, Ltd. and Fuda Development Company factories in China. Below are examples of shipments from these companies to Knape & Vogt in August 2006

U.S. CUSTOMS SHIPPING RECORD HENGQING HAO TO KNAPE & VOGT, AUGUST 11, 2006

Shipper HENGQING HAO HARDWARE MANUFACTORY Consignee KNAPE VOGT MANUFACTURING CO. TIANTOU INDUSTRIAL PARK C/O CLASSIC WAREHOUSE 4729 YUANZHOU TOWN, BOLUO COUNTY DIVISION ST. HUIZHOU CITY GUANGDONG CN WAYLAND MI 49348 US

Packaging InformationWeight: 60198 KG Measurements:Quantity: 4704 CTNS TEU's: 4.38 Shipment DetailCarrier: HTML - HATSU MARINE LTD Country of Origin: PEOPLES REP OF CHINA Vessel: LT USODIMARE Voyage: 39E US Port: 3002 TACOMA B/L: WTRWSZN06072091 For Port: 57078 YANTIAN Estimated Value: $683,325.00 Arrival Date: 08/11/2006


EISU3591756 1120 BALL BEARING SLIDES EMCU2553342 1344 BALL BEARING SLIDES EMCU3168628 1120 BALL BEARING SLIDES UGMU8470016 1120 BALL BEARING SLIDES

76 Appendix 2B

APPENDIX 2B-2

U.S. CUSTOMS SHIPPING RECORD MANLY INT’L LTD/CHINA TO KNAPE & VOGT, AUGUST 15, 2006

Shipper: MANLEY INTERNATIONAL LTD Consignee: KNAPE VOGT MANUFACTURING CO. 3F-8 NO. 8 LANE 85 CHUNG TA C/O CLASSIC WAREHOUSE 4729 EAST ROAD DIVISION ST. TAICHUNG TAIWAN CN WAYLAND MI 49348 US

Packaging InformationWeight: 10822 KG Measurements: Quantity: 1439 CTNS TEU's: 1.17

Shipment DetailCarrier: AMPL - AMERICAN PRESIDENT LINES Vessel: HYUNDAI KINGDOM Country of Origin: PEOPLES REP OF CHINA

US Port: 3001 SEATTLEB/L: WTRWSZN06072092 For Port: 57078 YANTIANEstimated Value: $8,959.00 Arrival Date: 08/15/2006

AMS CommoditiesContainer Qty DescriptionTRLU4326760 1439 GLASS SHELF KIT,UPSCALE,PARTS OF MANTIS

U.S. CUSTOMS SHIPPING RECORD FUDA DEVELOPMENT CO/CHINA TO KNAPE & VOGT, AUGUST 2, 2006

Shipper: FUDA DEVELOPMENT CO.,LTD Consignee: KNAPE VOGT MANUF. CO. 4TH FL. NO. 81 CHANG AN E. C/O CLASSIC WAREHOUSE 4729 RD.SEC. 1 DIVISION ST. TAIPEI TAIWAN CN WAYLAND MI 49348 US TEL:8862-25230468 FAX:8862-25677083

Packaging InformationWeight: 16185 KG Measurements: Quantity: 610 CTNS TEU's: 2.00

Shipment DetailCarrier: AMPL - AMERICAN PRESIDENT LINES Country of Origin: PEOPLES REP OF CHINA Vessel: HYUNDAI PATRIOT US Port: 3001 TACOMA B/L: WTRWSZN06072041 For Port: 57078 YANTIANEstimated Value: $67,376.00 Arrival Date: 08/02/2006


610 NO COMMODITY

Appendix 2B-2 77

APPENDIX 2C

In the three-month period from September through November, 2006, GrassAmerica located in Kernersville, NC imported 12 shipments of drawer slides with a total landed customs value of $1,722,701 from Kaisi Hardward in China. Below is an example of one of those shipments:

U.S. CUSTOMS SHIPPING DATA KAISI HARDWARE TO GRASS AMERICA, NOVEMBER 11, 2006

Shipper KAISI HARDWARE CO.,LTD Consignee GRASS AMERICA INC. HUANSHI ROAD DA CHONG NANSHA PO BOX 1019 PANYU GUANGDONG CHINA 1020 HWY 66 SOUTH TEL:8620-84983138 KERNERSVILLE NC 27284 FAX:8620-84983126

Packaging InformationWeight: 115469 KG Measurements: 113 CM Quantity: 3591 PCS TEU's: 12.00

Shipment DetailCarrier: CACG - CMA-CGM Country of Origin: PEOPLES REP OF CHINA Vessel: CSCL SYDNEY US Port: 1401 NORFOLK Voyage: PX284 For Port: 57078 YANTIAN B/L: CMDUGZ1252410 Estimated Value: $443,181.00 Arrival Date: 11/13/2006


MATERIALS AND HAS BEEN FUMIGATED AS PER THE REQUEST OF IPPC. FREIGHT PREPAID NVOCC HOUSE BILL NO.:CNCAN4050617502 TOLU3515167 76 TOTAL:3591CARTONS FUINITURE PART DRAWER SLIDE HS CODE:83024200 PO 57271(4)/57321/57271(5)/56893/ 57321(2)/57321(3)/56985/57907/ 57428/57247 THIS SHIPMENT CONTAINS REGULATED WOOD PACKING MATERIALS AND HAS BEEN FUMIGATED AS PER THE REQUEST OF IPPC. FREIGHT PREPAID NVOCC HOUSE BILL NO.:CNCAN4050617502 TPHU5069767 836 TOTAL:3591CARTONS FUINITURE PART DRAWER SLIDE HS CODE:83024200 PO 57271(4)/57321/57271(5)/56893/ 57321(2)/57321(3)/56985/57907/ 57428/57247 THIS SHIPMENT CONTAINS REGULATED WOOD PACKING MATERIALS AND HAS BEEN FUMIGATED AS PER THE REQUEST OF IPPC. FREIGHT PREPAID NVOCC HOUSE BILL NO.:CNCAN4050617502

78 Appendix 2C

APPENDIX 2D

In the three-month period from September through November, 2006, FultererUSA, Inc of High Point, North Carolina imported $546,101 worth of furniture drawer slides from the Kaisi Hardware company in China. Below is an example of one of those shipments:

U.S. CUSTOMS SHIPPING DATA KAISI HARDWARE TO FULTERER USA, Inc., SEPTEMBER 10, 2006

Shipper ConsigneeKAISI HARDWARE CO.LTD. FULTERER USA HUANSHI ROAD DACHONG NANSHA PANYU 542 TOWNSEND AVE,HIGH POINT,NC 27263 GUANGDONG CHINA TEL:86-20-8498-3138 USA TEL:001-336-431-4646 FAX:001 FAX:86-20-8498-3126 -336-431-4620

Packaging InformationWeight: 16351 KG Measurements:Quantity: 800 BOX TEU's: 5.60

Shipment DetailCarrier: MLSL - MAERSK LINE Vessel: SL CHAMPION Country of Origin: PEOPLES REP OF CHINA

US Port: 1401 NORFOLK B/L: DEWCZE6044600797 For Port: 57078 YANTIANEstimated Value: $62,757.00 Arrival Date: 09/10/2006

AMS CommoditiesContainer Qty DescriptionPONU0381052 800 800 CARTONS FURNITURE PARTS 26 PALLETS DRAWER

SLIDES

Appendix 2D 79

APPENDIX 2E

In the three-month period September through November, 2006, Fastec Industrial Corporation in Elkhardt, Indiana imported $354,483 worth of drawer slides from the Kaisi Hardware company in China. Below is an example of one of those shipments:

U.S. CUSTOMS SHIPPING RECORD KAISI HARDWARE TO FASTEC INDUSTRIAL, SEPTEMBER 11, 2006

Shipper ConsigneeKAISI HARDWARE CO. LTD FASTEC INDUSTRIAL CORP HUANSHI ROAD, DA CHONG NANSHA 23348 CR 6 PANYU, GUANGDONG, CHINA ELKHART, TN 46515

Packaging InformationWeight: 20164 KG Measurements: 30 CMQuantity: 1328 PCS TEU's: 1.56

Shipment DetailCarrier: CACG - CMA-CGM Country of Origin: PEOPLES REP OF CHINAVessel: MSC TEXAS US Port: 2709 LONG BEACH B/L: CMDUHK1277512 For Port: 57078 YANTIANEstimated Value: $57,151.00 Arrival Date: 09/11/2006

AMS CommoditiesContainer Qty DescriptionTOLU3580310 1328 1328 CTNS

========= FURNTIURE PARTS DRAWER SLIDES (39 PLTS) FCL/FCL (CY/RAMP) FREIGHT PREPAID TOTAL: 1X40' CONTAINER ONLY THIS SHIPMENT COTNAIN SWPM TREATED AND MARKE ACCORDING TO REGULATIONS REMARKS ------- THIS CMA CGM NVOCC HOUSE BL - CROSS REFERENCE WITH MASTER B/L NUMBER HK1277511

80 Appendix 2E

U.S. & Canadian Companies Importing from Kaisi International 81

Appendix 3U.S. Companies Importing from the Kaisi International Hardware Company in China

Knape & Vogt Manufacturing Company 2700 Oak Industrial Drive NEGrand Rapids, MI 49505

www.knapeandvogt.comPhone: (800) 253 1561, Fax: (616) 459-1260 Peter Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer

The company describes itself as “a leading designer, manufacturer and distributor of drawer slides, shelving, storage and ergonomic office products.” Revenue in 2006 were $164.9 million.(In July 2006, Knape & Vogt was acquired by Wind Point Partners based in Chicago.)

Grass America Inc. P.O. Box 1019 1202 Highway 66 South Kernersville, NC 27284

www.grassusa.comPhone: 800-334-3512 Fax: 336-996-5149Charles J. White, Jr., President

According to the company, Grass is committed to “producing the highest quality hinges and drawer slides in the world...” backed up by “the Grass promise....we will stand behind this commitment for as long as you own any Grass products.”

Note: All of Grass America, Inc. import records from the Kaisi factory include the following statement: “This shipment contains regulated wood packing materials and has been fumigated as per the request of the IPPC.” The fumigation is to prevent more destructive beetles and other insects from entering the U.S. via these shipments. It shows that if companies are legally regulated, they will at least try to do what is right. If Grass America and the other U.S. companies were also held legally accountable to respect basic, internationally recognized worker rights and health and safety standards, conditions for workers in China would greatly improve.


(Grass is an Austrian company founded in 1947.)

Fulterer USA, Inc.542 Townsend Avenue High Point, NC 27263

www.fultererusa.comPhone: 336-431-4646 Fax: 336-431-4620Herb Schmidt, Vice President

(Fulterer is an Austrian-owned company that manufactures drawer slides.)

Liberty Hardware Manufacturing Corporation 140 Business Park Dr. Winston-Salem, NC 27107

www.libertyhardware.comPhone: 800-542-3789 Fax: 336-769-1839Jerry Volas, President

(Liberty Hardware is owned by the Masco Corporation of Taylor, Michigan.)

Liberty Hardware furniture parts made at Kaisi International Hardware factories in China can be purchased at Home Depot.

Home Depot2455 Paces Ferry Road, NWAtlanta, GA 30339

www.homedepot.comPhone: 770-433-8211 Fax: 770-431-2685Francis Blake, Chairman & CEO

U.S. & Canadian Companies Importing from Kaisi International 83

Fastec Industrial Corporation23348 CR 6 Elkhart, IN 46514

www.fastecindustrial.comTel: 800-837-2505 Fax: 574-266-0123Charles White, President

In 2005, Wesco International Inc. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, purchased Fastec for approximately $32 million.

GlideRite Hardware Company 515 West Allen Ave. Suite 10 San Dimas, CA 91773

www.gliderite.comPhone: 909-599-7752 Fax: 909-394-0254Frank Guccione

Baer Supply Company909 Forest Edge DriveVernon Hills, IL 60061-3149

www.baerco.com Phone: 800-944-2237 Fax: 888-558-BAERScott Zettek, CEO According to the company’s website, “Baer Supply Company is one of the nation’s leading specialty wholesale distributors to the woodworking industry, offering an exhaustive inventory of decorative and functional hardware and fittings...” In 1997, Baer was purchased by the Würth Group of Germany, which is “the world’s largest fastener distributor.”

Canadian Companies importing from the Kaisi International Hardware Company in China:

Palliser Furniture, Ltd.55 Furniture Park Winnipeg, Manitoba R2G 1B9 Canada

www.palliser.com


Phone: 204-988-5600 Fax: 204-663-1776Arthur DeFehr, President and CEO

U.S. sales account for almost three quarters of Palliser’s wholesale income. Among the stated core values of the Palliser company are: “Demonstrate integrity in all relationships” and “promote dignity and value of each other.”

In March 2006, Palliser pleaded guilty to violating the Workplace Health and Safety Act and paid a penalty of $103,000 after a woman’s right hand was partially crushed while working on a roll coat machine which applies lacquer to wood panels.

In 2005, Palliser Furniture laid off 200 Winnipeg workers as it shifted most of its leather cutting and sewing work to Mexico, where it expects to employ up to 1,400 workers.

A message from Palliser Furniture’s president, Art DeFehr on the company’s website reads in part:

“We are committed to use the skills and resources of our globe to bring you leading-edge designer and innovative products delivered to your requirements. We are also committed to leave the globe in as good condition as we find it—and maybe a little better.God has blessed us and we seek to honor our Creator by being responsible in our business practices and our social and environmental impact.”

Mr. DeFehr and his Palliser Furniture company could do great things if they would work with their contractor in China to clean up the Kaisi Metals factory and to bring it into compliance with internationally recognized worker rights and health and safety standards. Their workers in China would greatly appreciate this.

DeFehr Furniture Ltd.125 Furniture ParkWinnipeg, MB R2G 1B9 Cananda www.defehr.comTel: 204-988-5630 Fax: 204-663-4458Email: [email protected] DeFehr, CEO

The DeFehr Furniture company was, until recently a division of Palliser, a family-owned company whose president is Arthur DeFehr.

DO WE HAVE THE COURAGE TO PROTECT THE LIVES OF HUMAN BEINGS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY?BROKEN LIVESDO WE HAVE THE COURAGE TO PROTECT THE LIVES OF HUMAN BEINGS IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY?BROKEN LIVES

COMPANIES CARE MORE ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTS

THAN THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THEM.BROKEN LIVESCOMPANIES CARE MORE ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTS

THAN THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THEM.BROKEN LIVES

National Labor Committee540 West 48th St., 3rd Fl., NY, NY 10036(212) 242-3002fax: (212) 242-3821

broken lives behind u.s. production in china

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