The report entitled Made in China: The Role of U.S. Companies in Denying Human and Worker Rights was prepared by the National Labor Committee.  It found that prominent U.S. companies are paying slave wages or no wages to workers manufacturing products in China to be sold in the United States.  The companies include Nike, Wal-Mart, Timberland, New Balance and Huffy.

 Below is Schakowsky’s statement.

“American companies claim that they wish to spread democracy and labor rights in China.  They say that they will lead by example.  But the facts belie that assertion.  The truth is Wal-Mart is paying Chinese workers 2 cents an hour to make Kathie Lee Gifford handbags. Chinese footwear workers, who are making Nike, Reebok, and other shoes, get paid 3% of what U.S. workers make. 

“Just because these companies operate in China, they should not be given a free pass when it comes worker rights.  That is why anything less than a full investigation by the federal government into these violations would be unacceptable.

“The American people have a right to know the truth about U.S. companies using Chinese slave labor.  The American people have a right to know that for a few cents an hour, 16 year-old Chinese girls, working for a U.S. shoe company, are applying toxic glue with their bare hands.  They have a right to know that working 14-hour days, seven days a week, while surrounded by barred windows and barbed wire fence, is the norm for Chinese slave laborers. And the American people have a right to know that young workers are forced lie to inspectors about working conditions, because if they complain or tell the truth, their lives would be made even worse.

“We can’t look the other way when we have solid proof that companies are trampling on workers’ rights in the name of the all-mighty dollar.  No human being should be forced to work in these conditions, no company should be allowed to abuse its labor force, and no country should be rewarded for exploiting its people.”