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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