AFL-CIO Demands Immediate Action to Halt China’s Denial of Workers’ Rights

by James Parks, Jun 8, 2006

The AFL-CIO is calling on the Bush administration to take immediate action to stop exploitation by the Chinese government and multinational corporations of workers in China, who are paid as little as 15 cents per hour.

The federation filed a petition today with the U.S. Trade Representative charging that the Chinese government systematically denies workers’ basic rights and prevents them from exercising their internationally recognized rights. The petition says China’s failure to protect workers’ rights is an unfair trade practice that costs U.S. jobs. The petition calls on President Bush to use his authority under U.S. law to impose sanctions against China or take other actions to remedy the situation.

Please take a moment to urge Congress and the president to protect Chinese workers’ rights and U.S. jobs by clicking here.

“Workers’ rights are a fundamental element in a system of human rights. The repression of these rights are unfair trade practices leading to job loss, lower wages and exploitation of U.S. workers, as well as our Chinese brothers and sisters,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said at a press conference today in Washington, D.C.  “Exploitation of human beings through repression of fundamental rights for economic gain is both morally repugnant and economically dangerous. The fact is that China is violating international trade law, and our nation is doing nothing about it.”

The federation filed a similar petition in March 2004. Although the USTR did not dispute the charges, it rejected the petition, saying Bush was taking other actions to advance workers’ rights. But two years later, nothing has changed. In fact the situation is worsening, says Jing-hua Lu, a dissident worker from China.

Jing-hua says the Chinese government brutally represses internationally recognized workers’ rights and bars Chinese workers from forming independent unions. Hundreds of millions of migrant workers are trapped in a government-controlled system that condemns them to artificially low wages, long hours and unpaid overtime, few legal protections and unsafe working conditions, Jing-hua says.

This denial of workers’ rights lowers Chinese wages by 47 to 86 percent, according to the AFL-CIO petition. If the government enforced workers’ rights, the overall costs of manufacturing in China would rise between 12 percent and 77 percent, the petition said. Using a model from the U.S. International Trade Commission, the federation calculates Chinese exports have a 43 percent cost advantage over U.S. exports that has been responsible for the loss of up to 973,000 manufacturing jobs and 1.23 million total jobs in the United States. 

The petition also lays out other reasons the United States must take action now to reign in China’s abuses of workers:

• The U.S. trade deficit with China grew by 25 percent in 2005, reaching $202 billion, and now makes up 27 percent of our total trade deficit. The Economic Policy Institute estimates the deficit cost U.S. workers 410,000 manufacturing jobs between 2002 and 2004.
• Twenty-five percent of U.S. workers displaced by imports remain unemployed after six months. Two-thirds of those finding jobs earn less on their new job, and one-quarter suffer wage losses of more than 30 percent.
• Most manufacturers in China fail to implement workplace health and safety standards, and the government fails to enforce standards. China has the world’s highest rates of workplace illness and injuries; in 2005, more than 126,760 workers died from job-related injuries and illness.
• Most manufacturers in China pay their workers much less than the government’s minimum wage standards, which are not enforced.

Working families and their allies in Congress such as Rep. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) pledged to hold the White House accountable and to continue to push for sanctions.

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