"Sweatshop Crucifixes" Pulled from Churches' Gift Shop Shelves

On Wednesday, the National Labor Committee stated that although it was a magnanimous act for Saint Patrick's Cathedral and Trinity Church to pull the "sweatshop crucifixes" from their gift shops, their responsibility with regard too this matter is just beginning.

Following a thorough investigation, Saint Patrick's and Trinity should work together with the Association for Christian Retail rid China's Junxingye factory of exploitative labor and and implement concrete steps to guarantee that the legal rights of the young workers will be respected at long last, says the NLC.

The NLC does not want to see production pulled from Junxingye, however, because that would only further harm the already abused labor force there.

The Association for Christian Retail has called the 74-page research report into the factory's exploitation of workers issued by the National Labor Committee "unfounded and irresponsible." However, retorts the NLC, if that is the case then why won't the Association immediately release the names and addresses of the factories in China that produce religious products for its 2055 member stores and suppliers?

The NLC asserts that production is outsourced to China precisely because workers there have no rights, can be paid mere pennies an hour, and have no freedom of association. What's more, it wants to remind the Association that they don't have freedom of religion, either.

NLC director Charles Kernaghan stated to the press in front of Saint Patrick's Cathedral on Tuesday that he does not believe that Saint Patrick's or Trinity had any prior knowledge of the abusive conditions that teenage girls, often forced to work anywhere from 15 to 22 hours per day, and others were being put through to make the proffered crucifixes, but now that they do he expects them to be vigilant and proactive in helping to bring an end to the tragedy.

Guangdong province's city of Dongguan, where the factory is situated, is the crux of China's export manufacturing industry. It is known that that industry makes abundant use of low wages in order to remain competitive. This is not the first time that factories there have come under fire for alleged human rights violations and worker abuse. Factories manufacturing products for Disney, Mattel, McDonald's, and even the Beijing Olympics have been cited in the past.

Some Chinese factory workers in Dongguan have insisted that allegations of their abuse are not true. They say they work normal daytime hours and are given more than an hour for lunch, and are paid extra for any of their rare overtime hours. However, the NLC asserts that these testimonials cannot be trusted because free speech rights are not protected in China as they are in the United States and the workers in question may have been afraid to lose their jobs or goaded by their bosses.

Original Newswire Source:
http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-21-2007/0004710083&EDATE=