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We Demand Employment, Equal Labour Standards and Participation in Decision Making for All Women Workers
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 This is Topic: News about China
Following are the News Items published under this Topic.
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News: Cadimium related work hazard continues in Chinese factories
Published Monday, April 14, 2008 - 11:22 AM
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4053 Reads
Paris, 28 March, 2008
PDF of this release: http://www.global-unions.org/pdf/ohsewpQ_9j.EN.pdf
As part of this years 28 April International Commemoration Day (ICD) for Dead and Injured Workers, the ITUC in conjunction with the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) will highlight the plight of workers who are exposed to cadmium poisoning when making batteries for Gold Peak Batteries International Limited, which is 53.4% owned by Gold Peak (Holdings) of Hong Kong.
Gold Peak Batteries has become a symbol of an industry that endangers the lives of workers and damages their health yet denies the facts and refuses to recognize its responsibilities.
The situation of workers making batteries for Gold Peak received international attention last year during the lead up to ICD. Since then, the case was brought to the attention of senior officials and corporate leaders attending meetings at the OECD, UNEP, ILO and of research and medical institutions, underlining the fact that human lungs, kidneys and bone tissue are particularly vulnerable to long term exposures to cadmium, which is a known carcinogen for humans.
Gold Peak continues to operate, replete with reports of exposure abuses, deficient monitoring and suspicious risk analysis by company and local authorities, complicated by worker fatalities, sickness, unresolved disputes, strikes, court actions and non-reinstatement of workers to their jobs. Workers have also been denied full and fair compensation. The Hong Kong affiliate of the ITUC, the HKCTU, along with other local groups, continues to be the subject of a libel suit brought by GP to gag local activists.
The ITUC is drawing attention to the case today at the World Health Organisation (WHO) when global trade union organizations expect to meet with senior officials in Geneva to discuss the implementation of the WHO Global Plan of Action for Workers' Health, which contains provisions for dealing with occupational cancers.
Last February two of the largest toy companies, Toys "R" Us Inc, and Mattel Inc. agreed to phase out nickel-cadmium batteries and there is growing international pressure for other companies such as Canon, Casio, Fuji, JVC, Kodak, Konica Minolta, Nikon, Olympus Panasonic, Pentax, Ricoh, Sony and Toshiba to do the same.
Gold Peak, along with its three Chinese subsidiaries - Huizhou Power Pack Company Limited (惠州超霸電池有限公司), Huizhou Advance Battery Technology Company (惠州先進電池有限公司) and Shenzhen Jetpower Batteries Limited (深圳捷霸電池有限公司) produces and markets batteries, electronic components, cables, acoustic and light-fitting materials.
In addition to its operations in China and Hong Kong, the company has a manufacturing network that extends to Singapore and Malaysia and a marketing network that reaches Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Philippines, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, The Netherlands, Taiwan and the U.K.
Cadmium-related issues involving Gold Peak have received wide publicity throughout Asia. Fatalities have been reported, as have sixteen cases of confirmed cadmium poisonings and 400 more with excessive exposure. An additional 600, mostly young female workers have been denied annual medical check ups and continue to be at risk.
After the worker poisoning was exposed, Gold Peak claimed to have halted cadmium-nickel battery production but has instead sub-contracted its work to a factory in Hunan province with sub standard health and safety. see http://www.globalmon.org.hk/news.php?action=detail&news_id=44&class_id=15#).
For more information contact
Lucien Royer [[email protected]]
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Urgent Appeals: Release innocent Chinese workers!
Published Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 07:47 PM
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2717 Reads
Tell Chinese Officials: Release Innocent Workers, Bring Corrupt Owner to
Justice
On February 13, the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, some 700 workers
at the Panyu Li Chang Footwear Co. Ltd in Panyu district of Guangzhou City
returned from their New Year holiday. They were expecting to receive
their back wages ? estimated to be around 2,000 Yuan per worker ? and
resume work. Instead, they found that the owner had stolen their wages,
closed the factory and sold all the equipment. The gates to the factory
and their living quarters were locked. Dozens of long-term workers
discovered that the owner had not paid their social insurance and other
entitlements for around ten years. Others found that payments had not
been made for the last nine months despite being deducted from their
monthly wages.
In an attempt to seek justice, approximately 400 workers peacefully walked
from the factory to the Guangzhou Municipal government offices. The
police stopped the workers and detained about 50 of them. Five were
formally arrested and detained on criminal charges for illegal assembly
and demonstration.
Please take action today to demand the immediate and unconditional release
of the five workers who spontaneously and peacefully walked with their
fellow workers to report the factory owner?s crime and call on the
authorities for help.
http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/08-03-17.htm#action
According to the report in the Panyu Daily, on February 28 the five
workers were forced to stand on a podium while their arrests were publicly
announced. Jian Xi Bo, the district standing committee and secretary of
the politics and law committee, was reported to have said that workers who
use road or bridge blockades to express their discontent will not be
protected by law. The walk to the government offices, however, was both
spontaneous and peaceful. The workers should not be penalized for
blocking traffic since this was the inevitable consequence of the fact
that so many workers were robbed and evicted by the factory owner in one
day.
It is time for China to stop its systematic repression of internationally
recognized human rights, particularly freedom of expression and freedom of
association. The ability of workers to engage in dialogue with employers
and openly express their grievances is a fundamental part of a just
society.
Go to http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/08-03-17.htm#action
Or send letter to:
Guangzhou Municipal Government
1 Fu Qian Road Guangzhou City,
PRC 510032
Fax: 00-86-20-83123518
Email: [email protected]
President Hu Jintao
Zhongnanhai, Xichengqu, Beijing City, PRC, 100017
Fax: 0086-10-64729863
Email: [email protected]
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News: Toys 'R' Us Drops Nickel-Cadmium Batteries
Published Friday, February 22, 2008 - 12:37 AM
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3361 Reads
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
18 Feb 2008
TOYS 'R' US Inc. said it will begin phasing out nickel-cadmium batteries, the making of which has caused widespread environmental contamination in China and poisoned hundreds of factory workers.
The announcement is part of a wave of safety initiatives aimed at winnowing out toxins from toys sold in the company's more than 1,550 retail stores world-wide. In addition to the battery phaseout, the company announced stricter rules on lead content in toy surface coatings and tighter rules on phthalates, a vinyl additive that has been linked to cancer in rats.
Most of the new safety initiatives aim to protect the health of the consumers. The cadmium-battery phaseout is a sign that toy retailers are also under pressure to consider the health of the workers and citizens of China, where the majority of the world's toys are made. Nickel-cadmium batteries pose no health threat to American children, but manufacturing the batteries has led to environmental and health problems in China.
Toys 'R' Us said it would prohibit the use of cadmium batteries in all toys made exclusively for Toys 'R' Us but didn't say it would ban toys made by other companies that use the batteries. Some toy makers, including Hasbro Inc., have already launched their own bans on cadmium batteries.
The latest Toys 'R' Us safety push comes as American toy makers and retailers are trying to reassure consumers about the safety of their products, and get ahead of proposed regulations that could tighten toy-industry restrictions after recalls last year. Proposed legislation includes an overhaul of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that would strengthen its enforcement authority.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced stricter guidelines on lead content and phthalates in toys last week, and companies are exploring alternatives to polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, a type of vinyl that consumer advocates say contains dangerous chemicals.
Nickel-cadmium batteries, a type of rechargeable battery commonly found in remote-control cars, power tools and cordless phones, are safe to use. But in recent years, hundreds of workers in China who assemble the batteries at factories have been exposed to unsafe levels of cadmium, a toxic heavy metal linked to kidney failure, lung cancer and bone disease. In addition, cadmium runoff from battery factories has leached into water and soil, and dozens of studies have found it in unsafe levels in vegetables grown in Chinese soil. Disposing of the batteries is another concern, since they are too toxic to throw in landfills and must be recycled.
The health and environmental consequences of nickel-cadmium batteries were the subject of a page-one story in The Wall Street Journal last month that profiled Wang Fengping, a 45-year-old Chinese engineer who is suffering from kidney failure after working for years at a factory that produced toys for multinational companies. The company where she works, GP Batteries International Ltd., a Singapore-listed unit of Hong Kong-listed Gold Peak Industries (Holdings) Ltd., ceased production of nickel-cadmium batteries in 2004, when hundreds of workers were found with unsafe levels of cadmium in their bodies.
There are cleaner alternatives to nickel-cadmium batteries, including nickel-metal hydride batteries. But nickel-cadmium batteries are still used in the U.S. because they are the cheapest ones available, knocking about $1.50 off the price of an average toy. The batteries account for about 3% of world-wide battery sales.
Jane Spencer
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Urgent Appeals: RELEASE HUMAN RIGHT DEFENDERS, STOP HARASSMENT ON THEIR FAMILIES -- CHINA
Published Monday, January 28, 2008 - 01:12 AM
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1490 Reads
HOTLINE ASIA
URGENT APPEALS
UA080125(1)
RELEASE HUMAN RIGHT DEFENDERS, STOP HARASSMENT ON THEIR FAMILIES - CHINA
25 January 2008
SUMMARY
The Justice and Peace Commission of Hong Kong Catholic Diocese (HKJP) is highly concerned with the continuous arrests of human rights defenders in China. Together with China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, the Commission has initiated a campaign for 3 high profile human rights defenders: Hu Jia, Guo Feixiong (aka Yang Maodong) and Chen Guangcheng. The Commission plans to channel support letters / signatures to the Chinese authorities through Liaison Office of the Central People� s Government in Hong Kong in early February. It is hoped that aggregated effort can press for human rights defenders� release before the Chinese New Year in early February 2008, so the 3 can spend the important festival with families.
It is common for human rights defenders (HRDs) in China to experience arbitrary detention / arrest, unfair hearing, torture and inadequate medical treatment. Many of them are reported to be in dire health condition. Since his arrest on 27 December 2007, Mr. Hu Jia, a renowned HIV/AIDS activist was denied access to family and lawyers. Medication from his wife was rejected and it is not clear if daily access to the medical treatment he needs for his liver disease is guaranteed and if he can count on a doctor�s assistance during his detention. On the other hand, Mr. Guo Feixiong has been beaten in prison and has started hunger strike since 13 December 2007. He was reportedly locked on a wooden bed for 42 days and given electric shocks on his genitals during his 14 months detention from September 2006 to November 2007.
Often, HRDs� families and lawyers experience different levels of harassment. Ms. Zeng Jinyan, wife of Mr. Hu Jia was put under residential surveillance as soon as her husband was arrested in December 2007. The couple�s friends, lawyers and reporters have been barred from contacting her. The passport and telephone of Ms. Yuan Weijing, wife of the blind activist Mr. Chen Guangcheng, were confiscated by Chinese authorities on her attempt to pass the security cordon at the Beijing airport to fly to the Philippines to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award for emergent leadership.
*** Please respond before 29 February 2008***
ACTION REQUESTED
1) Please write polite letters to the Chinese authorities requesting them to:
� Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Hu Jia, Guo Feixiong (aka Yang Maodong) and Chen Guangcheng.
� Put an end to any acts of harassment against human rights defenders and their families.
� Provide adequate reparation to Yang Maodong and Chen Guangcheng, who have been physically abused.
� Release human rights defenders such as Hu Jia, Yang Maodong and Chen Guangcheng immediately, as their detention or imprisonment is arbitrary.
2) You may also co-sign the HKJP statement at http://www.hkjp.org/english/enfocus/fb_hu_jia_eng.htm
Send letters or faxes to:
1. President Hu Jintao
People� s Republic of China
Zhongnanhai, Xichengqu, Beijing City
PEOPLE� S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Send copies to:
1. Mr. Gao Siren, Director
Liaison Office of the Central People� s Government in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
160, Connaught Road West, Sai Wan
HONG KONG
Fax: +852 2572 0182
2. Diplomatic representatives of People� s Republic of China in your country.
SAMPLE LETTER
***Please avoid typing 'cc ACPP' at any part of your letter but send copies to us separately for monitoring purpose***
We are gravely concerned with the alleged torture and injustice to human rights defenders, Hu Jia, Guo Feixiong (aka Yang Maodong) and Chen Guangcheng. They are detained in the Beijing Municipal Detention Centre at Dougezhuang in Chaoyang District, Meizhou Prison of Guangdong Province and Linyi City Prison of Shangdong Province, respectively. Their families and lawyers were reportedly harassed by the police. As the important festival of Lunar New Year is approaching, we sincerely request your kind attention to bring peace to them and their families.
We appreciate the Chinese authorities� promise upon being awarded to host the 2008 Olympic Games in July 2001: Wang Wei, the Secretary General of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee confirmed that "the Games...not only promote our economy but also enhance all social conditions, including education, health, and human rights." Similar pledge was made by your government when signing International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1989. Articles 7, 9(1) and 14(1) state "no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel treatment"; "no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention" and" all persons shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing". It is also unfortunate to see the continuous harassment that infringes Article 17 of ICCPR which states that �no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence.�
With sincere faith that the authorities exercise utmost effort to improve human rights condition as part of the effort for Beijing Olympic Games, we kindly request your honour to:
� Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Hu Jia, Guo Feixiong (aka Yang Maodong) and Chen Guangcheng.
� Put an end to any acts of harassment against human rights defenders and their families.
� Provide adequate reparation to Yang Maodong and Chen Guangcheng, who have been physically abused.
� Release human rights defenders such as Hu Jia, Yang Maodong and Chen Guangcheng immediately, as their detention or imprisonment is arbitrary.
***Thank You for Your Continued Support***
BACKGROUND
Hu Jia, the latest victim
Mr. Hu Jia, a Beijing-based HIV/AIDS activist, is the co-founder and former director of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute for Health Education, a grassroots organization that aims at educating the public about HIV/AIDS and at advocating for the rights of persons suffering from AIDS. In early Dec �07, Hu Jia and his wife, Ms. Zeng Jinyan received a special press freedom award from Reporters without Borders. He was also nominated for the Sakharov Human Rights Award of the European Parliament. There is immense international pressure demanding his release, including a resolution passed by the European Parliament on 17 Jan �08.
On 27 Dec �07, about 20 policemen came to Mr. Hu Jia�s home, surrounded his wife and child as well as his wife�s grandmother, who was visiting, cut off the telephone line and internet connection, confiscated their mobile phones and then took Hu away, on suspicion of �inciting subversion of state power�.
Prior to this, he has been victim of constant harassments due to his human rights activities:
� 7 Sep �06: arrested by 20 plain-clothes policemen and detained for 12 hours for no official reason.
� 26 Sep �06: taken to the local public security bureau and was interrogated on his relationship with 2 other human rights lawyers, Mr. Gao Zhisheng and Mr. Chen Guangcheng, as Mr. Hu Jia had started an Internet campaign for their defence.
� 16 Feb to 28 Mar �06: allegedly �detained� for having participated in a hunger strike organized by human rights defenders and lawyers. During his �disappearance�, authorities denied him the right to have access to the medication he requires to treat Hepatitis B.
� Apr to 27 Dec �07: put under residential surveillance.
Since his latest arrest, policemen remained at their home, preventing Ms. Zeng Jinyan from publicly denouncing his detention. Mr. Li Jinsong, lawyer of Ms. Zeng was also reportedly detained by the police at his hotel in Beijing on 11 Jan �08, when reporters from international news agencies have been invited to cover lawyers� effort to visit Ms. Zeng.
Guo Feixiong (aka Yang Maodong), victim of unfair trial and torture
Guo Feixiong was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment on 14 Nov �07 for conducting illegal business activities, after publishing �Shenyang Political Earthquake� a book exposing government corruption in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. It is alleged that his sentence is related to the legal assistance he had provided since July �05 to the peasants of the village of Taishu, Guangdong Province, in an attempt to dismiss the head of the village committee, who was suspected of corruption.
His family is very concerned about his current health condition. After a visit on 28 Dec �07, Guo�s wife, Ms. Zhang Qing told the press that her husband is suffering from irregular heartbeat and looked emaciated. "He was beaten on 18 Dec �07 by a fellow prisoner, the fifth day after he entered the prison in Meizhou� (The authorities) also threatened to send him to a mental hospital. In the past they carried out their threat to send him to Shenyang, where he was tortured." Guo has started a 100-day hunger strike since 13 Dec �07.
During the 14 months of investigation, Guo was reported to experience inhumane treatment and unfair trial. In his wife�s statement dated 28 Dec �07, Guo mentioned that the people who interrogated him on 12 Feb �07 were not the same as those who appear on the interrogation records which were provided by the prosecutors during the hearing. He thus believes those records are perjurous. He also said that his attempted suicide on 13 Feb �07, following the confession extorted through the use of electric shocks on his genitals on 12 Feb �07, had also been recorded by video as evidence. However, the video was not presented in the hearing. During a prison visit on 11 Jan �07, Guo told his lawyer that he had been handcuffed and shackled to his bed for more than 40 days. He was also deprived of sleep for days and subjected to around-the-clock interrogation.
Chen Guangcheng � continuous harassment on his family
Chen was sentenced to 4 years and 3 months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic" on 24 Aug �06. His lawyer and wife say the charge was trumped up by local officials angered by his blistering exposure of abuses by local family planning officials under China�s one-child policy. He was earlier addressed by the Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in shaping our world in April �06.
According to the information received, on 16 June �07, some guards of the Liyni City Prison (Shandong Province) obliged 6 prisoners to beat Mr. Chen Guangcheng after he refused to have his head shaved. When Chen�s wife visited him on 19 June �07, he told her that he had pains in his ribs and that he feared to have a broken rib. His wife, Ms. Yuan Weijing, protested to the guards about the mistreatment and demanded that the prison immediately arrange for Mr. Chen to be sent to a hospital for a check-up, including an x-ray of his ribs, which the authorities refused.
Chen�s wife, Ms. Yuan Weijing has been under survillance since August 2005. The latest one took place on 8 Jan 2008: it was alleged that the authorities have tapped the phone line and learnt that a German television journalist wanted to visit Ms. Yuan and Chen�s elder brother, Mr. Chen Guangfu. Officials then blocked all the roads leading to Yuan�s village, increased the number of police watching her house to 40 and threathened to arrest Chen Guangfu. The interview failed to happen ultimately.
-----------------
SOURCES:
HKJP
OMCT
Radio Free Asia
Human Rights in China
South China Morning Post
http://www.2008olympicsbeijing.org/
--------------------
Yours faithfully,
Linda Noche
Coordinator
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Letters: Updates of Dagongzhe Migrant Worker Centre and Huang Qingnan
Published Tuesday, January 15, 2008 - 12:33 AM
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1693 Reads
Dear all,
Warm greeting from Hong Kong!
First of all, we are very grateful for the massive support from Hong Kong and international civil society. In the past few weeks, many civil groups (included but not limited to International Trade Union Confederation, Clean Clothes Campaign, Worker Rights Consortium, Ethnic Trading Initiative, etc), had responded to our call and sent their concern to the China Central and Shenzhen Municipal governments, as well as wide spreaded the news on this terrible attacks though their networks.
Apart from letter writing and endorsement to the statement, we receive a lot of support in donation. Since the medical expenditure is higher than we expect, we amended the fund rasie target to 38,000 USD and now 33,600 USD is collected, major came from the Hong Kong public and civil groups, as well as international groups such as EED (Church Development Service, Germany), International Trade Union Confederation, Canadian Labour Congress, Taiwan civil society (collected by Coolloud Web) etc. The medical cost until 7th Jan, 2008 is around 10,500 USD. This encouraging result is a concrete example for worker solidarity between north and south.
Dagongzhe Centre is now re-open on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and providing legal consultation to workers. Workers expressed their concern and anger to the violent attack and support to the DGZ Centre, thus they donate d to Huang and also initiated a sale to fund raise for Huang and planning for further supportive activities to stand for a normal operation of DGZ Centre.
Hunag Qingnan is recovering steady after the skin-grafting operation on 4th Jan, 2008. He is still suffering from muscular dystrophy, hence more physical training is important to enhance the strength of his thigh muscle. However, doctor told that he will need a supplementary instrument in the future. If there is no more infection or other problem, Huang can be discharged from hospital before Chinese New Year (Early Feb). One more operation for muscle transplant may be needed to the maximize his ability to walk, and followed by series of physiotherapy which will be last for at least 18 months.
The Government had not respond to the calls from DGZ Centre and international groups yet, nevertheless, the Shenzhen Federation of Trade Unions had visited Huang and DZG Centre, to convey care and attention. But they refused to condemn on the violent attack against workers and DGZ Centre since they worried that it would be interpreted as the Government's position. There is still no specific progress on the detection, no suspects is arrested or questioned.
The next stage of activities will be mainly initiated by local workers in mainland China to achieve formal communication channel with the Government. We hope that you can keep your eyes on the incident and continuously mobilize your network members to write to the China Central and Shenzhen Municipal governments.
Thanks again for your concern and support!
In Solidarity,
Worker Empowerment Labour Action in China Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior
Asia Monitor Recourse Centre Globalisation Monitor
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Campaign: Domestic Workers Are Workers
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Coming CAW Events
Regional Conference on Domestic Workers
26-27 August 2008
Bangkok, Thailand |
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CAW Secretariat
Executive Coordinator- Lucia V Jayaseelan
Programme Coordinator- Deepa Bharathi
Programme Officer- Niza Concepcion
Information Communication and Media Officer- Juliette Lee
Publication, Resource Centre and Thai Liaison Officer- Patima Kalumpakorn (Pui)
Book-keeper / Administration Assistant- Suneerat Sangthong (Tuk)
Finance Consultant- Leong Mee Nan (Mei Yun)
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