Child Slave Labor Throughout the World
by David Moreau
November 2008
In the United States, there are many laws which regulate the working conditions of adults and children alike. In other countries, this is not always the case. In many poor or developing countries, children, sometimes 11 years old or younger, are a mainstay in the industrial work force. Countries where this practice is commonplace include West Africa, Bangladesh, China, and Guatemala. These children labor under inhuman working conditions with little pay. Child slave exists for a variety of reasons; the majority of which are usually economic.
West Africa. This part of the African continent produces the majority of the world’s cocoa supply. “Between them, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire produce about three quarters of the world’s cocoa, according to the US State Department, and they employ 200,000 children. Up to 12,000 of these have been illegally trafficked across African borders to work on Ivorian cocoa farms, according to non-governmental organization (NGO) Stop the Traffik.” These children are forced to work in often hazardous environments for little or no pay. They are exposed to dangerous pesticides on farms, and are forced to carry heavy loads. The underlying cause of these barbaric practices is economic, that is, keeping cocoa prices low. Farmers who themselves are impoverished, hire a work force of children to work for little money in order to provide a meager living for themselves. To improve this situation, cocoa manufacturers must be willing to pay more for the cocoa they buy. However, this in turn would increase the price of chocolate, and perhaps lower consumption and therefore, profits. Projects and initiatives to improve and/or curb child labor have been slow to be implemented in West African countries.
Bangladesh. Child slave labor is also rampant in this Asian country. For example, the Harvest Rich plant in the Narayanganj district of Bangladesh was found to be exploiting child slave labor. This plant makes clothing for companies such as Wal-Mart, Hanesbrands Inc., Puma, and J.C. Penney. The National Labor Committee, an organization that focuses on defending the human rights of workers in the global economy, reported that an estimated “…200 to 300 children-some 11 years old or younger-work at the Harvest Rich plant in the Narayanganj district, and that children are beaten and forced to work for as long as 20 hours at a time for wages as low as 6.5 cents an hour.” Both Wal-Mart and Hanesbrands initiated separate investigations, but found no use of child slave labor. According to Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, “When the monitors were showing up, the children workers were being hid in the bathroom or out on the fire escapes or sent home earlier.” He also commented on these companies saying, “Something’s seriously wrong with the monitoring capabilities of these companies. I had no trouble finding the children workers.”
China. Bangladesh’s neighbor to the north, China, reported claims of child slave labor. Here, children and the mentally handicapped, are kidnapped and forced to work under deplorable conditions. In June 2007, Chinese police rescued 500 people, most of them children, from forced labor in brick kilns. It was found that these people had to work 18 hours a day, and were beaten if they tried to escape. The Chinese population was outraged that an atrocity like this could be allowed to happen in China. According to the columnist Siu Shinan, “…nobody would believe that such atrocities…are happening in today’s China-58 years after the Communist Party-led revolution put an end to the old society.” This issue was not reported on the front page of mainstream media due to government regulation. However, some coverage did surface buried deep within the publications. Discussions and criticisms online were rampant, however. Chinese citizens blamed the authorities for not halting the trade of human trafficking and enslavement of the brick kiln workers. The use of child labor is present in other industries, also. For example, the toy industry employs young teens to toil in its factories, making products for other children in developed regions. The International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) was initiated to monitor labor practices. However, its Code of Conduct is not fail proof. “For example, when it is not otherwise prohibited by local labor laws, the ICTI see fit to have impoverished 14 year olds making factory toys for other children in the developed world. Strikingly, the ICTI which receives funding from the U.S. State Department, also condones the use of prison labor to manufacture toys.” Products manufactured in these factories include Sesame Street toys, Barbie, and other Mattel toys.
Guatemala. Here, evidence of child slave labor has been unearthed. A prime example of such exploitations was discovered in the Legumex Agro-Industrial Factory in El Tejar, Chimaltenango. This industrial plant provides frozen vegetables and fruits to United States and European distributors. Superior Foods and Inn Foods are two United States companies that purchase goods from this Guatemalan industrial plant. It was been reported that the children working in the factory, 13 years old and younger, work in deplorable conditions, 11 to 14 hours a day, for six to seven days a week. “A review of workers’ pay stubs shows a median wage of just $3.66 for a routine 10.5 hour work day-or 35 cents an hour. By law, workers should have earned at least $10.56 a day, an average of $1.01 an hour including overtime, according to the National Labor Committee.” Officials at Superior Foods deny having knowledge of the child labor situation. However, Charles Kernaghan, National Labor Committee Executive Director, stated that it would be impossible for a United States company representative to such a situation due to the frequency of visits. Marco Cruz, president of Superior Foods, has stated that his company will launch an investigation into this issue and work to promote positive change in the industry.
Child slave labor does not often make front page news. When it does, it is usually because it is related to a high profile company or celebrity. However, everyday products in the United States are often imported from poor or underdeveloped countries, or those with little or inadequate worker monitoring systems. Those products may very well have been manufactured in countries that promote or ignore the use of child slave labor. Positive change could occur if the United States and companies of other developed countries closely and carefully monitor working conditions. Consumers can make a difference by making informed choices and contacting companies that ignore the use of child slave labor in production of their goods. These measures would hopefully improve the working conditions of children and adults throughout the world.
Sources Used:
http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1635144,00.html
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=76798
http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=172
http://www.nlcnet.org/reports.php?id=596
http://www.nlcnet.org/admin/media/document/press/2007/03/4SantaCruzSentinel.pdf