ON CHINESE MANUFACTURING, INJURED WORKERS AND WEST KENTUCKY

Most of us who object to the global marketplace do so because we hate the loss of American manufacturing jobs. The statistics of job loss are more than statistics. Behind the statistics are family and friends out of jobs, ugly crumbling factories and workers with nowhere to go.

In the 20th century, Americans got accustomed to working in factories. World War II shattered the infrastructure in Europe. China was a big communist mess with Mao coming up with a Ten Year Plan once a month that killed millions of Chinese. Asia was so backward that getting electricity was the goal. Japan, bombed out and demoralized, struggled back from the brink by taking by making anything that didn’t require a big capital investment. In my youth, poorly manufactured goods bore the label “Made in Japan.”

West Kentuckians raised their families on incomes from garment factories (like Garan in Clinton), toy factories (like Mattel in Murray), tire makers (like General Tire in Mayfield), shoe factories, lamp factories (like the eerily abandoned overgrown building in Carlisle County) and a myriad of other large and small scattered manufacturing sites.

As the years went by, the world changed around us. Japan upgraded to cars and computers. Now “Made in Japan” is a compliment. The Asian countries began to get their feet under them. Mao died and his successors realized that capitalism didn’t need democracy to succeed in the new world order. 

Europe got back on its feet and formed the European Union, uniting the continent in an economic and political juggernaut last seen when the king was named Charlemagne. The Soviet Union became Russia. The countries that had joined the union, voluntarily or by force, peeled off and got new names or regained their old ones.

Throw out the Cold War maps. They’re yesterday’s news.

American manufacturers became global manufacturers. Outsourcing went into the dictionary. Management discovered they could get rid of those troublesome, expensive, forty hour a week American factory workers. The world had plenty of people who would do it for less.

A dream come true!  No more worker’s compensation. No more lawyers or inspectors snooping around. No more minimum wage. No more limits on hours worked. Load up the container ship. Then unload the trucks, stick on a price and send to the showroom floor. Instant manufacturing. Just add an ocean.

For the consumer, a great deal too. The name of the game is cheap: Cheap clothing from Guatemala and the Mariana Islands (made in America). Cheap cars from Mexico (assembled in the US of A).

Stocks in multinationals went up. Chickens in every pot. The only ones suffering were the chumps who thought the company would keep them to gold watch retirement age.

People like Lou Dobbs of CNN sound the alarm about outsourcing and what it does to American jobs and American workers. No broadcaster, no reporter sounded an alarm about outsourcing and the risks to the Chinese worker. Everyone took for granted that they worked longer hours, but that is to be expected in fledgling economies. We all believed both the American and Chinese governments when they told us that cheap goods are good for America and good for China.

Until Loretta Tofani and the Salt Lake Tribune, that is. 

Tofani, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, told C-Span viewers last week that she found the story of Chinese workers quite by accident. Between jobs, she decided to go into business for herself and import goods for her own store in Utah. She went to China to buy wares and what she found led her to close her store, get some travel grants and produce a four part series for her home state newspaper.

A seasoned reporter with twenty five years experience, Tofani had the China beat in the 90’s. She began quietly digging, interviewing, researching. She visited 25 factories in 12 months. In addition to her research in China, she interviewed American importers to get their perspective.

Her multi-part story carried on the Trib’s website begins with “American imports, Chinese deaths: The human cost of doing business.”  http://extras.sltrib.com/china/

Here are a few tidbits from the series:

The Chinese Ministry of Health noted in 2005 at least 200 million of China’s labor force of 700 million factory workers were routinely exposed to toxic chemicals and life threatening diseases.

More than 16 million enterprises in China have been subjecting workers to high, poisonous levels of toxic chemicals.

In 2005, the most recent year reported, 386,645 Chinese workers died of occupational illnesses. That number is in addition to the millions of workers who have lost body parts to primitive unsafe machinery. Benzene, a known carcinogen, level is 11 times higher than allowed by law.

Take the time to read the four part series for yourself. Bookmark it. Send it to friends. Especially now before the Christmas rush to buy “made in China” goods becomes a conscience numbing chant. If nothing else, at least we will know the effect we are having on two million workers who may have taken our jobs but aren’t feeling the joy of it.

Big government and big business tell us that cheap goods are good for us and good for the Chinese worker. Loretta Tofani answers that with a few words and some grim pictures.

Now the question is: What will we do now that we know?