Chinese heat is on US sweatshop lobby

[IChing]

Editor's note: This article is adapted from a recently released report by Global Labor Strategies, "Undue Influence: Corporations Gain Ground in Battle over China's New Labor Law". The full report is available at www.laborstrategies.blogs.com .

In a historically unprecedented visit, influential Chinese scholar and labor-law expert Liu Cheng arrived in Washington, DC, to garner support from US legislators and labor leaders for a law that is pending not before the US Congress but before the National People's Congress (NPC) in China. Liu Cheng has been a key adviser to the drafters on a labor-law reform bill currently working its way through the Chinese legislative process.

His visit is part of a behind-the-scenes battle that is raging worldwide over reforms in China's labor law. On the one side are Wal-Mart, Google, General Electric (GE) and other global corporations that have been aggressively lobbying to limit new rights for Chinese workers. On the other side are pro-worker-rights forces in China, backed by labor, human rights, and political forces in the US and around the world.

In March 2006, the Chinese government, with considerable popular backing, proposed a new labor law with limited but significant increases in workers' rights. But the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Shanghai, the United States-China Business Council, and US-based global corporations are lobbying to gut the proposed law. They have even threatened to leave China for such countries as Pakistan and Thailand if the law is passed.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/ID05Cb01.ht...

[gaspee]

1. Wow

They don't even try to hide the fact they want slaves. Workers without rights are slaves-- just ones who get paid a pittance so they can pay for their own room and board. And have the illusion they are not slaves.

[IChing]

2. Yes, their motives and tactics they use are clear

but this doesn't get any press in the states on stations owned by GE or any other national MSM

[Omaha Steve]

3. Good post thanks

I appreciate the help. :-)

[IChing]

4. Thanks, I didn't know where to post this so it would get more attention.

you're welcome to try posting it somewhere else, because I think this article reveals
what World Labor is fighting against.





I look at your posts and try to help keep up the great work.