junk and crap, amen

Unlike the sisters in this picture, who have voluntarily (and inexplicably) given their lives to what they earnestly believe is god and embraced poverty (although not really, since the church provides them with all they need) and so happily toil away for no pay, the sweatshop workers in China who manufacture religious icons for sale in the US, slaving for 15 hours a day at 26 cents an hour (before deductions), didn't.

At the Junxingye factory in China, the mostly-young women—including several 15 and 16-year-olds—making crucifixes are forced to work 14 to 15 ½ hours a day, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 or 11:30 p.m., seven days a week. There are also frequent 18 and 19-hour shifts ending at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Before shipments of crucifixes must leave for the U.S., there are even mandatory, all-night 22 ½ to 25-hour shifts from 8:00 a.m. straight through to 6:30 or 9:00 a.m. the following morning. Workers are routinely at the factory over 100 hours a week, including being forced to work 51 hours of overtime, which exceeds China’s legal limit by 514 percent. Young women go for months on end without a single day off.

And:

Workers paid just 26 ½ cents an hour, less than half China’s legal minimum wage of 55 cents, which is itself set at below subsistence levels. Workers earning just $2.12 a day and $10.61 a week. After mandatory deductions for primitive company dorms and food, the workers’ take-home wage drops to a shocking nine cents an hour, 74 cents a day and $3.70 a week. Workers toiling 91 hours a week are paid just $30.61, which is only 43 percent of the $70.71 they are legally owed.

All so these guys (among others) can make a profit on the average christian consumer's braindead desire to collect as many icons as possible, cuz lord knows the more statues of Jesus and the virgin you've got, the fluffier your retirement cloud is going to be.

Ironically, these Chinese workers would be imprisoned or tortured or worse if found to be participating in the religion they slave for.

Ah, Christianity. Champion of the poor, the oppressed, the downtrodden. Unless they get in the way of making some cold hard cash.

Labels: China, poverty, religion, sweatshop

This entry was posted on November 21, 2007 at 12:27 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.