November 23, 2007
Stations of the Cross
Earlier this week, a National Labor Committee report claimed that crosses sold at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Trinity Church and other churches were made in Chinese sweatshops. The NLC said that the Singer Company employed young women at 26 cents an hour and forced them to work a 100 hours a week; plus, the woman are docked pay for food and boarding, leaving them with pay of just 9 cents an hour. You can read the report, complete with photographs of factory conditions, at the National Labor Committee website.
After the report - and a NLC press conference outside St. Patrick's - both St. Patrick's and Trinity removed the crucifixes from their stores. An archdiocese spokesman said they were investigating the charges but also noted the NLC "did not contact us prior to using the cathedral as a stage for a press conference." The NLC's executive director Charles Kernaghan admitted that the information about sweatshop conditions was "anecdotal" but said it came straight from the workers.
Singer, which is based in Mount Vernon, said that they had asked their Chinese manufacturer, Full Start, to sign papers saying goods were not made in sweatshop conditions, and Full Start called the NLC's claims "totally incorrect," saying that employees worked an 8-hour shift and given overtime if asked to work more hours. Singer's co-owner Gerard Singer told amNew York they were looking into the allegations, "We are not a Nike or a big corporation that can inspect every single factory. My God, making religious objects in a sweatshop, that's the last thing we need."
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Simple, don't use suppliers in Red China. Problem solved and the chance of getting killed, poisoned or otherwise harmed by a piece of ChiCom garbage is eliminated.
it's cool. the exectutives were all in a crunch, trying to figure out how they could maximize their revenue while minimizing their overhead costs. they sat and sat and sat for a total of five minutes until one of the executives his in his bland designer $3000 suit that looked like one from JC Penny's asked "What would Jesus do". Remembering that Jesus was simply a carpenter with no real job said "that lazy c*nt" and gave all their workers deplorable wages and long hours while they ran to a nearby strip club and splurged on lap dances and buffalo wings dipped in caviar.
it's cool. the executives were all in a crunch, trying to figure out how they could maximize their revenue while minimizing their overhead costs. they sat and sat and sat for a total of five minutes until one of the executives in his bland designer $3000 suit that looked like one from JC Penny's asked "What would Jesus do". Remembering that Jesus was simply a carpenter with no real job they simultaneously said "that lazy c*nt" and gave all their workers deplorable wages and long hours while they ran to a nearby strip club and splurged on lap dances and buffalo wings dipped in caviar.
chicom?
damn those reds.
and God Bless the US of A.
yes. don't use employees from china. Use US labor which will make every cross approximately 1000 dollars each
I'm not even going to touch the above comments...
BUT-
"My God, making religious objects in a sweatshop, that's the last thing we need." Anyone see the irony? I'm actually very surprised that they don't have the crosses made by those coming out of a rehab facility or a long term convalescent home.
Churches using child labor and sweatshops? Why isnt this as shocking as it should be? The race for maximizing profits at any cost has even made its way into the folks that run christian bookstores and some of the oldest largest chuches in the US. 15 years old kids? Nearly 16 hours every day with no days off - have you ever tried doing just that - much less for a take home wage of just 9 cents an hour? Thank God we still have a few folks out there like kernaghan to watch these situations and tell us how bad things really are - even though it is very depressing.