November 26, 2007
Indian Manhole Production Photos "Disturb" Con Ed
On the front page of the NY Times section A, there was a photograph of some workers in Haoro, India and an article titled "New York Manhole Covers, Forged Barefoot in India." And in fact, the workers are barefoot, bare-chested, bare-handed, and bare-headed as they work in an iron foundry, making manhole covers for Con Ed and other cities.
The Times explains that a photographer, J. Adam Huggins, who works with the newspaper brought the story to its attention - on a trip to NYC, Huggins noticed (like others have) that some manhole covers say "Made in India" and became curious about the manhole manufacturing industry when returning to India. Huggins narrates a slide show of incredible photographs.
Con Ed told the Times, "We were disturbed by the photos. We take worker safety very seriously," and said it's revising its international work agreements to make sure they include safety requirements. The NYC Department of Environment, which gets most of its manholes from India, via a city spokesman, said "state law requires the city to buy the lowest-priced products available that fit its specifications." And Shakti Industries, which is where the Times' photographs were taken, claims that there have been "no accidents, never ever. Period," though workers' rights advocates suggest accidents are largely underreported.
Some more facts from the article: The melted metal is about 2,500-degrees Fahrenheit, an Indian factory safety act (from 1948) only requires goggles as protective gear and Indian foundry workers are generally paid the equivalent of a few dollars a day, while American workers are paid at least $25/hour.
Photographs of Con Ed manhole cover and NYC Sewer manhole cover by Triborough on Flickr, who also notices that some city manholes are made in China
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Obviously these workers are paid an extremely small amount, but how much is a few dollars a day worth where these people live? How far does that go? They are able to (barely) scrape by a living with that amount of money so the cost of living is much less over there. It's not the same as being paid a few dollars a day in the US. Of course they should be paid a lot more. I still hate how these news stories never equalize the wages that these people earn and instead just do exchange rate conversions.
"Some more facts from the article: The melted metal is about 2,500-degrees Fahrenheit, an Indian factory safety act (from 1948) only requires goggles as protective gear and Indian foundry workers are generally paid the equivalent of a few dollar a day, while American workers are paid at least $25/hour."
that's the whole point of outsourcing products. let's also consider the variances between the cost of living in the US in contrast to India. That doesn't take away from the conditions the workers operate in are anything but deplorable. Still, why isn't the Indian government getting involved?
in an earlier post on this site, it was mentioned that the city is cracking down on street merchants selling illegal goods. but here, you have goods that are purchased and utilized legally though the distributor makes their workers toil in horrendous conditions.
i smell a huge increase in electricity rates guys.
p.s. did the Times reporter confer with those workers? Maybe working barefoot and shirtless acted as some sort of stimulus. Or maybe they were really big fans of Queen.
Seeing how your sausage gets made
isn't always so pleasing.
But workers toiling in less-than-safe conditions
is a problem that won't soon be easing.
Well add something else to the list of what doesn't bother ConEd.
For those of you keeping score at home:
Blackouts
Gas Explosions
Steam Pipe Explosions
Electrocuting Pedestrians
Electrocuting Dogs
Having livery cabs monitor trouble spots
High salaries for the CEO
Plus, think of the lax environmental standards and of course the energy needed to ship the bloody things from overseas. Plus there is always the safety issues for things made in countries with lesser standards of quality control.
What is really needed is to set up a foundry somewhere in the city that could make the manholes, employ people who need jobs and provide a benefit to the local economy. Also add a clause to the rubbish "low bid" regulations giving preference to an in city/state company since it would do something good for the city and state. Plus, the things don't have to be shipped half way across the planet.
here's an idea:
bring the labor back to the united states and have convicted felons make manhole covers.
What happens to these workers if the city takes their business elsewhere, or decides to spend a little more for manhole covers made in places with stricter safety regulations where the workers aren't treated like this?
I'm just playing devil's advocate for a second, but would these poor people be out of work? Would this factory shut down until they could find some other buyer? I'm not really sure.
Mostly I think the pictures disturb ConEd because they are mad that someone released these photos to the NYTimes, so that now they might have to pay more for their manhole covers.
I don't know about safety issues regarding the actual manhole covers themselves. They are just iron discs with a stamp on them. The cover either fits, or it doesn't fit. The safety issues are for the workers in the factory making them.
Sure their cost of living is less in India, but so is there standard of living. These workers make $3/day and live in diseased shanty town shacks. The cost of living in anything remotely close to something you would be comfortable stepping foot in is remarkably close to Western prices.
don't you people understand why you live so well? it's cause other people don't.
I noticed these beautiful artifacts of globalization a couple of years ago. I think that they are beautiful. When I lived in Berkeley(CA)they had a foundry that made Kenworth Engine Blocks. It stunk. Check out the photo on my webpage: http://sgregoire.googlepages.com/tadeuszko%C5%9Bciuszkoskywaymanholedawn
"What is really needed is to set up a foundry somewhere in the city that could make the manholes, employ people who need jobs and provide a benefit to the local economy. Also add a clause to the rubbish "low bid" regulations giving preference to an in city/state company since it would do something good for the city and state. Plus, the things don't have to be shipped half way across the planet."
seconded.
'set up a foundry somewhere in the city' - lol, yeah thats what NYC needs, to return to its industrial roots, start opening factories and steel mills so the man hole covers can say made in NYC...we can be the next Pittsburgh!
edNYC - love it. Do they still make license plates?
"...as they work in an iron foundry, helping manhole covers for Con Ed..."
They help manhole covers?
They seem to love the fact that they have work. And that in 40 years, their economy will leap ours. Our billionaire mayor should at least send them some shoes though.
I agree with a poster above that some hipster 'craftsman' here in NYC would love to make the covers though - so authentic and reeeeeaaal, man.
Where are the manhole cover doormats made?
Although it'd be neat to have a foundry inside the city lines, I think some of you are discounting just how much crap you don't want wafting through the air these types of heavy dirty industrial sites put out. There's a reason why most of the former sites that housed these structures fall under the Superfund plan, and it aint because of a little spilled coal. Over time the toxin buildup gets to the point that it takes millions, if not tens of millions of dollars (or more) in abatement to clean up. This is one of the reasons why, despite developers saying otherwize, the Gowanus Canal area will never truly be totally safe to live in. The amount of industrial effluent produced in that area is just too high, regardless of what some dude looking to sell you a million dollar loft will say.
This is one of the unfortunate side effects (depending on how you look at it) of environmental regulation.
Its interesting though, if you travel around the city you can find sewer grates and manhole covers with all kinds of stamping from different foundries in the united states. My aunt and uncle's place out in queens (Fresh Meadows) has covers that all came from the same place in Jersey. Yeah, they're probably 50 years old now, but they're still in use.
babyhitler makes a good point.
Toby- You forgot pedestrians falling through sidewalk grates.
ever since american companies have gone into struggling economies, like India, we've seen a surge in immigrants from those respective countries to the US. never mind providing employment for otherwise unemployed paupers in those countries. India is a rising economy as is Chinda, two countries who do not adhere to sensitive labor laws of the US.
sure, let's bring these jobs to the US so that people can be paid minimum wage,have little to no job security while management sits back and uses fancy words like "supply and demand" and "downsizing"
*Chinda =China.
OK, put the foundry in upstate somewhere where they need jobs. That would make it more palatable for those in Albany. Make the locally produced goods a must buy for government and let the people in India get jobs as amazon.com customer service reps since competence and language skills are not a requirement for that Indian job.
As a New Yorker who would have to pay the price for more expensive manhole covers if they were made elsewhere, I say keep making them in India.
#4, brilliant comment! ConEd does it again. Great PR.
I hear Indian Manholes are tighter than Chinese manholes. We should stay with Indian production so no one too portly will fall in if the manholes break.