Dear friends,
Mei Xing Shoe Factory is one of the production facilities of the Taiwan-invested Kingmaker Footwear Holdings Ltd. (which was listed on the Hong Kong stock market: SEHK 1170) in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, China. The factory manufactures footwear products for several multinational shoe companies, including popular brands Clarks and Skechers.
Thousands of workers at the Mei Xing are still working in humiliating conditions, illegally and invasively searched by security guards at the end of work every day.
Xiao Ping, a 17-year-old female worker from Sichuan Province, told China Labor Watch's investigator that she and her fellow workers are searched by female security guards every day when they leave the workshop. She feels this is a great humiliation to her, but she just found this job a month ago and has not received her first month's wages yet. She has no other choice but to tolerate this mortifying experience.
A Xin, a 24-year-old worker from Guangdong Province, has been working at the factory for two years. She reports that she still feels extremely uneasy by the degrading way those male security guards look at her while she is being searched by the female guards. She said she cannot quit because she needs the job to support herself and her family.
After China Labor Watch released its investigation report in June 2005, several media outlets followed up with the stories. However, when questioned about the body searches, the factory management denied that they were conducting illegal searches, stating that they were merely trying to prevent shoes from being stolen from the factory.
China Labor Watch believes that there are ways to prevent workers from stealing shoes other than by intrusive and humiliating body searches.
Dear friends, body searches are illegal and a serious violation of workers' basic human rights, but this is what thousands of workers at the Kingmaker Zhuhai factory have to face every day. This violation must be corrected immediately.
Please write letters and make phone calls to Clarks, Skechers and Kingmaker urging them to stop this illegal practice and improve working conditions at factories that manufacture their products. Please also contact the Zhuhai Labor and Social Security Bureau to seek their help. They may not listen to the workers, but they will listen to you. Their contact information is below.
Skechers USA, Inc.
ATTN: Robert Greenberg, CEO
228 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Tel. 310-318-2982
Fax: 310-318-5019
Clarks Companies, N.A.
ATTN: Peter Bolliger, CEO
156 Oak Street
Newton Upper Falls, MA 02464
Tel. 800-425-2757
Fax: 617-243-4300
Kingmaker Footwear Holdings
17th Floor, Empress Plaza
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Tel.: 852-27232060
Fax: 852-27231858
Zhuhai Labor and Social Security Bureau
66 Kangning Road
Zhuhai, Guangdong Province
Tel.: 86-756-2128484
For more information about the Mei Xing factory, see China Labor Watch's report at:
http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/en/web/article.php?article_id=50267
Sincerely,
Li Qiang
Executive Director, China Labor Watch
