I would like to respond to some comments that have been put out
there on this thread. I saw somewhere…and the posts have been so
copius that I cannot retrieve the exact one…that one of our
Indian friends stated that they thought this kind of treatment of
workers and types of conditions went on in many other parts of the
world where jewelry is mass produced. I would never say never, and I
am sure that there is annecdotal evidence of bad behavior anywhere,
but I will take exception to this statement in areas I have
frequented.
I live in Bangkok and I service large factories with technical
assistance and teaching in Thailand, Hong Kong, China and Indonesia.
I choose not to practice my trade in India by choice, because of
many of the conditions I have read here. I will say here that I am
not part of the crowd that helped moved the jewelry industry
off-shore…but I followed that migration because, at my old age, I
still have a young family to support and the work I do was not
located in the States anymore. I help many of these factories
because it is what I do and my family still spends too much of my
money, so taking a job in another field with a lot less pay was not
an option. (Although many in my industry would love to see me in a
security guard’s uniform outside of a Denny’s somewhere…) But it
is the career I chose and that I love to do.
I have literally been to hundreds of factories of all sizes and
types in these regions. I have come across 1 where I knew for sure
that the workers were underaged, and that was deep in China. There
were girls there that ran the melting room that were 14 to 17 years
old. And I am certain that tucked away in the masses of workers I
have seen in my travels, there may have been some under age. But as
a whole…in Thailand and in China and Indonesia…they were of
working age. (Now…working age can mean different things. My
daughter in Ca. worked when she was 16)
In the China factories and many in Thailand, the workers are fed 3
meals a day at either complete company expense or at a pittance to
the worker. Most of the factories have huge cafeterias where all are
sustained by professional cooks. True, in China, I ate “old
chickens” that chewed like leather and “vegetables” that looked like
they were plucked from alongside the road, but there was plenty of
it to eat. (And I eat the same stuff the workers eat and it’s not
too bad on the whole)
Most places in China provide clothing for them in the form of
company colors…sweatpants and sweatshirts of good quality, where
the clothes they had before were not. The wages are of course, low,
but noone I have ever come across in any of these countries were
starving or sick or on the verge of death, nor were they “plucked
out of the slums” either. Most are common working-class young people
who are trained in a skill and work hard… and not in shackles or
with whips at their backs.
Most places in China provide living quarters in the form of
dormatories constructed by the companies on the premisis, and the
ones I have personally seen are modern, clean and nice. (Small, to
be sure…but no slums or shacks.) These are likewise rented by the
workers at a pittance. Many where families and children are
prevelent, the workers are paid extra amounts so they can live “off
campus”, so to speak.
In many of these industrialized areas of, say, China…where CNN
correspondants don’t even go…many of these girls will not have
the opportunity to go to school nor ever have any chance of a job
except for prostitution. They are basically condemned to a real
crappy life if it were not for a huge company coming in, paying
them…feeding them…and clothing them. As one post once
said…there is always another side of the coin.
I certainly do not support what has happened to all industries…not
just jewelry…in the off-shore flight game. It has personally
disrupted my life too. But if it is inevitable, then let it be at
least some sort of fair and equitable treatment for these workers who
do the jobs. And in other places besides India, it is just that.
And the railing I have read about the Wal-Marts and the Targets make
me puke. They are not the only buyers of this jewelry…which
include some of the most respected chains, owners and personalities
in this industry, whom we all see in the pages of the jewelry
magazines at their award dinners and charity events and hobnobbing
with the Hollywood Left. They are equally culpable in all of this.
You would not believe some of the names on job cards I have seen in
the depths of China and Indonesia. Not just Wal-Mart and Target. It
would make your hair curl if you knew who was really at the bottom
of the support for these places.
And that is where it can change if it were to happen. I remember the
chastizing of Kathy Lee and her clothing years ago by all the
journalistic crusaders. But where in any of the magazines or media in
this industry do I read any outrage about all the big US names in
jewelry and how we should boycot them for their practices? Nowhere,
my friends. The “journalists” are as silent as a mouse, for fear of
not being invited to the next celebrity jewelry party or awards
dinner. But they gleefully cut off the legs of Kathy Lee for her
stupid clothes…and their pressure in that case worked.
So as I get ready to leave China on my way back “home” to Bangkok, I
hope that I have shed a little light on some of the facts and
realities outside of India. (I am in Dongguan, China writing this
after spending a week in Panyu.) I just finished lunch and as I stood
at the gates of this large jewelry company smoking a cigarette, I
watched as the workers came back from their lunch. Laughing, smiling
and joking…the girls arm in arm…the guys playing kick ball. Not
the same, I assume, than the descriptive reports of degredation we
have been getting from Mumbai.
India…I cannot speak about. I do not know…just what I have
heard. But after witnessing what I have seen in these other jewelry
countries…I can only hope that India follows their lead and cleans
up their act. And that the powers that be in this industry, finally
find their voices…(Fat chance)
Thanks for listening…
Marc “Doc” Robinson
Hydrometallurgist/Director
ABI Precious Metals Asia, Ltd.