My friends at the National Labor Committee are up to their usual good work. Yesterday, Charlie Kernaghan testified at a Senate hearing on the abuses facing workers in China–in particular, those workers who churn out the toys that most American kids find under their X-mas trees:

Mattel’s Barbie toys, along with Thomas & Friends toys for the RC2 Corporation and Wal-Mart are made at the large Xin Yi factory in Shenzhen.  The 5,000 workers there are stripped of their rights, forced to sign mostly-blank temporary contracts lasting anywhere from just 10 days to a maximum of three months.  At management’s discretion, “new” temporary contracts can be renewed every two to three months.  Workers can be employed full time for a year or more, but always remain temporary workers with no legal rights.  Temporary workers can easily be fired for being “inattentive” at work, or for “speaking during working hours.” Temporary workers have no right to participate in the mandatory national Social Security program which provides health care, no right to paid holidays, vacation, sick days, maternity leave, or severance pay.

The routine shift is 14 ½ hours a day, from 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., six days a week.  Workers are typically at the factory 87 hours a week, while toiling 70 hours, including 30 hours of forced overtime, which exceeds China’s legal limit by 260 percent!

    Read the rest of Kernaghan’s testimony here and you can also read the full report called "Toys of Misery 2007" that details the abuses in ugly, specific detail.