We shop until Chinese workers drop

[candice]

http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/johann_hari/article250
4611.ece

Here are a few paragraphs from it:

"There, she was expected to work 360 days a year, from 7.30am to as
late as 9.30pm, with only a half-hour break for lunch and fines for
taking too long on the toilet. As in many Chinese factories, military
drills were often yelled: "Long live the company!" If anybody argued
back to the managers, they could be punched in the face.

"One day, Meiren had a family crisis at home. She was forbidden by
her bosses from going to take care of it - so she became angry and
fainted. She forced herself to keep going to work for the next
fortnight, but eventually she became so exhausted she collapsed - and
died before she reached the hospital. The autopsy indicated gulaosi -
heart and organ failure caused by extreme exhaustion.

"Some 50,000 fingers are sliced off in China's factories every month.
Tao Chun Lan was a 20-year-old woman from Sichuan province at the
heart of China who moved to Shenzhen and got a job working in a
handicrafts factory. One night, she discovered the factory was
filling with smoke - and the workers were locked inside. Some 84
workers were burned or trampled to death. Lan jumped out of a window,
irreparably damaging her legs. She has received no
compensation. "They don't care if I am crippled for life," she says."