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Help us begin the investigation. We are gathering information about where Christian novelty items, including Bible covers, crucifixes, bracelets and gadgets, are being made. Visit your local Christian specialty shop and respectfully record for us what the item is, how much it costs, and where it was made. We are particularly interested in items made in China.

Email your findings to JustAct at
antony.mcmullen@victas.uca.org.au

For more information, or if you have any questions contact Antony on (03) 9251 5286 (or email him – see above).

Interested in more? We are looking volunteers to work with us to help undertake further research. Contact Antony on the above if you are interested and want to become more involved.

This is going to become a permanent campaign fixture on the JustAct site in the coming months, so keep a look out for it.

The Issue

“The products had to be finished by the 25th [of April] and all of the workers in our department had been working until three o’clock in the morning. We had been working non-stop for just about 16.5 hours. We were making crucifixes…. At 8 am, the morning of the 26th, it seemed as if our heads had just hit the pillows before out coworkers began to call for us to get up and get back to work again. The manager arranged for me to load the boxes for shipment. I, along with everybody else, was busy moving things into the truck. In total, we had close to 300 boxes of crucifixes and other things as well. Everything was so heavy; each box was about 20kg! We were so tired. My shoulders, legs and waist went weak. While we were moving the boxes of crucifixes, one of my coworkers suddenly cried out: “Jesus, take pity on me! I’m going to die of exhaustion.””

Crucifix Factory in China

In late November the US National Labor Committee (NLC) released a report, Today Workers Bear the Cross, exposing the Association for Christian Retail (ACR) for selling crosses manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop.

The ACR supplies nearly all of the US’s Christian specialty stores with a wide range of items including Bibles, Christian books, curriculum, apparel, music, videos, gifts and greeting cards. The ACR did US$4.63 billion in business in 2006, which is more than Levi Strauss had with US$4.1 billion in sales.

The NLC report found that crucifixes are being made at the Junxingye Factory in Dongguan, China, and the conditions were as follows;

  • Factory employed 300 – 400 women as young as 15
  • Employees forced to work regular 14 to 15.5 hour shifts a day, seven days a week
  • When an order is due a shift can be extended up to 25 hours
  • All overtime in the factory is mandatory and anyone who does not carry out the required overtime loses a full day’s wages
  • It is common for workers in the factory to work over 100 hours a week, which includes 51 hours of overtime
  • Workers in the factory are paid as little as 30 cents an hour, just over half the legal minimum wage in China. After fees deducted for room and board, the workers pay can drop to just 11 cents an hour
  • Workers in the factory are housed in primitive dorm rooms sleeping on narrow double-level metal bunk beds that line the walls. There is no other furniture
  • The workers get no paid sick leave, no paid maternity leave, no paid holidays and no health insurance, all of which are required under Chinese labour laws.
  • Anyone who gets sick and misses work in the factory loses two-and-a-half days pay for each day they miss
  • Workers fear they may be handling toxic chemicals, paints and solvents, whose fumes sting their eyes and skin contact causes rashes, but the factory management refuses to provide even the names of the chemicals, let alone their potential health hazards.

The report states that the ACR has no code of conduct and no factory monitoring program.

Factory Bed in China

The Justice and International Mission Unit, Uniting Church in Australia has been working for a number of years on the issue of gross exploitation and suffering inflicted on workers in Chinese factories making shoes and clothes, so it would come as no surprise that this could also apply to Christian speciality items.

The Justice and International Mission Unit, with now the help of JustAct members, are beginning an investigation, working with Christian speciality stores in Australia, to try and ensure that the items being sold from China are not made under exploitative conditions.

Experience with the clothing industry in China has demonstrated that assurances from the factory owners and suppliers cannot be trusted, as the factory owners often feel compelled to lie to get the business. The reality is that often the companies purchasing goods from China refuse to pay a price that allows the factory to act legally with regard to the requirements of Chinese labour law, but at the same time demand the factories treat their workers ethically. The only way the factory owners feel they can satisfy the buyer is to lie, and buyers are often only too happy to accept the lies and not look further, as to do so would mean having to pay a higher price for the goods coming out of China.