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November 21, 2007

“Workers Bear the Cross”: Retailers, Churches Accused of Selling Sweatshop-Made Crucifixes

With Christmas just over a month away a new report by the National Labor Committee accuses US-based Christian retailers and churches of selling crucifixes made under sweatshop conditions in China. We speak with NLC executive director Charles Kernaghan.

With Christmas just over a month away a new report by the National Labor Committee accuses US-based Christian retailers and churches of selling crucifixes made under sweatshop conditions in China. The labor rights watchdog announced Tuesday that the crucifixes were made by young women working 14- to 25-hour shifts for less than half of China’s legal minimum wage. The report implicated the New York City-based St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity Church, and, at the national level, the $4.63 billion dollar Association for Christian Retail.

The Association for Christian Retail rejected the claims in the report and called them “irresponsible and unfounded.” They noted that the report lacked specific evidence and said that their retailers had recently found cleaner factories, improved living conditions, and increased wages at crucifix production centers in China.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral did not respond to Democracy Now! but has reportedly joined Trinity Church in pulling crucifixes from their gift shops. Trinity Church told Democracy Now! that they “do not support manufacturers who are associated with sweatshop labor.” Trinity Church had thought the crucifixes had been manufactured in Italy, they added.

Charles Kernaghan, Executive Director of the National Labor Committee.

AMY GOODMAN: With the holidays just a month away, a new report by the National Labor Committee accuses U.S.-based Christian retailers and churches of selling crucifixes made under sweatshop conditions in China. The labor-rights watchdog announced Tuesday the crucifixes were made by young women working 14-25 hour shifts for less than half of China’s legal minimum wage. It implicates the New York city based St. Patrick’s cathedral as well as Trinity Church, and at the national level, the $4.63 billion association for Christian retail. The association rejected the claims and the report: called them “irresponsible and unfounded, noting the report lacks specific evidence and says they’re retailers have recently found cleaner factories, improve living conditions, and increased wages at crucifix production centers in China. St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity church have both reportedly pulled the crucifixes from their store shelves. We’re joined right now by Charlie Kernaghan, the head of the National Labor Committee. Talk about what you found.

CHARLES KERNAGHAN: Crucifixes like this, which were sold at St. Patrick’s and at Trinity Church, were made in a factory in Donguong, China, by young women, some of them as young as 15, 16 years of age. The work routinely from 8:00 in the morning until 11:30 at night, 15.5 hours a day, they’re at the factory 108 hours a week. They were paid 26.5 cents an hour.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you trace this?

CHARLES KERNAGHAN: Well, actually, the workers smuggle production orders out of the factory. So this is the very production order for this crucifix and we can trace it back through the serial numbers. No doubt this was made in this factory in the [untelligible] factory in China and it went to Trinity Church and it went to St. Patrick’s. The workers actually took a take-home wage of only 9 cents an hour because they deducted money for their dorm and food, which was absolutely horrific conditions. This was an unbelievable sweatshop with no rights whatsoever. So crucifixes have been reduced to another cheap sweatshop commodity.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you go to the sweatshop?

CHARLES KERNAGHAN: No, we’ve been to China many times. But it just does not work. You’re always followed. Anyone seen in contact with us would have a fast ticket to prison. So we have to keep as far away as possible.

AMY GOODMAN: Now what about the Christian retailers? While Trinity church and St. Patrick’s, after your news conference yesterday, standing in front of St. Patrick’s have pulled this cross from the shelves. The Retailers Association has not been so conciliatory. Your response.

CHARLES KERNAGHAN: Well, they say this Association has 2055 member stores in the United States and suppliers and they say their mission is to spread the word of God and that they’re gonna transform people’s lives through Christ, through God, through these Christian products that they sell. It turns out, they have all followed Wal-Mart to China en masse. And they are there to exploit workers who have absolutely no rights. Theyre paid pennies an hour to make these items. The markups are extraordinary. I mean, they’re like Nike. They’re bringing in bible bags that cost $1.40 to make in China and they’re selling them for $17.99. That’s a 1,185% markup. So, I would say now that most of the religious items, crucifixes and others items, they have gone to China 100% completely. What is sad about it, of course, is that the workers in China have no freedom of religion, no human rights, no worker rights, no freedom of association. Now these religious retail stores are actually on the bandwagon just to exploit the workers for everything they are worth.

AMY GOODMAN: They say your report is irresponsible, and unfounded, saying it lacks specific evidence and that the retailers have recently found cleaner factories.

CHARLES KERNAGHAN: This is how pathetic it is. The company that actually purchased – that made this sort of – this is the Singer Company. It went through a company called Full Start, which is a big company in China that has an office in Rhode Island. And so the Singer Company said to them, “when you make our crucifixes, will you use sweatshop labor?” And the Chinese company said, “no, we will not”. So its like asking Jack the Ripper if he respects young women. That’s the amount of their concern over human rights. It’s actually laughable. I would say if this Christian Retail Association has one iota of integrity, they should immediately release the names and addresses of every factory they use in China to make their religious items. Which they wont do, because they know there’s one horror show after another.

AMY GOODMAN: And your response to both St Patrick’s in New York and Trinity Church – a historic church in New York both pulling the crucifixes from their store shelves?

CHARLES KERNAGHAN: Well, I mean it’s a good first step. I mean they shouldnt be selling crucifixes that were made by young women who are abused. But it cant end there. They have a responsibility to those young workers in China. They are exploited, they were cheated of their wages. They were housed under miserable conditions, stripped of every single right. St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Trinity Church must make those workers whole again. That factory, they should clean that factory up, they should take steps to guarantee the rights of the workers are finally respected. This is just like the tip of the iceberg. We would have to say after this, we were shocked. I thought crucifixes were made by nuns in the United States. I had no idea that they were made in China. We only knew about it when the workers sent us pictures of the crucifixes and we couldnt believe it.

AMY GOODMAN: Do they say “Made in China”?

CHARLES KERNAGHAN: No, that is another thing. This particular company lied and said they were made in Italy. So there was no origin. In fact, none of these crucifixes have ‘Made in China” on them.

AMY GOODMAN: That is interesting. We called St. Patricks and they didn’t respond. We called Trinity Church. They did say they pulled them from the shelves church but they thought that their crosses were made in Italy.

CHARLES KERNAGHAN: No, they’re made in China. And they have to be labeled – they’re just not. So the U.S. Customs department has to have a discussion with the Singer company and with the Christian Retail Association. Because they obviously left China off of the box and left it off of their crucifix for a reason. This is the very crucifix. You can see the serial number – the exact same serial numbers on the production order.

AMY GOODMAN: What is the Singer company?

CHARLES KERNAGHAN: Well its one of these Christian retail companies. It has $10 million in sales, its not particularly small. When you go to the website, they display 66 different types of crosses, but they sound like Crazy Eddie or Wal-Mart saying: “Go to our website. Look at our crucifixes and our wall crosses. You’ll love our selection and you will love our prices. We will never be undersold.” It is like, crucifixes are being trafficked like low-cost things in Wal-Mart. It is like the bottom is falling out.

AMY GOODMAN: Speaking of Wal-Mart, we are about to play excerpts of a film called “What Would Jesus Buy?” and you’re actually featured in this Charlie. But I wanted to ask you a question about a totally different issue. Its a piece that just came out in the Wall Street Journal. This was the St Louis Post-Dispatch, saying that Debbie Shank, a Wal-Mart employee was gravely injured in a 2001 car accident after colliding with a truck. The accident left her brain damaged, confined to a nursing home, the driver of the truck was found at fault. Shank’s Wal-Mart health insurance paid the bills from the accident and the court judgment allowed her family to continue with her massive medical bills. Now Wal-Mart is suing Shank to get that judgment paid back to them, entering federal court, demanding the civil suit judgment and legal fees be paid back to the company. Almost $500,000. This woman who got health insurance from Wal-Mart, was in a terrible accident, in a nursing home, her family having to pay her massive bills. Now Wal-Mart wants the health insurance money back because she won a settlement with the driver at fault. Is this typical?

CHARLES KERNAGHAN: That is Wal-Mart. They will squeeze a nickel until the buffalo screams. This is a company that knows nothing else but to grab, grab, grab. In fact, they were taking out life insurance policies on their own workers. So that when they go through social security numbers to see who died and then collect the life insurance. Then they would give the worker a pittance – like a couple hundred dollars. So they’re making more money off their own workers who are dying.

AMY GOODMAN: Thank you for joining us. We will link to your report. Charlie Kernaghan is the head of the National Labor Committee.

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