|
June,
2002
China
Training Project
Issues Findings
Ninety
people completed the
training in the summer of 2001.
 |
|
| A
pioneering project to improve working conditions in shoe factories
in southern China has issued its final report.
The
project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation, sought to train
workers and managers to identify hazards and to set up plant-wide
health and safety committees. Above all, project organizers
wanted to determine if it is possible to create meaningful
worker involvement in health and safety programs.
A
four-day training session was held in the summer of 2001 at
the Yue Yuen II factory in Guangdong Province, which has 30,000
workers. |
NEW!
November,
2002
The
British labor magazine Hazards recently featured an
article on the China training project. Click
here to read the article, Made in China (in Adobe
Acrobat PDF format).
Article
courtesy of Hazards. For more information on the magazine,
visit www.hazards.org |
The
training was given to 90 shop-floor workers, supervisors, and managers
from three plants. The factories manufacture footwear under contract
for Reebok, adidas, and Nike. (Click
here to see earlier story.)
LOHP
staff members Betty Szudy and Pam Tau Lee played leading roles in
the project, along with Garrett Brown of the Maquiladora Health
and Safety Support Network, MIT professor Dara O'Rourke, two staff
members of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and
representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Hong
Kong and China.
The
trainers' final report on the project was issued in late May, 2002
and was covered by the New York Times and Associated Press. (Click
here to see the report in Acrobat PDF format.) An expanded version
of the report is available on the Maquiladora Health and Safety
Support Network website at www.igc.org/mhssn.
One
of the NGOs cooperating in the project was the Chinese Working
Women Network, staffed by young women who once worked in the factories.
They operate a small bus, a mobile women’s service center
which travels throughout the Pearl River Delta providing information
to hundreds of women factory workers on their rights.
Training
Techniques
The
2001 training focused on recognizing, evaluating, and documenting
workplace health and safety hazards. It also explored the role of
health and safety committees in the workplace. Training activities
included inspections of the factory’s production areas, and
hands-on exercises such as hazard mapping.
Among
the hazards the trainees found were frayed electrical wiring, heavy
metal molds likely to slip, and inadequate ventilation of areas
using toxic glues and chemicals.
Using
t-shirts, trainers explained how
chemicals affect organs in the body.
Follow-up Visit and Evaluation
Several
of the project trainers visited the three factories again in March,
2002. In the final report, they note that they found the following
improvements:
- Plant-wide
health and safety committees, which include a significant number
of shop-floor workers, have been established at all three plants.
These committees have begun regular inspections of production
areas, have identified hazards, and are working with managers
to correct conditions.
- Members
of these committees have received professional training and have
demonstrated their understanding of basic occupational health
and safety principles.
- Materials
on key workplace safety topics are now available in Chinese.
- Training
participants gained knowledge about how committees function and
were introduced to concepts like "worker participation"
and "empowerment."
- Participants
from the three factories and the NGOs increased their awareness
of safety issues and have identified areas for further training
and action.
- Communication
among the management of the plants, the parent shoe companies,
and the NGOs has increased, paving the way for more health and
safety projects.
The
evaluation team also found that the health and safety committees
face functional, financial, and cultural obstacles that hinder their
effectiveness. For example, the committees need more training, additional
resources, more worker involvement, and better ways to keep volunteers
motivated.
Committee members who undertake health and safety assignments often
must do so without any change in the production quotas they must
meet. Some managers, concerned about maintaining production levels,
have ignored committee recommendations that involve changing work
processes, and some workers have resisted changing their work habits.
Plans
are underway to expand the impact of the committees through further
training and information exchange.
Due
to the work of the committees, some plants have provided improved
workplace equipment and protective gear.
"Clearly
the workers, supervisors, and managers who participated learned
a great deal and are now able to put that into real-life practice
in the plants," said Garrett Brown of the Maquiladora Health
and Safety Support Network.
Training
project staff say they hope it will serve as a model of worker empowerment.
"We want to see the initiative coming from workers," said
one project organizer.
For
more information, contact Karen Andrews at LOHP. Phone (510)
642-5507 or e-mail andrews2@berkeley.edu.
Information is also available at www.igc.org/mhssn.
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