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Wal-Mart Blasted for Rolling Back Health & Safety

Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota is pushing for legislation that would make goods manufactured in sweatshops and prisons illegal in the United States. What's the first thing that pops into your mind when you think of low wages, poorly treated workers, and unsafe products? That's right, Wal-Mart. Here are a few clips from the Congressional testimony, provided by ABC News:

The largest toy distributor in the United States is Wal-Mart, and Bama Athreya, director of the activist group International Labor Rights Forum, claimed the discount chain will sell $7 billion worth of toys this year.

It is that company's ability to demand lower costs, she argued, that has contributed to some of the poor working conditions in China.

"Wal-Mart bears a lion share of responsibility for pushing the toy industry to a place where worker health and safety are basically nonexistent," Athreya testified to Congress.

A panel of international labor activists said workers in toy factories are forced to work 14-hour shifts for six or seven days a week, with no job security and for extremely low pay -- as little as 53 cents an hour.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who is pushing legislation that would make it illegal to import or sell goods in the United States that are made abroad in sweatshops or by prisoners, said American consumers should consider the working conditions in foreign countries just as they consider the safety of products made abroad.

"It seems to me, after what we've done to pull ourselves up and create a middle class and insure working conditions in this country," Dorgan said, "we should not allow the products of sweatshop labor to be brought into America and sold on our toy shelves."

Posted by Matthew - October 25, 2007 02:19 PM - In The News