Good Lord
Apparently China’s campaign vs. Christianity isn’t limited to arrests by communist authorities, but includes a Dickensian sense of capitalistic irony. Maybe more a nasty kind of O. Henry twist. Crucifixes made in sweatshop:
NEW YORK (AP) — A labor rights group alleged Tuesday that crucifixes sold in religious gift shops in the U.S. are produced under “horrific” conditions in a Chinese factory with more than 15-hour work days and inadequate food.
“It’s a throwback to the worst of the garment sweatshops 10, 20 years ago,” said Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee.
Kernaghan held a news conference in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral to call attention to conditions at a factory in Dongguan, a southern Chinese city near Hong Kong, where he said crosses sold at the historic church and elsewhere are made.
Spokespeople for St. Patrick’s and another New York landmark, the Episcopal Trinity Church at Wall Street, said the churches had removed dozens of crucifixes from their shops while they investigate the claims.
“I don’t think they have a clue where these crucifixes were made — in horrific work conditions,” Kernaghan said.
Kernaghan said the factory’s mostly young, female employees work from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. seven days a week and are paid 26 cents an hour with no sick days or vacation. Workers live in filthy dormitories and are fed a watery “slop.”
Topics: China
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:08 am on Wednesday, November 21, 2007
2 Responses to “Good Lord”
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November 21st, 2007 at 9:45 am
“Charles Kernaghan stood in the rain before St. Patrick’s Cathedral this morning, brandishing a crucifix from the cathedral’s gift shop that he claimed had been made under terrible conditions at a factory in China. “It is immoral, it is unjust and it has to change,” he said.”
WOW, did they purchase them at Wal*Mart?
At least that one guy, wasn’t waterboarded (Heaven forbid)…just a run of the mill 6 hour session of torture.
November 21st, 2007 at 9:43 pm
made under terrible conditions at a factory in China
Doh. Its China.