Report of abusive conditions at firm used by Ivanka Trump
GANZHOU, China — A worker with blood dripping from his head marked a low point in the tense, grinding life at a southeastern China factory used by Ivanka Trump and other fashion brands. An angry manager had hit him with the sharp end of a highheeled shoe.
Workers from the factory, including one current and two former employees, reported overtime that stretched past midnight, steep production quotas and crude verbal abuse at Ganzhou Huajian International Shoe City Co. They said beatings were not unheard of, but the shoe attack, which all three say they witnessed last year, was violent enough to stand out.
“He was bleeding right from the middle of the head,” the current worker said.
“There was a lot of blood. He went to the factory’s nurse station, passing by me,” said a second man, who said he quit his job at Huajian because of the long hours and low pay.
The three workers are the first people with direct knowledge of conditions at the Ganzhou factory to speak with the media. All three spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, for fear of retribution or arrest.
Last month, three men investigating conditions at the Huajian Group factory in Ganzhou were detained, accused of illegally using secret recording devices to steal commercial secrets. They, like one of the three men who spoke with a reporter, worked with China Labor Watch, a New York nonprofit that has been investigating Ivanka Trump’s Chinese suppliers for more than a year.
On Wednesday, the three activists walked out of a Ganzhou police station, the final day of their legally mandated 30-day detention period limit pending trial.
Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch, describes Huajian’s Ganzhou factory as among the worst he has seen in nearly two decades investigating labor abuses. His group says pay can be as low as a dollar an hour, in violation of China’s labor laws. According to China Labor Watch investigators, until recently workers might have received only two days off — or less — per month.
China Labor Watch said the company forced workers to sign fake pay stubs with inflated salary numbers and threatened to fire workers if they didn’t fill in questionnaires about working conditions with preapproved answers.
Ivanka Trump’s brand has declined to comment on the allegations or the detentions.