>A few weeks ago I was listening to a management guru, Tom Peters I believe,
>going on and on about how the new mills are not like the old ones. The new
>ones are clean and the work is all brain work. What a laugh! At least old
>Adam Smith had the integrity to visit the pin factory, even if his analysis
>of the detailed division of labor is faulty.
[Yes, it's interesting to read this "on the ground" appraisal of working conditions in the Pakistani surgical-instrument industry. This letter is from today’s Financial Times.]
Globalisation no excuse to turn a blind eye
Sir,
The arguments for closing the equality gap through integration in the world economy ("The big lie of global inequality", February 9) are not borne out by the reality of the situation on the ground.
In the middle of January, I spent a week in Sialkot, Punjab province, Pakistan. I was there to look into the problem of child labour in the surgical instruments industry.
This industry, worth US$165m a year, is highly integrated into the world economy and has been for several years, selling mainly to the US multinationals but not insignificant amounts to the European market.
The industry has been written up as a good model of cluster economic development by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, and many of the manufacturers are ISO-qualified.
There are about 400 listed manufacturers who are members of the prestigious Surgical Instrument Manufacturers Association.
However, the bulk of the labour-intensive work is done in thousands of small workshops where adults and children work in appalling conditions out of sight of the global market and its ideologues.
Metal fillings fill the air, coating the skin and the lungs of the workers, who sit on the floor in cramped postures.
There is little doubt that lives in the west are being saved using the cheap instruments from Sialkot while at the same time the lives of the workers there are being cut short.
That is precisely what "core labour standards has to do with their lives".
There is absolutely no reason why those standards cannot be applied in Sialkot. They are on the statute books in Pakistan. Their application would still leave the industry competitive on the world market.
Globalisation cannot be used as an excuse to turn a blind eye to the impoverishment of adults and children just because they have a job.
We can do something about the situation in Sialkot and the many other similar working environments.
We are in favour of the development of the global economy and our demand for that development to take place through observing internationally recognised standards is based on the principle of closing the inequality gap.
Alan Leather, Deputy General Secretary, Public Services International, 45 avenue Voltaire, BP 9, 01211 Ferney Voltaire Cedex, France
[end]
Carl
______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com