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Room 480 of the Ford House Office Building The Congressional-Executive Commission on China held another in its series of staff-led Issues Roundtables, entitled "Working Conditions in China: Just and Favorable?" on Thursday, November 3, from 2:30 ¨C 4:00 PM in Room 480 of the Ford House Office Building. The Ford House Office Building is located at 441 2nd Street, S.W., between D Street and Virginia Avenue, S.W. This Roundtable examined current working conditions for workers in China and the role that internationally accepted standards and their implementation play in fostering the changes that are taking place in the Chinese workplace. The panelists reviewed Chinese government efforts to address violations of wage and workplace safety laws and the effects that a reported labor shortage are having on the bargaining power of workers, especially in southern China. Panelists also discussed the standards used to calculate a sustainable living wage in the Chinese context, and how this standard can be met. In addition, the panelists commented on the problems that arise when foreign invested firms operating in China must deal with inconsistent and often conflicting laws, regulations, and ad hoc decisions by authorities in the central government, and provincial and city governments. The panelists: Judy Gearhart, Program Director, Social Accountability International (SAI). Ms. Gearhart serves as the Program Director at SAI and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. She joined SAI in 1998. She has worked on democratization and women's labor issues in Mexico and conducted evaluations for UNICEF, Honduras. Ms. Gearhart is the author of a national child labor study in Honduras for the International Labor Organization. She has participated in numerous public forums and published on topics including: NGO networks' influence on policymaking, child labor, and corporate social responsibility. Ms. Gearhart holds a master's of International Affairs from Columbia University. Dr. Ruth Rosenbaum, Executive Director, Center for Reflection, Education and Action, Inc. (CREA). CREA is a social-economic research and education organization. It starts its analysis of social and economic systems from the perspective of their effect on the lives of persons and communities who are economically poor. Dr. Rosenbaum is the creator of the Purchasing Power Index, a transcultural measurement of the purchasing power of wages used to determine what constitutes a sustainable living wage. She is associate professor for research at the Labor Education Center at the University of Connecticut. She received a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from Hunter College, master's degrees in molecular biology from Hunter College and in theology from Manhattan College, and a doctorate in social economics and social justice from Boston College. Dan Viederman, Executive Director, Verit¨¦. Mr. Viederman became Executive Director after three years as Director of Research, where he managed Verit¨¦'s efforts to assess labor conditions for institutional investors, including CalPERS and NYCERS, the California and New York state pension systems, and government agencies. He has spent over 10 years working in Asia, with NGOs and businesses focused on issues of environmental protection and rural development. He served as CEO of World Wildlife Fund's China Program, where he established the first Beijing office for an international environmental organization in China. His work as Country Director for China for Catholic Relief Services focused on relief and small-scale development work in China's inland. Mr. Viederman served on the faculty of Chongqing (China) Architecture University. A graduate of Yale University, he has a master's degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Transcript: Working Conditions in China: Just and Favorable?, November 3, 2005 - TEXT 95K | PDF 187K |
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