When the world's children celebrate Christmas this year with their toys made in China, their parents will probably be unaware of what Xiao Lei has been through to make them.
She rises at 6:30 every morning and works 14 hours or more a day during peak season, churning out stuffed toys, dolls' clothes, handbags and plastic figurines in a Shenzhen factory.
Overtime is mandatory. Xiao Lei has one day off every month, sometimes more, sometimes none.
Since Lunar New Year in February, she has taken a total of 10 days off -- all for little more than 1,000 yuan (US$128) a month.
"We have to get up so early every day after working long hours that we often feel tired already before we start work," said Xiao Lei, speaking outside a drab gray factory block where 1,000 workers like her are hired to make toys for multinational companies, including US giant Walt Disney.
Chinese labor laws restrict daily work hours to a weekly 40 hours, with overtime not exceeding three hours a day, but labor activists said many of the manufacturers ignore the law.
As the world focuses on the recent massive recalls of China-made toys over excessive levels of lead and other hazardous chemicals, labor activists are also trying to draw attention to the poor working conditions in the country's southern factory belt.
Li Qiang (
"Workers don't realize that the chemicals they come into contact with are harmful. Factories don't provide adequate training for them," said Li, who was in Hong Kong to meet with multinational corporations, urging them to improve working conditions.
Because of her long hours, Xiao Lei's colleague Zhang Ting had thought about leaving the job and finding one closer to her family in central Hunan Province, but even that proved too difficult.
"They make it so hard to quit because they always hold a month's salary back," she said during her dinner break before rushing back for another four hours of work.
"They would keep the money if you quit. Some people are forced to give up the salary," she said, and complained about the cramped living conditions where 10 workers squeeze into a small room that has only one toilet.
Complaints to labor departments would be pointless as the company produces fake salary statements making it tough to identify violations, China Labor Watch said in an August report on labor abuse at factories.
Walt Disney admitted that some of the claims in the report were true but stressed it was working with key stakeholders to improve working conditions.
The report also said that some factories fined workers who arrived a few minutes late for work and many did not offer basic pensions, medical or work injury insurance.
Li said multinational corporations often knew about the labor violations committed by their suppliers but chose to turn a blind eye and generally spread their orders across a number of factories to avoid blame.
"Some of these companies admit to knowing the problems, some flatly deny them and some have their excuses," he said.
He believes that poor product quality is due in part to the international firms' pursuit of lower prices, squeezing the factories' profit margins to maximize their own profits.
He said working conditions would improve if corporations increased the prices they paid manufacturers for the products.
"Only if they pay more money for the products, a lot of problems can be solved," he said.
Li is no stranger to the life of a factory worker. He trained as a lawyer and worked in a trading firm before spending two years switching jobs between 10 factories in southern manufacturing cities -- all for experience.
"My friend told me about the poor working conditions in these places. I wanted to see it for myself. The working conditions there were worse than I thought," he said.
He worked 14 hours a day, saw staff being verbally abused and shared a small room and one bathroom with 16 other workers.
"You often had to work so late that you didn't have the energy to queue up and wait to take a shower," he recalled. "Life was miserable. It wasn't for human beings."
But, he said, workers seldom complained.
"They see it as a way of life because they become numb to the situation, they don't know anything else, they don't know their rights," he said.
Li has since become an advocate for workers' rights and built up a network of labor activists.
He said he was forced to leave China after falling foul of police and local authorities for encouraging workers to pursue their legal rights. In 2000 he moved to New York and established China Labor Watch.
As China's economy grows, Li believes more workers will learn about their rights and seek to protect themselves.
Before that happens he says, his fight will go on.
"We are not here to criticize the multinational companies. They have the social responsibility to protect the workers," he said. "At the end of the day, all we want is to see improvement in the working conditions."
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