"Welcome to Independent Lens." "I'm Terrance Howard, your host." "The largest migration in human history is happening right now." "It's not in the US or latin america, or even africa." "It's taking place inside of china." "Tens of millions of rural chineese people are migrating to the big cities in search of work." "16 year old Jasmine is one of them." "And like milions of other girls, she finds a work in garment factory." "Now what is especially powerfull about independent producer Micha X. Peled intrepid look behind this denim courtain is, that everyone is held accountant." "The factory owner who exploits the people desperate for work, the //perrow// company, that demands cheap clothes, and the consumer who buys them." "It reveals a face of globalization, you have never seen before, and shines a disturbing light on the real cost of your new pair blue jeans." "China blue, next on independent lens." "The largest human migration in history is taking place right now." "Over 130 million Chinese peasants, mostly young women, have left their villages insearch of jobs in globalized economy." "They comprise thw wordlds largest pool of cheap labor and are the main producers of clothes and other commodieties for Western consumers." "Shaxi, near Canton, South China" "Chinass Famous Clothing Town" " Shaxi" "Lifeng factory" "Hi, I'm Jani, I'm the sales manager." "At Lifeng, we're happy to make jeans for the whole world." "We never miss a deadline, even if our workers keep working all night." "Australia, Britan, France, USA, and South america." "China blue" "Whats your name?" "Jasmine Lee" "You just got here?" "We're very strict here." "Work begins at 8 am, at night overtime begins at 7pm." "Overtime till 2 or 3 am, even all night." "Be on time, follow factory rules." "Obey the supervisor." "When I was born, my father wanted to call me Red Spree, bud mother said, it is an old fashioned name, so they called me Jasmine." "My family raises ducklings, goats and rabbits." "We have rice terraces and we also grow weeds, sourgum and corn." "(Sichuan Province, central China)" "I always tought, i would live there forever by my parents and grandparents." "But eversince my older sisters tought of highschool, i knew i should go out to work." "The day before I left, dad gave me a 100 yuan, and told me to be carefull how I spend my money." "I would never forget the day I left home." "The fog was really thick." "Mom was going to walk me to town, but dad sad, there was too much to do." "We need to plant winter weed." "After I left our valley, I was sorrounded by so many strangers, it was scary." "But I knew, many of my classmates have left with jobs." "So I was excited." "On TV they say China has stepped into the new era." "There are opportunities awaiting all of us." "(Canton, south China)" "Excuse me, where is the big bus station?" "Do you have a cheaper ticket?" "I have never been on a train before." "I didnt know you could fall asleep while moving." "The trip took two days and two nights, and suddenly we were there." "(Lifeeng factory hiring: thread cutters, seamstresses...)" "Leave yout luggage here and go to the 2nd floor." "My life changes along with China." "Twenty years ago, I rode a bicycle to work." "Now I drive a small car." "Farmboys like me could move up after the economic reform that Deng Xiao Ping iniciated." "(Follow Deng Xiao Ping, build a prosperous community)" "My first job." "My first job was on the colectivated farm, herding cattle and worknig at fields." "I had to quit middle school to go to work." "(Mr. Lam, Lifeng factory owner)" "I started to work when I was fifteen." "I got an ID showing me to be one year older, than I really was." "I was a child labourer." "The law says you must be sixteen to work." "I bought books and studied on my own." "I worked my way up, step by step." "Later, I joined the police force." "I became the chief of police of this town, Shaxi." "Three years ago, I quit police and started my own jeans factory." "Business is good, though there are dozens of denim factories here in Shaxi." "It's almost 8 o'clock, time to go." "Your ID, without your ID you would be fined." "I check this, when I start my day." "I can see the operation of the entire factory." "These security cameras are recording 24 hours a day." "If something is wrong, I can look into it." "I can see that the workers are arriving on time and are punching their cards." "This is whats going on at 8 am." "My roommate Jay says, that if we dont clock in on time, they fine us each minute were late." "Theres a little box, that lets them know." "The //pumee// the packiging department, where we prepare the jeans for shipping." "My parents went through a much trouble to have a second child." "You are only supposed to have one." "I'm sure they were disappointed, when I came out a girl too." "But now, I can help my family." "(blackboard:" "Overtime tonight everyone)" "Foreigners have a very poor understanding of China." "Their slanted media portrait China as a totalitarian frightening country." "Like we are still in Marco Polo time." "(customer is #1)" "We are now a democratic society." "Workers have rights." "Before as boss, I had all the power." "Now we all sit down at the same table." "We are equals." "There are two styles of management - iron fist and relaxed style." "I prefer relax, but you cannot let the workers to get out of control." "They are uneducated low calibre." "These farmers are 20 years behind." "You cannot teach them work ethics, it's beyond them." "You must be fast, and can't miss any of the loose threads." "It takes 30 minutes to do one pair of jeans." "I need to brush the lint from inside and out." "Then you look in all pockets for pebbles." "In one hour, I can make around half of yen." "(Half yuan is 6 cents)" "First of all, labor is cheap." "We have lots of resources, particularly human resources." "(Warm welcome to business delegation from the hong-kong Canada business assoc.)" "They come from the other parts of the country, and living here?" "Yes, they come from out of the province." "They can come to their place to eat, how convenient." "Want to go to the canteen to eat?" "No but it's convenient for them." "So they are happy to be here." " They are happy?" "Because they work by the piece." "So the make more money." "So they are happy." "It's good for them." "We sell to europe and south america." "We're beginning to tackle to north american, canada and US market, in the secnod half of 2003. we're only beginning, yes." "We're very impressed with what we see, and we hope it will leed in a lot more trade between ourselves, so thank you for having us here." "(Workers at Lifeng work 7 days a week for months at a time." "They dont recieve overtime pay or the minimum wage required by law." "Such abuses are common in export factories." "Faced with growing public concern in the West about labor standards, international retailers respond by sending inspectors to the factories.)" "We investigated labor issues in more than 100 factories." "(Dr. Liu Kaiming." "Inst.of Contemporart Observation, Shenzhen, China)" "The inspectors sent by multinational retailers rarely find problems." "The factories her advance notice and coach their workers to lie to inspectors." "They only want to reassuer consumers, not tu actually improve conditions." "The boss was afraid wed tell visitors what tje factory is really like." "(Yang Ching, former manager at a nearby factory)" "He gave us a memo to teach the workers what to say." "They asked if we got any breaks at work, and we had to say yes." "Actually we couldn't even go freely to the bathroom." "Only twice during a shift." "My real pay was 300 yuan($36), but the paper I had to sign said..." "I was paid 800 yuan($97)." "It was fake!" "(Internal surveys are usually confidential, but the retail industry concedes that manu Chinese factories falsify their records." "Independent verification is difficult because the major brands often require suppliers to prohibit media access." "The following workers are from nearby factories where no cameras are allowed.)" "Our factory produces mostly for Levis in the U.S." "If you tell inspectors overtime is too hard they won't give you more orders." "(Chu Li An, worker in Jin Sah factory)" "If the owner doesn't get orders, we are out of a job." "Clients like Wal-Mart are only here to check product quality." "They dont care about labor conditions." "On average workers sleep 4 hours." "Sometimes, they only get 1-2 hours and then back to work." "The factory keeps a double time card system." "The workers punch one card themselves, and the factory hires special security to punch the fake cards." "We all punch time cards just to satisfy you in the West." "By talking to foreign media I'm breaking national security laws." "(labor organizer)" "I'm not speaking for my own benefit but for the rights of all workers." "(labor unions and strikes are prohibited in China." "Organizers risk being sent to re-education labor camps.)" "Week one of my new life." "I live on the 4th floot of the factory dorm." "I've never seen the world from so high." "There are 12 of us sharing the room." "We have running water in the toilet, just for us." "But I do miss mom's cooking." "It's not like this canteen and its food." "They put no spices in that." "I tought that factory would feed us." "But it turns out they did cut the cost from our pay." "There is no place to eat, so we carry the food up to our room." "How much can you make a month?" "Lots of orders, I make 500-600 yuan($60-$70), without orders 200-300 yuan($25-$35)." "Everybody goes to the fabric cutters room during the lunch break because they all pinched in and bought a TV." "But I like the girls dorms better, because it turns into a disco for 10 minutes." "I have never been in a disco in my life." "My other roommate Lee Ping says, I must learn to use the break for chores, otherwise you do them after work, during sleeptime." "How come girls from your province are all short and small?" "My whole family is short." "We Sichuan people are chubby." "I'm too fat to find clothes that fit." "Tall people like to be smaller, smal peiple like to be taller." "How old are you, little Jasmine?" "I turn 17 next month, and you?" "I am 14." "14?" "You are so young!" "Many from our village come out to work at this age." "Most of the girls are younger than me." "They all have fake ID cards to get a job." "You are writing a diary." "Let's see it!" "She's writing a love letter!" "(Lifeng Clothes Co ltd.)" "The new skirts we are making are up to here and that long." "You can imagine legs this long, the person must be this tall." "The customers wearing these jeans must be very tall, big, and fat." "Because the waist is this big!" "How much is it?" "The price for this one?" "Because our cempetitors are very agressive." "(Sylvian Francois buys for PLB, a company that outfits employees of France's railroads, post office and other industries.)" "This one is for Australia." "This label is for America." "This for Poland." "The workers think factory owners spend their time at high class night clubs." "Honestly running a business is exhausting." "70-80% of our products are made in China." "There is a connection between the quality of the factory and the restaurant they choose." "Often there is similarity between the relationship we can later have and the seriousness and honesty of their work." "It's very important." "Everyone's favourite meal is midnight snack, because it's free." "Also because it's only a couple of hours before we're done." "(15th hour at work)" "Mom and dad would never believe we eat in the middle of the night." "Even during rice harvest we never worked so long." "Lee Ping says that if we are working late at night, thay should be paying us more, but they don't." "To stay awake when I'm cutting threads, I let my imagination wonder." "I want to make out stories." "My favourite one is about Shan-shan, the girl who journies far far away to train with a famous kungfu master." "It's hard but she learns to fly by the moonlight and use magic powers." "She knows her sacrifice will be worthed, because one day she will go home and help her family." "Writing is like eating candy." "It's a very happy experience for me." "It's both about myself, and not about myself." "(Mr.Lam's rooftop garden)" "I like to get up early and fresh." "When I started, people could not believe that police chief would spent his time with caligraphy." "Now they do not believe a factory owner would do it." "Caligraphy changes you." "I am now a more patient, encultured person." "When I show my scrolls to clients, they see we are high class operation." "Their confidence in us increases." "It is good for our corporate image." "Writing caligraphy soothes your hearth and soul." "(More new ideas on the brush tip, less old baggage on the heart)" "How come you are so slow." "Check the labels." "Threads!" "You need to clean up the threads." "There are a lot of threads inside." "Pay attention." "Don't miss them." "If I had this magic power of Shan-shan, the girl from my story," "I would just touch the ugly forehead of the supervisor, and she would freeze." "Forever staring out of her water buffalo-eyes." "When are we going to have a time off?" "We are working as long as there are orders." "So we may not have time off until new year?" "You are new here, there is a lot you don't know." "(Lifeng factory)" "I have to go to shanghai." "I need to talk business with a british customer." "There is nothing worse than loosing a customer and not have orders coming in." "Meeting shiping deadlines is our number one concern." "Good evening sirs!" "Welcome!" "(The last shipment to this major client from Newcastle, Britain was late." "Now he is threatening to take his orders elsewhere." "The client asked not to be named.)" "Now, my big problem, delivery." "Because I know from before, your delivery was very late." "You tell him we have expanded our productions." "Tell him not to worry." "Things are now different." "Mr. Lam wants you to know the factory is different from previous." "Also we enlarged the production line." "The workers totalling 750 workers now." "Okay we will see." "I would be interested in doing denim jeans and jacket sets." "What's the price?" "$4.2, $4.3" "$4.2?" "This is a very good price." "You need to be near $4 to be honest with you." "Honestly frank." "Our best price...seriously is $4, $4.1" "Yeah, that's much better." "It's very nice cooperation together." "Yeah, let's see." "Let's see what happens." "Thank you" "For sure it's the international retailers who make the big profits." "Their profit is ten times what they pay for it." "We run both of the risks but have the smallest profits." "(To avoid loosing on such deals Mr.Lam cuts costs where he can, by reducing worker's pay.)" "Usualy I pay workers altogether about one dollar for a pair of jeans." "We make 200.000 pairs of jeans a month." "If you calculate 20 cents profit a pair, that is 40.000 dollars US." "That's pretty good." "He can't complaint with the price we're giving him." "As long as we get the shipment out to Britain on time, it'll be OK." "I won't be able to pay salaries by the 5th." "You..., you... need to change the atmosphere." "In the sewing room we need to get them more enthusiastic." "Promote the competent workers..." "and fire the useless ones." "If we dont ship at time we're dead." "To get workers more motivated, we educate them through slogans." "We shape their basic thinking, like Jesus did." "They have new signs on the wall." "They give me goose bumps." "(If you don't work hard today, you'll look hard for work tomorrow.)" "Week 7," "The supervisor said, they will fire anyone who was too slow." "Still no pay, no time to write, only the work hours are getting longer." "We managers had screwdrivers this long." "We used them to wake up the workers." "They fell asleep with their eyes wide open." "Ill show you how they do it." "Come here." "Ill help you clip your eyes." "(In China, a factory that allowed its workers adequate rest and paid minimum wage would not be able to compete." "The major brands demand such low prices that factories are often forced to violate international labor standards.)" "We were supposed to get paid by now, but the supervisors don't know anything about it." "They talk only about this new big order that just came in." "It's a rush job." "How many pieces have you done?" "I already did six pieces." "Darn, we have to work all night tonight." "I know, it says so on the board." "We'll need to finish before we can go to sleep." "No way we could finish the buckles tonight." "I heard 2000-3000 more pieces are coming tomorrow." "(3:00 am, 17th hour of work)" "When I was in school, they talked about labor laws." "Can we file a complaint to the Labor Bureau about all the overtime we work?" "The Labor Bureau doesn't care even if you die working overtime." "The boss used to be the Shaxi police chief." "If you want to take him to the Labor Bureau, he could settle it with one phone call." "You can't shake his tree." "It's incredible!" "How can a police chief own a factory?" "The most difficult part of my job is managing people." "The workers take advantage of us." "For example, when they work overtime, we give them a free snack at midnight right?" "But they inflate their production numbers to increase their pay." "I told to my workers, if you were the owner, if you were in my shoes, you would see thing differently." "The next night we were all night in the way, so when the supervisor wasn't watching, some of us knocked out to get energy tea." "It was my first time in the town." "Lee Ping knew where to get some tea for just a half of yuan." "(medicinal teas, for working all night, fatigue, toxins)" "It cleans your system so it's good for staying up." "It's very bitter." "Wow that was really bitter!" "This morning I found out that those of us who left last night were marked absent." "They'll fine us 20 yuan." "It would take us two days to earn back that money." "(one week to shipping deadline)" "When we get paid are we getting november and december wages together?" "For sure we'll get november wages." "But december wages - it's not guaranteed, because they try to hold back as much of our wage as possible." "They are squeezing us too much." "Nothing we can do about it." "The boss always gets his way." "What happened?" "Little Jasmine?" "I have a stomach ache." "Little Jasmine, you need to eat a bit more to have energy for work." "It hurts too much to eat." "Drink some hot water for now." "I hope I'm not getting sick." "Until they pay us, I can't buy any medicine." "If I can't work, they will replace me." "They were supposed to pay on the 12th but it's been delayed." "I get paid on the 20th." "I'll send you money." "Little Jasmine!" "Wake up!" "Wake up!" "Time to go to work." "(Jasmine's 9th week)" "It's so cold, i sleep with all my clothes on." "Lee Ping says that nearby workers worked without pay for three months and then facotry shut down on them." "(one day to shipping deadline)" "Maybe this is just a bad dream." "When I wake up, I'll be back in school, going to classes and playing with my friends." "The supervisors are more nervous than usual, because this order is behind schedule." "I heard that boss yelled at them last night." "They told us that sewing department is coming to help us finish." "Lee Ping and everyone else are so mad." "We are working for the packaging dept. and they are not even paying us for it." "Last time we worked all night till 9 AM, only got a few yuan." "(police calligraphy award Guandong Province)" "It's pissing me off." "They're doing it again." "In the police, we had to operate by the book, we could not step over the line." "But in business I'll do whatever I have to do to make money." "(After lunch, the workers refused to return to work)" "Whenever you need it, we help you with rush orders." "The workers may cause trouble." "We could be harrased at anytime when we walk out of here." "We must think of the factory." "Something might happen." "We won't be able to get the shipment out." "Out pay!" "We demand an answer right now." "What are you fighting about?" "We could verify the numbers." "What's going on?" "You are supposed to pay on the 10th of every month." "You are all standing here, how can I ship the order?" "If you have problem, talk to me!" "You are all wasting time, that's no help." "Don't you have a conscience?" "We work till 2-3 am with no overtime pay." "After paying for food, we have no money to go home." "I don't care, if you strike now and I can't deliver on time, you are fighting against me." "Are you threatening to beat us?" "When are you going to calculate our pay?" "I will do it now, OK!" "OK let's go!" "If you pay them, I will make sure they will work all night to finish." "Now go to work!" "The workers only want to feather their own nest." "I know how they think." "When I was a police chief, we don't let these migrants to work for us." "Many of them brake the law." "When they see other people's nice things, they get jealous." "And want to take them." "They would kill for few diamonds." "After all the yelling, they finally agreed to pay us, as soon as the order is out." "Lee Ping was right in the middle of all the yelling." "She is only 14 but she isn't afraid to pull the tiger's whiskers." "Boss wanted to know who started our protest, but noone volunteered any names." "(6:00 am, 20th hour of work)" "We finished at 3 PM the next day." "And the wage sheet was finaly posted." "Somehow they found the money to pay us." "How come they deduct 98 yuan for food?" "It should be 90 yuan." "They are deducting too much!" "The fined me 51 yuan..." "It's here!" "A big one!" "They docked me 51 yuan!" "It's not your turn!" "Sign, sign here." "I can't find my name." "Go over there!" "It's not your turn!" "(Factories typically hold workers first pay as a "deposit"" "to discourage them from leaving." "Since factories rarely give permission to leave, workers often lose their first salary.)" "(Mr. Lam had a good year." "His workers - those who can afford it - will soon go home for the New Year's family reunion.)" "Everywhere people are preparing for New Year." "We are going home on the 17th." "I am not going home." "I dont have money for the fare home." "How much for a photo?" " 3 yuan with these costumes." "Lee Ping said, let's have all photos taken." "She can show them to her family." "1...2...dont blink!" "It was her last night before going home." "Guests and comrades." "The three-year anniversary party of the Lifeng Corporation is beginning." "Thank you for all your efforts." "The Lifeeng factory has grown so much." "I hope you will have a son." "Here's to a prosperous New Year, boss!" "This is my first year away from home." "Tommorow, dad would take the rice next door to grind for mom to make sticky rice cakes." "Number 12 coffe show// we get drunk." "Mom made me a new dress like every year, but I'm not there to get it." "Why don't you eat?" "You don't have stomach ache." "You lucky guy..." "doing nothing all day, just eat and sleep." "Lucky you!" "You sleep as long as you want." "(Jasmines 15th week)" "After new year, everybody returned from their home visit." "But the best thing was that I finally got paid." "After deductions for rimming poor and paying all my debts," "I still have a little left to send to my parents." "Now we are even." "The workload is now easier, we even have time to go to the night market." "A pretty girl is walking toward you from the street." "Are you afraid to talk to her?" "Don't worry." "Just put a rose here and remote control it to her." "Romantic sparks will ignite," "When you have worries talk to Mom when you have work troubles talk to Dad" "Now the auction will begin with... 2 yuan." "Often go visit home, visit home." "Help daddy and mommy..." "Sometimes I wonder where all the jeans I've worked on are going." "The people buying them are other girls and boys of my age?" "Do they have any idea, who the people are, making their clothes?" "Jade, I wand to slip a letter into one of the pockets." "It's for the person who buys the jeans." "But what if the buyer discovers and tells the boss?" "It is not likely.|" "I'll put it in the pocket of the jeans ready for shipping." "No way anyone will catch it." "Hi friend, hello from China." "My name is Jasmine." "I'm from Sechuan." "Do you like sechuan food?" "I left home 4 months ago." "I miss my mom, and dad, and my kitty." "My friends and I made these jeans for you." "Beeping at the back pockets, or getting sewed the zipper." "I cut the loose threads." "(USA)" "They said we are very lucky to be over to work in the factory." "I'm just happy I can help my sisters through highschool." "You can write me to a dorm room number 408 in a Lifeng factory, Shaxi, China." "(In the time you've watched this film," "Jasmine and her 15 co-workers have perpared 35 pairs of jeans for shipping." "Together, they earned 95 cents.)" "What is that?" "Order from america?" "Are you hiring?" "Leave your stuff at the gate and go upstairs." "(The production was interrupted many times by chinese authorities." "The crew was arrested, interrogated and tapes confiscated." "Contact with Jasmine and others was terminated." "Jasmines diary excerpts are based on actual entries and interviews.)"