Most of the workers in the Pearl River Delta are peasants who come from rural areas of other provinces, and 90 percent of them are women 17 to 23 years old. While these two organizations have monitored conditions in the shoe factories over the past three years, their latest research was conducted in June and July, 1997. For this survey, they conducted detailed interviews with 10 workers in each factory and held discussions with dozens of other workers. Compared with the investigators' research on the shoe factories in 1995, conditions today are even worse now. There are no authentic independent non-governmental organisations or trade unions and any attempts at genuine union organising are harshly repressed.
Workers have no established ways to channel their complaints.
Workers who engage in wildcat strikes or other demonstrations are likely to be fired. Workers are afraid to lodge complaints, out of fear of dismissal. According to the Chinese labour law, the work day should only be eight hours long, and additional hours of work should be counted as overtime. Although Chinese law mandates at least one day of rest per week, workers reported getting off as few as 2 days per month. It is important to take into account that the interviews were conducted in June and early July, which is not peak season.