The Godfather's Daughter

China factory for Ivanka Trump brand shoes criticized for labor violations
By Kevin McCoy

File photo taken in June 2017 shows men at the entrance gate of a Huajian Group shoe factory in Ganzhou, in southeastern China's Jiangxi Province.

A China factory that has produced shoes for the Ivanka Trump brand is the worst labor rule violator among dozens of similar production facilities checked by undercover investigators, an advocacy organization said Wednesday.
Workers at the Huajian factory in Jiangxi, a province in southeast China, typically put in 15-hour days, with just two days off each month, according to a report by China Labor Watch, a group that since 2000 has investigated workplace conditions at Chinese facilities that supply many of the world's best-known companies and brands.
Workers assigned to produce shoes for Easy Spirit's brand were forced to remain at work until 1:30 a.m. making changes in late May after a representative of the U.S. company complained that the manufacturing work was of "inferior quality," the report said.
The factory's employees were verbally and physically abused, and had to wait until late April to receive payment for hours they worked in March, the report said.

Additionally, the workers were paid roughly $352 for 350 monthly work hours, below that China's labor law stipulates, the report added.
Along with producing shoes for the Trump brand and Easy Spirit, the factory has done work for such well-known U.S. companies as Marc Fisher Footwear, Nine West, Karl Lagerfeld, Naturalizer, and Guess, the report said.
Nonetheless, the factory "is the worst among the dozens of factories we have investigated over the past year," the report concluded.
Factory representatives could not be located for comment.
Three undercover investigators for China Labor Watch who checked the production center and interviewed workers in March or April abruptly disappeared in May and are believed to have been arrested by Chinese authorities. 

“We urge China to release them immediately and otherwise afford them the judicial and fair trial protections to which they are entitled,” Alicia Edwards, a U.S. Department of State spokeswoman, said in a statement earlier this month.
China has rejected calls for the men's release.
"So far, we haven't heard anything," Li Qiang, the advocacy group's executive director, said in a telephone interview conducted through a Mandarin translator on Wednesday. 

He repeated previous entreaties for Trump's company and other U.S. manufacturers to help win the investigators' release.
Trump removed herself from day-to-day involvement with her brand in January. 

Her spokeswoman did not respond to an email seeking comment. 

In a written statement, Ivanka Trump President Abigail Klem said the company's shoes had not been produced at the factory since March.
"Our licensee works with many footwear production factories and all factories are required to operate within strict social compliance regulations," the statement said.
Marc Fisher, Trump's footwear licensee, said it "does not comment on its business procedures or strategies." 

Other companies cited in the China Labor Watch report did not respond to emails seeking comment.