A Wisconsin-based tool company is being sued for allegedly relying on forced labor in a Chinese prison to make work gloves.
A former Chinese prisoner filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Wisconsin on June 27, accusing Milwaukee Tool and its Hong Kong-based parent company, Techtronic Industries, of violating the U.S. Trafficking Victim Protection Act.
The former prisoner explained in his complaint that he filed under a pseudonym, Xu Lun, because he lives in China and “fears for his safety if his identity is revealed.”
Mr. Xu said he was an advocate for vulnerable groups in China, such as those living with HIV and AIDS and people with disabilities, before he was arrested on July 22, 2019.
About two years later, Mr. Xu was convicted of “subversion of state power”—a charge “commonly used by the [People’s Republic of China] government to target activists and human rights campaigners”—and was sentenced to five years in prison, according to the complaint. He then served his sentence at Hunan Chishan Prison in China’s Hunan Province.
“All prisoners, criminal and political, at Chishan Prison were subjected to forced labor. The only people who were exempt were the elderly and the disabled,” the complaint reads. “The workdays were 11–13 hours long. Prisoners were allowed a 10-minute break in the morning, a 25-minute break for lunch, and a 10-minute break in the afternoon. Prisoners were only permitted one to three days off a month.”
Mr. Xu described the working conditions at the prison as poor, without proper air conditioning or heating and constant exposure to fabric dust. Prisoners were punished for refusing to work or failing to meet production quotas. The punishment included not being allowed to use the bathroom, being forced to squat for long periods, beatings, and electric shocks with electric rods, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, prisoners were paid 10 Chinese yuan ($1.41) to 300 yuan ($42.5) per month for their labor, depending on their tasks.
“The experience of being exploited and forced into grueling work was humiliating and dehumanizing,” the complaint reads. “For them [the prisoners] to be then subjected to forced labor for the ultimate benefit of a multibillion-dollar corporation was acutely depressing.”
By Frank Fang
